Reunion with my Sydney friends

A lovely get together at Frenchie's restaurant. I had my usual Goat's Cheese Tartlet and a smoothie. Delicious. So lovely to see everyone after two months in Cape Town.

  

Dinner with Shirley

 So wonderful to catch up with Shirley and to meet her delightful daughter, Keira.

Dinner with The Pater and Kobus

Delicious dinner at Silk for Asian "tapas"  My 3 courses were pork belly, duck and steak and mushroom.  Carnivore's delight. 

Bamboo Buddha with Xenia for lunch and sound healing meditation

A very peaceful spiritual retreat on The Central Coast, 1.5 hours outside Sydney. Lovely, healthy food (a juicy rack of over-roasted veggies), lounging in the beautiful garden on comfy chairs and an amazing sound healing meditation session to end it all off.  

Ndlovu choir and Cattle Baron

Ndlovu Choir

Cattle Baron

High tea at Vaucluse House

 

Dinner at Gavin and Tanya

Dinner at The Himalayan Char Grill with the Hiking Gang

Jilly's birthday celebration at The Botanica

The Boatshed with Jo, Chris and Yogi (and Aimee)

Dim Sung with Jo, Brendan and Eva and Mary-Ann

Kirtan

A beautiful evening of body nourishing food (vegetarian pizza) and soul nourishing Kirtan.

Thank you, dear friends, for sharing a beautiful evening of of body nourishing food and soul nourishing Kirtan.

Thank you, dear Sharon, for organising it.

Thank you dear Pru for the lift home.

Thank you dear Life for All of it.

With love,

G

Meeting up for breakfast with the hiking gang

Amazing meal with Srini

Jeffreys Bay

We arrived at our hostel after a 12 hour drive in the Baz Bus only to receive an extremely frosty welcome from the owner at our backpackers. So unwelcome in fact that I was sure a camera man would jump out at any moment yelling "Candid Camera!" It was too late to find somewhere else to say, so we made the best of the very small, spartan room we were given. 

Later that night, we heard from another backpacker (one of very few staying there) that the owner had been behaving very suspiciously before we arrived, including ushering a big gangster type fellow from the street and into her room.  He later left with wads of stuff under his shirt. We had fun surmising what might have been going on; the conclusion being that it was some kind of drug deal. 

We organised another place to stay early next day and as we left, the police pulled up at the front of the backpackers. What an interesting start to our backpacking adventures!

The backpackers where we moved to, called The Island Vibe, couldn't have been more welcoming and friendly, much to our relief.  It was situated in a prime position right on the edge of the beach and it's atmosphere lived up to its name.  

Highlights of our time here ...

• A long walk along the beach and a nice swim.
• Colourful graffiti everywhere including awesome one of Africa wildlife.
• Lazing on deck chairs, catching up some of the 80 unfinished books on my Kindle!
• A scrumptious veggie juice at a local restaurant, another wonderful, healthy thing that Chrisèl has got me into.
• Lovely home cooked meals at the backpackers including chicken and babootie.  We had to eat the babootie extremely quickly as the Baz Bus arrived 30 minutes earlier than we expected.  

The Island Vibe backpackers, right on the beach.

Graffiti 

St James, Kalk Bay and Boulders Beach

It was a gorgous day so Chrisèl, Jo and I decided to do the walk from Muizenberg to St James, taking lots of photos along the way.  St James looked as colourful as ever; it really is a photographers dream.

Then we met up with Antony and Matt and had a nice lunch at The Brass Bell, a restaurant in Kalk Bay right on the ocean's edge. After lunch, we explored Kalk Bay Harbour with its vibrant fishing boats and fishy smells.

Chrisèl and I then went on to Boulders Beach for snaps of penguins and I had a lovely swim.

Walking to St James

Jo and I in action!

Lunch at The Brass Bell and a stroll round Kalk Bay Harbour

Boulders Beach