Monday, March 23, 2015

wildflowers, spring 2014 (clanwilliam, south africa)

We were busy this "spring" and never got around to posting these photos from our wildflower-viewing weekend in September.

Every spring in the dry veld of the Western Cape (north and west of Cape Town), a really magical bloom of wildflowers takes place. The absolute best ones are supposedly about 7 hours away in Namaqualand; we didn't make it that far, but we did get to Clanwilliam this year and really enjoyed the weekend driving through fields and exclaiming over the colors.

We're heading back up this way next week for our last trip in southern Africa before we head back Stateside. As you can see from our lack of posting on the blog, this year has been busier than last with fewer weekend trips - we're not exactly tourists here any more! But we are looking forward to getting out for a few more long weekends and taking advantage of school holidays before we leave Cape Town permanently in June. (Tears are forming just thinking about it!)

Til then, enjoy a few sunny flowers now that it's turning to spring in the northern hemisphere!






Friday, March 20, 2015

weekend by the sea (betty's bay, south africa)

Jen is on school holidays!! Let's get out of town!

My MBA program has been a little restrictive on our weekend trips (to say the least). So with two free weekends this month before our last road trip in southern Africa at the end of the month, we had to take advantage!

We hit the road looking for some hiking and some swimming last weekend, and found both in Betty's Bay, near Hermanus. We also detoured west for another amazing lunch at Havercroft's in Stanford.

Jim prepares to snorkel this swimming hole, perched on the rock in the upper-left.

Taking after my husband.



Beautiful spot to stop. The black flag means shark danger is low - no sharks spotted.