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. 

spring break part II: house boat (knysna)

The second part of our spring break road trip was pretty darn relaxing. We splurged on a house boat in the estuary at a town called Knysna.

 Jim spent a lot of time fishing, and I made the drinks :) We cooked dinner on the boat, watched the stars come out from the roof, and slept on the boat. It was a really unique couple of days, made very fun by the amazing weather!

Captain Jim enjoying a sunset with some comped bubbly and cheese! (Cheese tastes great after a few days of camping food with no fridge).

The estuary's entrance is marked by these two large stone cliffs, called The Heads. We weren't able to go close to them on an outgoing tide as the boat could get swept out to sea.

It felt good to be in the sun (Jim writing here)

Next morning, Jim is already fishing!  To no avail! (Jim)

The water was an amazing green-blue color in the mornings.

 

Out for a morning snorkel. He thought the water was deeper.  I did not think the water was deeper, I just knew the water was cold, ha ha.

Out on the river - we had to time our passage under this bridge - we could only fit during low tide! We slept above the bridge on our second night on the water.

Jim had been itching to try his luck at digging for bait. Fisherman in the area use small shrimp that live in u-shaped holes in the sand and mud flats in the estuary. He didn't have the right equipment, but found that a kitchen glass and some muscle to dig a foot or so into the mud worked out. He caught four shrimp!

I used the same method Dad used with the snow crabs down in Hilton Head.  As long as you can keep your finger in the hole you'll know you found the crab/shrimp when it pinches you.  These didn't have much in the way of pinchers though :). 

The bait.

Still fishing....

Jim's first African fish! We identified it as a red steenbras (we think). It eats those shrimp Jim was digging earlier by sticking its mouth on one side of the hole and blowing water through it, popping the shrimp out the other side. It then quickly eats the shrimp!

A beaut. We threw it back.

Jim also saw a lot of nibble action from these guys - cuttlefish! Actually a type of squid, they would come up and eat his bait right off the hook.

Cruising back on our last morning, gearing up for the next leg of the road trip.

sunny sunday fishing hole (muizenberg)

The trip to the whale watching, beach walking, rock fishing, surf capitol of the Western Suburbs of Cape Town.

Jennifer and I decided to go out fishing today, which was more of my inclination, but Jennifer thought it would be fun too, partly due to the awesome weather (65 and sunny)--so we set off to find a fishing hole on the rocky shoreline near Kalk Bay.  After searching a few recommended locations we decided the boardwalk near Muizenberg would be our best chance of having a good time.  It turns out we were right about the destination, but the fish were not hungry.

Besides being our first oceanic fishing trip--we tried once two weeks ago in an inland lagoon--it was our first time exploring the surfing beach of Muizenberg.  The surfers were out in full force as there are usually hundreds of individuals in the water at any given time.  We were astounded by the beauty as we looked across False Bay at snow-capped mountains and out into the bay where Southern Right Whales were playing on the surface.  We saw many whales breach and one of them we are pretty sure was a juvenile--they're in the birthing season now.  On our walk back to the beach after fishing I looked down and saw an abalone shell.  Abalone are extremely rare and are illegal to take from the water, but this was just the shell, so I picked it up and brought it home.  Abalone is very popular in jewelry because of the iridescent shine on the inside of the shell.  In addition to being beautiful it is delicious, which are the reasons it is so rarely found.

Here are some pictures from the outing:

Hi there, this is the beach and you should notice the snow on the mountains that are less than 5,000 ft. in elevation.  Our weather was pretty cold and wet for a couple weeks (the entire time Adam and Lindsey were visiting)

Climbing through the rocks; all part of the adventure!

Here are the tidal pools we walked through to make a few casts.  Plus awesome mountains in the background.

Here is me trying to get as much distance on my cast as possible.

This is the view towards Kalk Bay and Simon's Town.

It is refreshing to get doused in a few waves.  I choose my standing rocks wisely.

Very wet and cold.  Good thing it was sunny out.