Easter weekend in Britannia Bay

We found our Bed and Breakfast, Djuna, on Bookings.com. We normally prefer Self catering, but there was none available in the area when we booked. It is on Golden Mile and currently has a good sea view, but there is a house being built in front of it now

Our very comfortable bedroom and bathroom

The long, long white sandy beach at Britannia Bay and, yes, for three days the weather was perfect. On Easter Monday we awoke to thick sea mist, but it was time to pack and leave and it did burn off later

A nice long wave break makes a lovely sound to send one to sleep

This house is owned by people we know. They were not down for the Easter weekend and had said we could use their braai area, so we could cook our crayfish. It was quite an endeavour, one we might not ever try again, unless we use much more forethought, planning and equipment! But we did have a great deal of fun

Getting out all the food and the equipment we had brought with us. A wok, to boil the crayfish in, SO didn’t work as we couldn't get the water to boil, either on the braai or on the small gas burner we had brought with us. The vine dried Excelsior might seem strange to start with, but it was to go with the pâté we bought when we were in France last year and was a perfect match

A healthy fire using wood gathered around the house and on the beach

The two essential participants in their bath of fresh water, which put them to sleep.

In the end we dispatched them both -  a coup de grace with a big, sharp Sabatier kitchen knife - and grilled them directly on the fire for a very short while. Liberal amounts of butter with fresh garlic, flake salt and some Madagascar spice mix were the only ingredients necessary to flavour them. They were sweet and delicious and contained a surprising amount of meat

The beautiful sunset. Britannia Bay faces the same direction as our house in Sea Point (it is about 140 km further north from Cape Town) and has just as good sunsets every evening

A suitable glass of crisp Special Cuvée Sauvignon Blanc from Springfield, always a favourite. And this 2011 was very, very special.

The gulls gather to roost for the night

Pâté de foie with some lovely sweet wine was our starter

And the sunset just got better and better

We clearly didn’t bring enough light. Our halogen torch batteries have all failed, we forgot the LED lantern and had to rely on four candles which kept blowing out! It was hilarious and we had a lovely evening. Our car headlights got us back to the car, laden with all we had brought with us.

Sunrise from our balcony

Everyone takes a morning walk on the beach, including us, and you meet a lot of nice dogs

Great Black backed gulls fly over

Early morning canoeists. The sea beyond the break is quite calm

Taking off at a run

The beach is covered with the shells of large mussels and what the locals call white mussels, which are actually large clams. You need a licence to ‘pick’ them and you have to dig for the clams

Morning exercise

A young gull

This black back pulled two live crabs from the surf in two minutes

and demolished them in an instant

A local having fun with her German Shepherd. The sociable smaller dog adopted us for our walk and then wandered off to join another party as we departed the beach

A healthy Banting breakfast served every morning at Djuna. Sometimes with mushrooms for Lynne. There were also fruit, yoghurt and black coffee. We could have asked for more...

The tiny sandpipers were so fast it was difficult to get a photograph

A weaver building a nest at the local nursery

We drove, and then walked, to the Shelley Point lighthouse

A sad memorial to someone lost at sea

Roosting cormorants.... and....

... hello, a grey heron and a kelp gull liked the company - ubuntu, just how we should all get along

We found a nice rock for our picnic. No sand in our food please.

Lynne prepares, while John photographs

Shelley Point is an enclosed estate with a golf course. It seemed very empty for an Easter long weekend, where people own expensive properties

A turtle rock? Or a Dr Seuss bird in a hat? Or a resting leopard

A squadron of cormorants over the bay ...

... and coming in to land

Cavorting on the rocks

While the tide returns

Yes, there are dolphins in the bay, we saw them most days. This small pod was treating us to a breaching display, but they were so quick that it was hard to capture an image. But we saw no whales this time

Children delight at playing on the beach

A late afternoon walk on the beach

We left Britannia Bay at mid-morning and headed back to Cape Town, with a stop at Yzerfontein. We found a great parking spot to have a picnic
And discovered a whole colony of Dassies (hyrax/“rock rabbits”) enjoying the midday sunshine on their rocks

Strange to think their nearest ancient relative is an elephant. These are obviously well fed

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

A simple supper at Sunfish, St Helena Bay

John wanted to watch the Stormers vs Lions rugby match on Saturday evening and, sadly, our B&B didn’t have television - so we had to seek out a place where he could watch and then, later, we could have supper together. Sunfish turned out to be the place, just about 5 minutes drive from our B&B.

It’s very homey and simple, but has great prices. All the crayfish we saw in other restaurants was in the region of R245 each. The pub lunch price is unreal and takes us back to the 1980’s.  As it says on the menu, the choice is up to the publican

We drank a bottle of Oak Valley Sauvignon Blanc in tribute to their winemaker Peter Visser who died of cancer this week.  A toast to you Vissie; you made great wine

A page from the menu. We didn’t try the chocolate “mouse” but it sounds good

The mostly local crowd was extremely friendly and welcoming. They were having a snoek braai as the snoek are running well. This fish needs to be cooked super fresh and the tradition on the West Coast is to coat it with apricot jam and then put it on the braai.

We opened this bottle of Welbedacht Syrah from our cellar to go with the food. It was stunningly good. Soft and sweet with fresh and cooked berries and lots and lots of spice

It went perfectly with supper. No chips because we are on the Noakes diet. Lynne had a small steak with salad

John had a boerewors burger - yes, without the bun and also served with a salad. The bill for the meal was R208???

Try it when you are in the area, you might just like it a lot. The owner has been a policeman, a steel worker and is now living his dream by the sea, doing what he loves best, cooking
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

Paternoster and lunch at Skatkis

On our way to a long Easter weekend at Britannia Bay we side-tracked to Paternoster to pick up some crayfish we had ordered and decided to have something for lunch while we were there. Lynne had done all the research for Britannia Bay, but not for Paternoster and where we ended up was surprisingly good

We started with a call to Oep ve Koep, but they only seem to have a couple of tables - we were told it was a set menu and it was fully booked

After collecting two crayfish from our contact and paying rather over the odds at R140 for two live kreef, we went to their recommendation for a simple fish or calamari lunch, Skatkis on St Augustine Road. There were lots of very young vendors on the street selling crayfish; were they undersized, were they legal, were they fresh, were they alive? Too risky for us. With prices as low as R10 each we wonder, but it was certainly fulfilling a demand

The outside could do with a revamp but it is easy to find

Skatkis (Treasure box) has a superb view, outside tables and a lawn

A fairly Greek theme of blue and white inside

And everyone, including us, chose a table on the terrace for the great view. With an exciting new chef and a little modernisation, this venue could become the best restaurant in Paternoster because of its location

And there is plenty of parking outside. Look at that view down the bay! Paternoster has kept its Cape seaside cottage style and all the buildings have to be painted white and fit into other design criteria which makes it so charming

Crisp calamari and a salad for Lynne with a glass of house Sauvignon Blanc from Groenekloof

Who wouldn't want to spend a lunch hour here?

John had fresh braaied snoek with a baked sweet potato (not his favourite but better for his waistline than chips) and a separate salad

People enjoying the lovely late summer weather on the beach

Something new. These jam jar drinks seemed very popular. We were not willing to go there, too sweet and not on the diet

The view from the car park and off we went to Britannia Bay, the quick way, over the 13 km dirt road rather than the long way round via Vredenburg which is about 54 km

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013