Shaggy Has Landed!

By the time you read this, Shaggy will have landed at Lanseria Airport, north-west of Johannesburg.
Who or what is Shaggy, I hear you ask?
Read on, and all will be revealed!

A friend of ours sent Rob an email yesterday. This is what Johan wrote:

'Shaggy in cabin
 Has just taken off from Jeddah in ZS SKA
 En route Djibouti'

Rob answered with the obvious question:

'What is SKA?
 What is the story of Shaggy?'

And Johan wrote back:

'SA charter group operating out of Baghdad, smallish Flying Fokkers, this
one a F70. Shaggy was an Iraqi stray that the boys adopted A welcome braai is
being arranged at Lanseria for Shaggy and his crew !'

Shaggy in his flying cage! (Pics thanks to Johan)

Trains and Boats and Planes! (Not really Planes though!)

Well, here I am, better late than never! Home again after a wonderful few days lazing on the banks of the Berg River. We arrived on Thursday morning after a journey of 45 minutes, and were unpacked, tent up and relaxing, an hour later! Alfie stayed in the car until everything was in place and then came out to inspect, and find a convenient tree!

All set up and ready to do nothing!

What a beautiful spot. We identified 54 bird species without moving away from the campsite! The list contains 180, so we didn't do too badly! From the large flamingos to the tiny mossies and everything in between, they can be seen here.

Iron ore heading to Saldanha Bay.

A Fish in Time....or....Cast in Stones!

This morning it was Rob's turn to get up first! (I love odd-numbered days). The early chores consist of opening up, opening the blinds, feeding the cats, making sure that Alfie actually goes outside and not pretends to, feeding the birds and feeding the fish and last but not least, making the coffee. We kind of do it on automatic pilot, but this morning Rob counted the fish and saw that there was one short! The orange one that he had named 'Outspan' like the oranges that are exported to far shores, was missing! And a flat rock that is usually on the edge of the pond was lying on the bottom.

Then he saw Outspan.

Lying on the stones about half a metre from the fish pond. Not moving. Not a good sign.

He picked it up and was about to bury it, when he saw it move very slightly, so he put it back in the water. It listed left-hand-down and kind of floated. By now I had joined him and the two of us stood and watched. I put my hand in the water and gently held it upright, but the minute I let go, it rolled over again.

Outspan looking a little sideways! (Pics thanks to Rob)

I did this a few times, I even thought of giving it mouth to mouth resuscitation as it kept either rolling over or bumping into things but we persevered and finally it looked as though we had won the battle! It started to swim the right way up, it's fins came unstuck and started moving, and it started to eat!

A lucky fish!

And now it is fine! What a tale to tell it's friends. I wonder if it's life flashed before it as it lay on the stones? I wonder if it saw a huge pond with all it's old friends waiting for it, beckoning with golden fins? Sort of 'On Golden Pond'. Sorry, that's awful!

And I wonder how it got there in the first place? Basil, you ask? No, he was with us on the bed, and he was dry!

A mystery that will probably remain unsolved.
Outspan. A good name for it as it turns out!

Oh, I do Like to be Beside the Seaside.........!

I know that it's not officially New Post Time, but I just had to share a couple of photos with you (thanks to Rob and the power of his mobile phone!)

Yesterday we set off at 5.30 (after watching 'Eastenders', sad people but hey!) for our daily walk. We always meet up with friends and their two dogs and we usually do a meander to the fishing area and then a quick round-the-block before we head home for a glass of refreshment. As we arrived at the little path going down to the beach, we saw Phillip, Nicola and the gaggle heading to the sea for their daily swim. Well, the geese were, Nicola and Phillip paddled in the shallows!

The neighbours heading to the beach.

When you think of it, these little souls did the equivalent of a human 'Comrades Marathon'. We live a good 500 metres from the beach, and when you are only 15 cms from the ground, that's a lot of walking! And Peta has been doing it since she was only 6 cms from the ground!

Astro doing her 'Life Guard' impersonation!

I must say that it amazes me that they swim in salt water, but there they were, floating and swimming and flapping their little stumpy wings and eating the seaweed that looks like thin green plastic bags!
Alfie and the other two dogs made sure that they stayed out of Peta's reach and paddled a little way away, but Astro was there in the water with the geese, making sure that they stayed within easy reach. And after they had all had enough, out they came and headed home! Peta in the lead and everyone else following.

Today they will do it all over again!

When we came back from our walk, they were all relaxing on the grass.
What a privilege to live among nature like we do.