We had a weekend of picnics!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday had us waking up, thinking it a good day to go out and do something. I reminded Colin, when we first came down here, we filled our weekends with new experiences. I fancied walking out on the long pier at Hermanus New Harbour. It is such a cheat way of going into deep ocean, there far beyond the big waves, without the actual task of getting yourself there. Having done that, we then headed for Old Harbour, where we mingled with some of Hermanus\u2019 tourists. After far too many steps, we decided to head down to Fick\u2019s Pool. Fick\u2019s pool is one of those accidental stories. Apparently, a school headmaster very many moons ago, some time between 1920 and 1930, had the idea of walling off a bit of natural rock pool area. He thought it a good idea for the school children to have a safe place to swim, so he put the very same school children to work, and Fick\u2019s Pool was built. This innovative headmaster was a certain Mr Fick. Today, it is a very good spot to sit for a cold bottle of wine, and a picnic style alfresco meal, at the Spanish themed restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Colin snapping away at anything that did, or did not move, I reminded myself of how fortunate we are to be where we are, until my Gauteng eyes spotted a group of about 9 little street urchins making their way to the pool. Keeping a beady eye on them, whilst at the same time making sure my valuables are safely tucked into my body\u2019s cavities, ready to jump to the rescue of all the non-streetwise tourists, I watched the boys strip down to their undies and dive into the pool. There they were, with a rubbish bag, going about collecting bits of organic and inorganic debris and putting it into the bag. At this point, a lady walked by and explained: The boys used to make a nuisance of themselves begging for money, or pick-pocketing. They decided one day, that chasing the boys off, was counterproductive, and so, now, once a day, they come down to the pool with a bag and clean the pool. In return, they are given a meal, or a drink \u2013 the choice is theirs. How fantastic, that what was once a pool built to keep children off the streets, is again used to keep children off the streets, even if the circumstances have changed so drastically. How much fun it was to watch the boys and their antics. Joy by osmosis. And strangely, had any one of them begged for money as they used to previously, they would have been shoo-ed away. Yet watching their joy and knowing the service they fulfill, any donation to them was happy giving. I suppose the lesson here is: change the way you experience your obstacles and see how circumstance changes accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday, we headed for Bettys Bay, this time with a rather healthy picnic packed in the car. Home baked bread, cheese, and broccoli salad. Two bottles of water and a bottle of ice-cold wine, tucked between 2 ice packs. After an exploratory drive around bits of the town we had not been to before, we headed for the beach. It was a lovely day. Bright skies, sunny but not too hot, and not even a hint of wind. Our biggest decision being, do we picnic on the beach, or stick to our original plan of lunch up on our mountain. The mountain won, and so we carted up the butler\u2019s tray, chairs, picnic box and ourselves. We like to do \u201cLivingston picnics\u201d. What is a Livingstone picnic, you ask?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Livingstone was a Scottish physician, pioneer Christian missionary and explorer in Africa. His obsession was to find the source of the Nile. This was at a time of colonial penetration of Africa, and there was just no way that Dr Livingstone was going to \u201crough it\u201d in Africa. Urban legend has it that he had a retinue of porters, following him, and at mealtimes out would come the Fine-Bone China and silverware, neatly set on a table with a tablecloth. It deserves a mention that Livingstone was never brutal to his porters and was greatly opposed to slavery. On Sunday however, Colin and I had to be our own porters, one step forward, to slide two steps backward to get up our slippery slope, all the while keeping an eye out for our very own street urchins, but Clan MacBaboon was off elsewhere creating mischief. The land was all ours\u2026for a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Botrivier friends had a good laugh at our picnic. Oh, look at you, sunhat, and strappy sandals, sipping wine from a proper glass, sitting on a proper chair, with a butler tray off to the side. Yes, I replied, we had a Livingstone picnic. But unlike the great explorer (who incidentally got lost and the controversial Sir Henry Stanley was sent to find him, but that is another story) we had to leave our spot on the site absolutely spotless. Once before we mucked around on site over a weekend, and on this day, I was too lazy to cart a box down with me. The next day, I did get a stern telling off from our friendly builder, for leaving my rubbish lying around. Nothing too serious, just a polite I noticed you forgot to take your box with you. Lesson learnt, this time we left only footsteps. It must be mentioned that we do have the neatest building site you could possibly imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are so fortunate to be here. We are so fortunate to travel on this journey. At times it is hard. It does take plenty of resilience, focus, perseverance, and many other adjectives that I would have to run through spell check. There are times that panic bubbles up, or a distant memory that is not too kind and best left in the past. We have had to revisit some of our decisions, and have reverted to plans B and C. But, as the street urchins have shown me: change the way you approach the problem, and watch it grow into a blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have reorganised the car somewhat. We have for a while now had a crate with jackets (in case it gets windy), walking shoes (in case we find an interesting walk), sunhats, sunscreen, bug spray, and now also: our picnic set, because any time can be a good time to stop for a picnic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you go down to the woods today, you\u2019re sure of a big surprise<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you go down to the woods today, you\u2019d better go in disguise<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For every bear that ever there was, will gather there for certain because<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s the day the teddy bears have their picnic!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had a weekend of picnics! Saturday had us waking up, thinking it a good day to go out and do something. I reminded Colin, when we first came down here, we filled our weekends with new experiences. I fancied walking out on the long pier at Hermanus New Harbour. It is such a cheat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,59],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kuier","category-meraki-mountain","tag-meraki-mountain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486,"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions\/486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capecrawl.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}