A few of us wandered down the street looking for a breakfast and coffee spot. We found The Dirty Dog, all the meals were named after dog breed. I had a “poodle”, which was a scrambled egg and toast and a cappuccino. It felt odd to order a poodle for breakfast, but I’m not really fond of poodles anyhow.
We continued down the street and found a great little market where I picked up a few souvenirs.
You can see how this market goes on forever. Each little area was “owned” by a different person, and while the majority of their wares were all the same, they were different prices and the vendors were more than willing to barter. I should have paid more attention in class in Lesotho because I am a terrible barterer. However when even the most expensive item is less than $10, I don’t worry too much about finding it cheaper by a dollar in the next stall.
This morning’s adventure was a walk on the beach. Our bus drove us there and then we had the rest of the day to wander the beach, or swim and walk back to our rooms whenever we chose. The beach was virtually empty.
My toes in the Indian Ocean. My feet look blistered, but its the tan marks from my Keenes.
A slightly overcast day (I was just happy that it wasn’t raining like it did last night!) and very humid. The water was bathtub-warm and the sound of the waves was mesmerizing.
I was surprised at how many little mollusks there were, “running” around, leaving little trails in the sand as they went. I was even more surprised to see an orgy of them, writhing in the sand. It was most assuredly a photo op. Look at the trail of the one at 3 o’clock as he races to join the party.
I didn’t swim because....
I didn’t want to have to use the “mergency” telephone number.
We walked back to town, it was about a 2-3km walk and while we didn’t see a hippo on land we did see a fresh hippo track (I assume it was fresh because last night’s rain would have obliterated it).
And loads of monkeys, chattering in every tree and showing their vivid blue testicles.
The females were a bit more discreet.
Back in town we decided to have a seafood lunch, as in Capetown, the seafood is fresh and caught daily. I wasn’t too hungry after my poodle this morning so I just had a calamari salad. It was the most tender calamari I’ve ever had, no elastic-band-over-cooked texture here.
Then we wandered through town a bit, just checking out the local stores and then got ready for a boat cruise to hopefully see crocs and hippos.
Well, it was a huge success! “Peek-a-boo”. Their little ears twirl like a kids toy when they rise up out of the water, it’s really funny to see and made me snort with laughter.
A whole bunch of “peek-a-boo’s”
A giant yawn?
Or a laugh?
Or a disgruntled snap? (Notice the one peeking behind the tree branch on the left)
Or maybe an “I’m the boss!” roar.
And one crocodile with an evil smile. See ya in a while....
It was pretty amazing to be this close to a bloat of hippos. That’s what a group of them is actually called! How humorously appropriate. Also, they don’t swim in this water, it’s shallow enough that they bounce off the bottom to propel themselves. How Disney-ish. It was a great evening, the sun set as we were going back to shore, perfect ending to the day from dipping my toes into the Indian Ocean to viewing copulating sea-creatures to viewing a monkey’s blue-balls to a close-up of a hippo’s throat in all it’s slimy glory. Only in Africa.
Back in town we had a quick dinner at another fish place, John Dory’s, where I had fish tacos. No pictures because like the BBQ steak, a taco is a taco.
No comments:
Post a Comment