Yes, at home!
For the last couple of weeks we have had the most glorious weather (apart from no rain at all), and we have bragged about our 'natural air conditioner' (aka our cool wind), and our low temperatures, to friends and family who have been suffering temperatures in the high 30 degrees C. My daughter has been heard to remark that its cooler in Dubai, so they have been dashing between the air-conditioned office and the swimming pool!
Anyway, I digress!
Yesterday the weather got its own back on us! By midday it was 38 degrees in Vredenburg and not a lot cooler here in the Baai. With no wind at all, not even a gentle zephyr to knock a degree off, by evening we were still hot hot hot inside the house. The fan was working overtime and the cats were splayed out on the tiles. Going up to bed, the higher we climbed the hotter it got, and our bedroom was like an oven. We opened the balcony doors wide and the cool air poured in.
So, we decided to camp out outside upstairs! (I must mention that we did this once before a few years ago and woke up damp and shivering in the middle of the night thanks to a heavy fog!) Our bedroom leads onto a lovely balcony overlooking the sea (if you are standing that is...lying down it overlooks walls!) So at bedtime, we took the pillows and the duvet off the bed and heaved and shoved and pushed the mattress onto the balcony where it was by now, blissfully cool! Pillows and duvet replaced and all was ready for a wonderful night's sleep.
Except we hadn't allowed for four furry bodies who thought this was all jolly fun and decided to career around hysterically, have play-fights on top of the walls, sharpen their claws on the wooden table that we have out there, and generally behave like hooligans. Normally they all settle into their allotted places either behind knees or tucked in at our feet and we all go quietly to sleep. Alfie climbed into his bed that Rob had put next to him, and he and Rob were asleep in seconds.
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| Alfie and Rob this morning. Rob is the hump! |
I lay there listening to the cats and visualising bodies falling off the wall, crashing onto a kruiwa on the way down and landing broken and bloodied on the ground below. Basil was the king of the castle as he leaped and bounded across chasms and pounced on Kindle who was sitting quietly wondering why on earth we were there and not inside!
Eventually I could take no more! I grabbed Basil and took him into the bedroom, called the others who thought that they were in for a midnight feast, and then I dodged out again and closed the door, leaving them inside. As I climbed into bed, or rather fell onto bed, I saw three faces lined up staring through the door at me. Dopey had sensibly wandered off to find a quiet chair.
The stars were amazing. No ceiling could ever come close to the beauty of the night sky. The moon was a yellow-gold sliver dipping towards the sea and the clouds scudded by on their way to somewhere. And the sounds were equally fascinating, apart from the odd mosquito whining past and me slapping my head a couple of times. The sea was calm but we could hear the odd splash, and drifting above the sea was the eerie sound of the seals calling from their island, sounding so much like men being shipwrecked that Rob said it made him think of the 'Titanic' and how people must have shouted and called for help in the water.
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| Where is the coffee? |
The other good thing about camping at home is the ablution facilities! I did stagger up during the night, (on hands and knees until I could hold onto something to pull myself upright!) but didn't have far to go luckily and there were the cats draped around the bedroom still wondering what on earth we were doing!
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| An 'old fashioned' selfie!!! |
By 6 a.m. this morning it was light, the guinea fowls and the francolins were calling and the swallows and martins were swooping by collecting their breakfast. We lay and watched them thinking that they probably do this every morning but we never get to see them.
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| Early morning in the baai. |
Alfie had joined us sometime during the night and had brought his ball for company! I opened the door for the cats, Rob went to make coffee, and we lolled about until the sun rose and the shadows began to slide down the walls.
I am hoping its hot enough today to repeat the exercise!
2 comments:
Brilliant idea, I envy you, and being up there you don't have to worry about spiders and other creepies who might attack if you were on ground level! You're lucky Basil didn't scale the outside wall and arrive with you, wouldn't put it past him!!
I remembered to close the top window as he has a habit of climbing up and out of them. He would have then hopped over the wall from the veranda roof and joined us!
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