Distractions and diversions

It is meant to be a quick drive to the shop to buy milk and bread. It turns into an excursion.

On the river route: dassies, surfers, vygies, aloes, buck and the odd dolphin

The trouble is that I spot a pod of dolphins flowing lazily in the blue, blue waves, and I decide to follow them on the way to the shop. I stop first to watch the mother bushbuck near the house; more likely, she is watching me. 

Then I splash very carefully through the pools – all this unseasonal rain – in the barely there dirt road that hugs the sea towards the river mouth.

And there is just so much to take in. The road itself is edged with bright pink vygies (mesems), which is a distraction enough from the task at hand – to trail the dolphins. There is an orange smudge beyond that; I just have to stop to study that aloe in full flower.

You can just make out a fin between the water plumes of two whales

Winter warmth

The dassies (rock rabbits) are out with their families, warming themselves on the rocks in the winter sun. I stop to watch someone catch a fish; then I notice some surfers in the water. 

Further out in the bay, I watch two whales frolic. I try to take a picture for you, but manage to get only their plumes of water, although you can just make out a fin.

Next I look, the dolphins have slipped off. And I wonder what on earth I had set out to do.