Day two of the great idle

I had a very early start, out taking photos by 06:00.  It is strange how 06:00 is a normal even late start to the day when working but on holiday it feels really, really early.  Being out this early meant that I was working my way around the north shore of the island before the sun actually rose which made for some great photographs.

 The 'sun' in the following photographs is actually the setting moon.

I didn't quite make it around the whole island and ended up cutting across the middle to make it back in time for breakfast which consisted of pan cakes making a change from the normal muesli and yoghurt.  Sitting under the trees in the cool of the morning, eating delicious pan cakes with old friends; life is just great.

Rob made more bread, I think I am going to have to travel with the Dalgleishes more; I could get very used to a daily supply of fresh bread for lunch.  I helped Rob put up his awning in the morning which was very simple consisting simply of shade cloth and six poles with guy ropes.  The big advantage of this is that it is quite high and allows any wind to blow through beneath the awning which makes it very cool to sit under.  Much cooler than the one that we have which although the shade is deeper is less cool to sit under.  Definitely food for thought when designing my own awning in the future. I am amazed at just how much gear Rob manages to pack into his bakkie, he even had room for a volleyball net and court which we also put up for the kids to use.  Playing volleyball in the kalahari has got to be a special place to play it.

The Steenkamps packed up and started their journey back to the big smoke and even though they were with us for only a few days, it was nice to have met them.  Watching them leave I was very happy not to have been departing with them, I am really starting to get into the swing of things and just idling away the time doing pretty much nothing.

In the afternoon we played boules with the dalgleishes and it turns out, I am worse than useless at the game so I was very happy when we all decided to walk around the southern shore of the island going past what is left of what used to be a huge baobab that used to give shade to campsite #1.  I'm not sure why it died, I think it was just very old.  The carcass of the tree was very interesting because it isn't like a normal tree which even while dead maintains it's structural integrity.  Baobabs literally disintegrate into pulp, it was very weird to see.

On the return trip along the spine of the island to the northern point where we were camped we climbed up to the trig beacon to have a look at the view from there and I spent most of the rest of the afternoon wandering around with the camera minding my own business.  I tried some fill-in flash pictures of the moon rise which sort of worked.