Sunset Connoisseur

Sebastian is a connoisseur of sunsets and whenever he visited Betty's Bay, considered the deck railing the best place from which to view this spectacular event.  A ginger and white cat of fiery and feisty temperament,  tailess due to an accident of some kind, he belongs to my nephew's girlfriend and is one of the most widely travelled cats I've come across.  Adopted in Gabon,  he accompanied his mistress to South Africa, then to America, back to South Africa and is now adapting to the snow in Vancouver.  Somewhere in between all that I believe he made a trip to France !

The humans, on the other hand think that the heated pool, with a long, ice-tinkling glass of something delicious to hand, is pretty hard to beat.

Driving around that morning a couple of amusing signs caught my eye.  First of all, this one which I'll translate,  warns motorists to drive slowly because of the little baboon baby on board.

And have a little consideration for our slow moving inhabitants, including the photographer with the painful legs, I hope.

A rather panicked little creature ushering her brood over the road puts me in mind of the various scholar patrols that used to rush my children across to school many, many years ago.

And although I couldn't stop in time to take a picture of the penguin sign, I did get a shot or two of these suave and dapper little characters, in their sleek tuxedos, who are part of the small protected colony of African jackass penguins, here in Betty's Bay.  There is also another colony at Boulders Beach in Simonstown and the enjoyable thing there is that you're quite likely to find a penguin surfing in to shore on a wave beside you.

Have you ever noticed what huge feet these little birds have?  By the way the "jackass" part of the name is easily understood once you've heard their unmelodic, discordant brays.

Have a thought for the photographer who is absolutely thrilled exhausted after being left to walk around in the heat all day.

However, that exhaustion is easily soothed with a dip and a medicinal potion.  Aah, it's a hard life.