Travelogue: Seal of approval

So to continue!.....

We spent a day walking along the beach from Grotto Beach across the spit that currently crosses the mouth of the lagoon. If it is a rough winter the sea breaks through and the water in the lagoon mixes more with sea water and gets cold but less smelly.....

This is standing in the middle between the sea and the lagoon. It was weird watching waves from both sides moving towards each other....

These are black oystercatchers. Depending on Granny's lucidity is whether she knows what they are and I must tell Timmy my brother or they are birds wot eat black oysters. Take your pick.

Woody and I had walked further up the seaward side and then scrambled across the dunes to lagoonside to walk/paddle back where we met Martin and Pippa who had stopped to see doggies and kite surfers and to erm.....

Yup ... turn Martin into a Mermaid!

On the way back to the main most populated part of the beach we again saw a small baby seal which was just lying on the beach but as a man approached it made a dash for the sea but was still struggling as it appeared to neither be able to get into the sea for being washed out nor get into the sea for being washed in. Again no photos as too worried about the poor thing and selfishly didn't want bad memories!

Moving on relatively swiftly (hard walking on soft sand) we got to the Sushi and cocktail bar. Amazing place to sit and watch people on the beach whilst eating fresh sushi and experimenting with cocktails... however we still think the Mojito is the best

It's not cold honest! Just avoiding sunburn!

Can't remember the name of the cocktail but it was tasty.... maybe even a mocktail as Woody was driver. I had a can of Tab. This tastes like coke but is caffeine free but in uk if you buy decaffeinated coke it tastes rubbish. (and coke is not very ethical company so tend to avoid anyway!)

As we sat and enjoyed the place and all we saw some people in uniforms with blue shirts and they had a cormorant (or shag -see later) and appeared to be releasing it. Without thinking too much I decided to run after them and tell them about the seal. They then sent someone after the seal and as we walked back to the car later we saw the people again and they told us the Blue Flag people had been called as they are the only ones allowed to touch seals and here we hope there was a happy ending for the poor pup.

"The Common
Cormorant"Christopher Isherwood

The common cormorant (or shag)
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
You follow the idea, no doubt?
It's to keep the lightning out.But what these unobservant birds
Have never thought of, is that herds
Of wandering bears might come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

We decided not to have sushi at the bar but got a platter from a supermarket (they also make it fresh like a deli counter there) and took it up mountain drive to enjoy sush with a view

Left top of picture you can see the lagoon but its hard to make out the sand spit. In some places there is not much height and the waves were nearly running across as the tide came in. The green area (not he square patches) again to the left of the photo is the golf course and the white houses further back are the start of Berg N See

This is the view into the main town of Hermanus and Hoy's Koppie

On the way back we stopped off to see some very skilled people with remote controlled aircraft - you can't tell from the photo but the winds are strong and they were still managing tricks and even to hold them hovering in the air against the wind and land them! We saw no collisions or crashes so they clearly have too much time on their hands to practice.