Ballot's Bay

In November Tabitha graciously invited a group of us to Ballot's Bay (5 hours east of Cape Town on the coast) to spend the weekend at her father's vacation home. He is an architect who designed this home, which sits on a private nature reserve on the coast. We drove up Friday and were meant to leave Tuesday but Tabitha's car blew a gasket and we were 'stuck' there for a whole week. I use the word 'stuck' loosely because this place was magnificently beautiful and we were all too happy to stay awhile longer (albeit we did have to ration food because we were miles from town without a car). 

Within half a mile of our destination, we had to stop to let the car cool down (this was before we realized it had a serious problem). Check out the horses though! There was also a beautiful peacock that I captured with my polaroid - I wish I had a scanner. 

The house we stayed in is on the right. The house to the left of us was vacant for the week - almost completely secluded. 

View from the deck.

Nava, Tabitha and Sakina on the deck.

Searching for cell phone service and jumping around to avoid the vicious fire ants!

Allow me to explain my outfit: we went on a nature walk and some of nature's most annoying creatures would not leave us alone. I had to take off my shirt and wrap it around my head so that the bugs would stop flying into my ears. Also, I needed to tuck my pants inside my socks Girl Scouts-style to keep the tics out. It is a miracle that none of us came back with tics because they were on just about every blade of grass; I have never seen so many in my entire life. On a positive note, look at this giant tortoise! We also saw dolphins, zebras and ostriches! 

Our last dinner with the little supplies we had left: cheese, potatoes, and lentils - vegetarian shepherd's pie. Because of the date, this meal was also effectively my Thanksgiving dinner.