Wandering about an e-land on ebay?

If the heading doesn’t make sense don’t worry, it is not your lack of understanding but my attempt at wordplay.  I suppose a lot of people wanderlust off to a mythical programmable surreal electronic land/world which can be purchased on eBay (your standard computer game).  Nothing wrong with that, it is just that I prefer the real thing. The heading could have been An Eland wandering in a bay which still wouldn’t make sense (in the absence of the Eland) but  at least give a clue where we were this weekend  (we being my  family and the family of a good friend). No we weren’t in the Kruger National Park riding around on an Eland (an Eland is a large buck and you you can click on the link for more info).  We walked and drove around in Elands Bay a small town on the West coast of South Africa about 220 km from Cape Town. Eland once roamed there, but now it is a surfing (known as ebay in South African surfing community), bird, sunset and crayfish paradise (not necessarily in that order). In England I suppose it would have been called a hamlet. Elands bay Guesthouse was our base and I could tell you about the braai (barbecue) during which a friend and I solved life’s problems over a glass of Merlot. Or the humorous stories recollected (which gave me ideas for a few blog posts) or the seriously competitive (but lacking in skills) pool games which by the way is a recipe for laughter.  We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and these photos are but a few I could use.

↓The Northernmost point of the Bay. The buildings  are crayfish and other fishing plants↓

↓ Unfortunately in an area rich with crayfish, illegal activities also abound. I stumbled onto this heap of  crayfish dumped in a private nature reserve. In the illegal trade they only cut off the tails which is then exported. This is the upper bodies containing the legs and heads↓

http://ewn.co.za/2017/01/22/man-due-in-court-for-alleged-illegal-possession-of-crayfish

↓This is the Verlorenvlei (wetland) which stretches for a few kilometers form Elands bay inland . It may look like a vast amount of water but as it is a wetland the water is only a few centimeters deep↓

↓There used to be a Bird hide here but the birds hid the hide so well I couldn’t find it. Actually it burnt down 2 years ago and hasn’t been reconstructed. These photos were taken from where the hide used to be but the birds flee as you come closer. I was able to take this picture but not on the same day I took the one above. Regarding the depth of the water – while some flamingos are floating, others are walking↓

Elands Bay also have amazing sunsets with that big egg falling in the sea.

↓And now for something completely different. One of the less pleasurable aspects of Elands Bay is the proliferation of these thorns. If your are not wearing shoes or your slip-slops are too thin these will get you. From the top it almost looks like a shell but looking at it from the bottom you realize it is actually a shark! ↓

Life has less pleasurable aspects,  the equivalent of the thorns and and crayfish poaching, but life can still be enjoyed.  Indeed depending on values and attitude, the positive still outshines the negative, even if there were periods in my life when it seemed to be the other way round.