Sat, Aug 8 - Exploring Paarl

We slept in until 7:30 and awoke feeling pretty well.  It was 45 degrees with dense ground fog which cleared by 8:30.  We walked over to the beautiful main house and found the dining room all set up with a delicious buffet of cheeses, fresh and dried fruits, smoked fish, cold meats. bread and rolls, three dishes of yogurts, etc with the full English breakfast available to order!  A  warm fire was burning in the hearth.  As it's the off season, I think there is only one other party staying here, so the whole breakfast is set up for us!  Fortunately we're much hungrier today then yesterday, but even so, we could only make a small dent in the spread!

Pontac dining room

 The Bar

We walked around the grounds and saw a South Masked Weaver making his intricately woven nest.  I have a new camera, a Fujifilm Finepix S1, which I'm just learning to use, but it has a 50x lens so I'm having a good time trying to get some pretty good bird shots.

Southern Masked Weaver on his nest

We set off back to the Paarl Sewage Ponds, a large area of ponds and marshland, surrounded by a high fence topped with razor wire - I'm not sure why such great security is required for  sewage processing?!  This time we were let in through the gate, but were told that we would have a truck following us with a driver and guard, as it would be dangerous for us to  park the car and look for birds unaccompanied.  The sewage ponds are in an isolated spot, and apparently birders have been robbed in the past.    We drove around the ponds, which are really quite lovely and full of birds, with our jolly minders following along.   We saw large flock of Greater Flamingos which, in the deeper water, would tip over extending their necks towards the bottom while kicking their long legs to maintain their balance, behavior I've never seen before with flamingos!  We also saw Egyptian Geese with goslings, and tiny fluffy Dabchicks (Little Grebes) tearing through the water chasing each other.  It's early spring here and all the birds are in breeding plumage and indulging in crazy courtship behavior!  Calla lilies, a native plant here, were in full bloom in the marsh along with bright red aloes making for a pretty scene.

Reflections in the Sewage Ponds Marsh

White-breasted Cormonant on Palm-top nest

At 1:30 we left in search of a grocery store for some supplies.  After driving around for a while we saw signs for the Paarl Mall and pulled into a large parking lot with a large building attached containing snack shops, pharmacy, grocery and a car sales area.  We loaded up on bottled water, chocolate, cookies and other snacks and returned to our hotel to rest.  We are invited out to dinner this evening by a couple, Andrew and Alistair, whom we met 15 years ago when we stayed in their B&B in Cape Town.  They visited us in SB years ago and we've kept up our friendship all these years.

Just back from a wonderful dinner party at Andrew and Alistair's beautiful house overlooking Paarl where we watched the sunset creep up the fog-crested mountain range on the east side of the valley. Alistair cooked up a gourmet dinner starting with a trout and avocado spread, poached egg on smoked salmon, followed by roast ham, and then a wonderful molten chocolate dessert.  We discussed our various world travels and the benefits of old age in a decaying world.  A lovely day!