Today is the calm before the storm.  The weather is perfect; lots of sun and no wind.  It’s T-shirt weather, almost.  Monday’s weather forecast is iffy which will make the Monday market messy if we even get to go. Tuesday is supposed to be rainy and Wednesday a humdinger with rain and wind.  Good days for staying in and cleaning the boat.  And now, finally, the gym is open as well as the small mini-market. I prefer outdoor walking rather than the treadmill and the Monday market is our favorite for loading up on fruit and vegetables, but in bad weather it’s nice to have the choice.   We’ll just have to see.

    This past Thursday we had beautiful weather for our Deks walk.  Here’s the story.

Ru

Deks Walk # 8 to the Oasis

Our walk this past Thursday was a walk along the coast to the Oasis for coffee. We’ve been once before, back in December, but each time we take a slightly different route and see different things. Lots of wildflowers are blooming now and I collected some to identify during our coffee time.

How did we get across?

I was so busy collecting wildflowers that I didn’t think to take photos of us all scrambling across the small rocks at the left (coming from the far side) of the giant puddle.

In December everything had been dry; now there are puddles and streams.

Group photo time, but without Deena to set the timer we had to do it twice.

Milson, Mick, Dedi, Julia, Denise, me, Randal

Milson, Mick, Dedi, Julia, Denise, Pat, Randal

We were walking to where you can see trees just behind Milson’s head in the top photo and Mick’s head in the bottom photo.

This was beginning to be like an Outward Bound group challenge crossing puddles and climbing down rocks…

Looks like lots of rock climbing and I could really milk these photos, but it really was not far from top to bottom.

Then we were at the beach.

The rooms are clean but Spartan with shared toilets and showers; we all agreed we were past that kind of thing and wanted our “en suite” and wifi, etc.

We sat in the screened in porch for our coffee.

Julia and I each brought a packet of biscuits to share. (Packet of biscuits in “American” is a package of cookies.)

A mix of younger and “older” came for coffee.

Hopping around on the porch was this bird of prey and we “older” folks gave it a wide berth.

I’m not sure what type of bird it is, with the orange beak it could be a falcon of some sort.  Anyone know?  It was well enough fed to ignore a small sparrow-like bird that had gotten itself trapped on the porch unable to figure out how to fly out.

The younger folks had no fear at all and perhaps had been introduced during previous visits as they seemed to know it quite well. I think they said it had been wounded and now couldn’t fly so was a pet of the restaurant.

It did seem quite comfortable around people and definitely unafraid of cameras.

It was a bit more wary of dogs as it and Dedi eye each other.

Showing who’s boss; Dedi is on a leash or would naturally go for the bird I would think.

Danger is passed so feathers are back down.

Erin and Denise; posed.

Erin and Denise; candid

Erin had driven Denise, Julia, Randal and me to the start of the walk and had then come to retrieve us. Mick’s wife Brenda had also joined us at the Oasis for coffee and had driven Pat and Milson back to their car. Our motorbike was back at Deks.

We are very lucky to have Denise because we really like these walks and I enjoy my Turkish lessons. Erin grew up in this area so knows places to walk not listed in the small walking guide. Next Thursday we’re off to a new walk where wild flowers are blooming like crazy. Hope the weather cooperates! 

Deks is the name of their restaurant.  It used to stand for Denise Erin Keith Sue.  Keith and Sue were former partners.  Now Kib and Bobby are the other partners so it stands for Denise Erin Kib and the Skinny guy as Bobby is very trim.