This edition of the Weekly Head Voices covers the period from Monday March 29 to Sunday April 4, 2021.
However, its raison d’être is to act as a reminder of the epic weekend in Stilbaai that we have just returned from, and also to practise the borderline (un)justified use of a posh French expression or two.
Figure 1: If morning starts like this, day could turn out OK.
You might remember me mentioning this place for the first time almost exactly a year ago in WHV #191, when we went there for the first time and had to cut our visit short due to the first COVID lockdown.
A few months later, in WHV #208 to be exact, we had the good fortune to return there, and for me to get disconnected unexpectedly quickly.
This time, exactly 11 WHVs later, we executed a text-book maximise-your-Easter-weekend manoeuvre as we (the whole clan) left town after school on Thursday.
Although the roads were quite busy, we did not get caught in any jams, and were rewarded after a few hours (including a pretty busy stop at Heidelberg (ZA, haha, I don’t drive that fast) for coffee) by finding ourselves safe and sound somewhere in Stilbaai on the Thursday evening, ready for a LONG weekend of fun and games.
Oh, and this time the disconnect took place almost immediately upon arrival!
The weekend was pretty much perfect, with all of the stars aligning: The weather (for a large part thanks to our sun, WHICH IS ONE OF THE STARS ALIGNING TUN TUN TUUUUUN. Stilbaai is balmy this time of the year!), beautiful surroundings and, most importantly, all of my clan peeps committed to having fun.
The specific experiences I will want to remember include but are not limited to:
- Morning runs, large parts on the tranquil beach, with its perfect-for-barefoot-running sand, once also accompanied by GOU#1, who found it exhilarating in spite of not wanting to run on the beach, because teenager.
- Long days on the beach by the river mouth, with all of my peeps, some of the time spent trying not to fall from an inflatable SUP. The general mood on the beach is truly Laid Back.
- Evening walks with the whole clan on that same tranquil, golden beach.
- A visit to the ancient intertidal stonewall fish traps in Stilbaai. See below for a photographic impression.
- As it behooves the people from this part of the world, daily fire and braai, with craft beer and wine. (Also my music playlists, which I’m mentioning here, not because they’re loved (they’re not), but because they transported me back into yet older but equally fond memories of more experiences with friends.)
Figure 2: One of the Stilbaai Tidal Fish Traps. Fish swim into trap when high tide. Fish now trapped, ready for… next stage.
On the return journey, a little bit of our luck ran out as we got caught in the post-long-weekend jam.
You see, it seems that the whole of Cape Town decided to return home from various spots on the warmer coast in such a way so as to meet in exactly the same spot (on the pass between the Hermanus turn-off and Houwhoek) at exactly the same time (around about lunch).
I’m not sure how they coordinated this so perfectly (WhatsApp? maybe Discord?), but we were definitely part of the project.
Thousands of cars, bumper to bumper, fortunately moving, albeit slowly. We were going to make it, it would just take a bit longer.
I told my kids “This is like life. Sometimes you go really slow, but the trick is to just keep on going, one foot in front of the other. You’ll be surprised how far you can get.”
They were probably not listening. Maybe they’ll read it here one day.
Whatever the case may be, the weekend had been so sublime that even the Great Easter Jam of ‘21 came, and then simply unraveled, just like any other thought always does during meditation practice.
With that observation similarly unraveling, we have almost reached the end of the 219th edition of the Weekly Head Voices, with only one more thing to say:
À bientôt les amis!
(hehe)