Catching up--our new digs, Paternoster

Greetings!  It has taken a little while to get our photos of the last several weekends downloaded, but I mean to share them now : )  I'll do this in two posts.  This is the catch-up post and has pictures of our new place and our trip to the fishing villages north two weeks ago.

Here, first, are a few pics of our new digs.

This is the "braai" (barbecue) room with a fire going.  Where they are indoors, they also serve as a fireplace, as you can see here.  In back of Bill are doors to the patio.

Here's kitchen, dining area, doors to the braai room.  Living room is to the right.

Patio, looking toward the street.  The doors are to the braai room.

Bill at the bedroom sliding doors.  You can see the gate at the right that leads to the beach path.

Sunset over the beach, seen from the patio.   Want to visit??

Okay, that's enough of the house.  Two weeks ago, we took a trip north to Paternoster and to Saldanha and Langebaan on the return trip south.  Paternoster is described as a fishing village, though I suspect the economy relies more on tourism now than fish.  They do have large quantities of "crayfish" or Cape lobster, however, which attract scuba divers in season.  The beach features some big old rocks, a little reminiscent of the Massachusetts coast's rocks but smoother.  Here's Bill on one of them.

Paternoster winds down to the beach from a hillside, where we stopped for lunch and the view.  This was our table.

From Paternoster, we headed south to Saldanha, which was a surprise.  Saldanha Bay is apparently very deep, and Saldanha is a deep water port, replete with big ships, work boats, and dry dock operations. 

In the boatyard area, we also caught an Ibis strolling through the flowers alongside the road.

Across the bay from Saldanha is Langebaan, which you can see from the West Coast National Park.  It boasts a lagoon and a warm(er)-water beach.  We may be back! 

By the time we hiked down the beach and back again, it was getting toward dinner time; so we stopped at a beachside restaurant for dinner and a glass of wine.  As we headed home from Langebaan, we picked up some African beats on a radio station we hadn't found before.  The announcer's language was one of the African languages spoken in S. Africa, possibly Zulu since I didn't hear the characteristic clicks of Xhosa.  We arrived home just after dark, contented and humming happily.