Eerie Oude Schip - Sandy Bay

This morning I drove to Hout Bay and walked along the Rocket Way, down to Oude schip and along the coast to Sandy Bay.
A nearly full moon was setting in the morning light. Slowly she is fading away.

A strong cool breeze made it difficult to take makro pictures.  It made the flower look like burning in short lived flames. 

On the way down I saw this flowers arranged in a bouquet like for a funeral.

A deadly spider is waiting for its catch.

It is low tide and I can cross over to the Oude Schip peninsula. The barge ran aground 20 years ago, now stuck and slowly rusting away.

The rocks belong to the oystercatcher.

This is an eerie place. The wreck of the "Harvest Capella" lies upside down on the rocks.

A stone hippo guards this end of the world. A stern warning "Don't go further".

This is a burial ground for seals.

I am glad to leave, crossing the isthmus towards safer ground.

After a while I reach beautiful Sandy Bay. A skinny dip in the icy crystal clear sea washes away the dark feelings.

  

Camps Bay Pipe Track

I got a bit sunburned yesterday and wanted to stay in the shade. So today I walked along the Camps Bay pipe track. The sun was still hiding behind Table Mountain.

Lions Head looks best in the morning sun.

The track follows one of the old cast iron water pipes.

The pipe is a nice piece of colonial engineering , it supplied the town with fresh mountain water.

I went up the Woody ravine for a short while. A mystical pocket of indigenous forest made me sit down and absorb the atmosphere.

This time of the year flowers are rare but some fight the heat and drought.

On my way back the birds are out and about in the sun.

Newlands Forest Summer Morning

It is real summer in Cape town. After a hot day the morning is foggy, but the forest is bone dry.

Seeds have fallen and shells are empty.

The pines are looking taller today, stretching themselves high into the sky.

Some beetles are feasting on the pods and ...

and in the last flowers.

At the stream a spider tries to catch the thirsty and careless.

The ruined shed is corroding, slowly letting the sun in to dry what has been wet, dark and damp so long.

Morning Rain Magic

This morning we probably had the last rain of this year. I first had to take shelter at the Deer Park Cafe but could capture some impressions later.

Slowly the clouds were opening up. The forest is full of fragrances and everything looks different in a fresh wetness.

Secret views are revealed.

The wetness brings out female forms.

Wet love......

leads to new birth.

Rain drops decorate the  plants like jewels.

A frog is sitting in the stream all dressed up in its perfect camouflage.

Fluidity

Yesterday, the family still sleeping, I went for a short walk along the stream in Deer Park.

Taking time to reflect I noticed the fluidity, the constant flow of the life giving water.

I feel the need for a rest in this strong current. Holding on to something seemingly solid.

The hairy petals of a protea are cuddling together before the storm.

Others are ripe, ready to let go with the next wind to find new places.

Table Mountain is rising above, solid and strong.

I see a perfect image of a tree of life, anchored deep in the dry earth.

Among the dry grass I find tiny juicy flowers.

For some creatures the world is just spiky.

Others celebrate life and new birth like a hibiscus flower.

Life, a constant flow like the breath, in and out, up and down.

Summer in Deer Park

After a few hot days of summer it was a cool morning. Nature is going into sleep to survive the heat to come.

Only a few flowers try a last temptation.

A last colourful cry for love.

Most have completed the cycle and are ready to fly like stars in the summer sky.

A mandala inviting contemplation grows under the trees.

Small cycles of life are to be seen at the border of an seemingly endless cycle of mother earth.

It takes ten thousand years for the stream to wash away the stone. 

Once even the stone was flowing.

A cool pool invites me to take a ritual bath.

A river frog is guarding the entrance -

- to the ruins of an ancient temple

A lost world, overgrown.