Inspire

l apoligise in advance for today's Blip becoming more of a blog. Feel free to skip the words and just enjoy the view.

It is the 19th anniversary of South Africa's democracy today. Happy Freedom Day Everybody!

I made sure that I got up to see the sunrise today. I have been so lazy this week and have slept late every morning. I woke son S and we went down for a last walk on the beach.

The fisherman were busy just below our hotel and I got a few good images of them. I actually thought at the time that they would be my Blip today as we were a bit late for the actual sunrise. But when I saw this bench in my photo it just captured something inside of me. I "felt" this photo and hope you all like it too! It makes me feel INSPIRED!

The view I have posted shows the length of the beach. The hotel we stayed at is at the end of the northern side of Umhlanga beach and the lighthouse is the southern edge. This small stretch of beach, about 2.5km, has many top class hotel and apartment accommodation spread along it. It is a sheltered beach with shark nets and lifeguard stations, the perfect setting for bathing. My image today is the beachfront at first light.

We have had so many holidays here over the years that it feels like home. It was our annual holiday destination as children in the 70s and 80s and then as young adults and with our young children in the 90s. During the next 10 years we ventured to overseas destinations, enjoying Mauritius the most. It has been wonderful going back again after so long.

In the lift today a couple told us that they have been coming to Umhlanga for 23 years now and never missed a year. It sounded so romantic coming from the pair who must be in their late 70s! They have enjoyed their retirement years for sure.

I quickly downloaded my photos when we got back from the beach and choose some special ones to put on my phone so that I could upload to Blip and Flickr during our drive back home. Sadly we are heading home today. Internet signal along the route is intermittent so I decided to write my Blip first before uploading the photo and words together.

I must say after a week of relaxation I do feel refreshed and ready to continue with a new term at school.

I have added a link to this farewell photo too because I LOVED it!



EDIT: A road journey story -

Along the road we came up to a traffic jam. We couldn't see the reason for the hold up but guessed an accident or a road block. As we got closer we noticed a large amount of police vehicles which is not a common sight in SA. Eventually when we could see what was going on we realised why there were so many police on the scene. A very large truck carrying glass bottles of beer had lost its load over both sides of the road. Hundreds of bottles lay strewn everywhere. The police were making sure nobody helped themselves but I am sure they would each be taking a bottle home themselves. The poor road workers would also be going home drunk today but that would be from inhaling the fumes while they cleared the glass off the road. The smell came right through the car!