Day 51: Sunday in Karumba (22/07/12)

Today was going to be our first Sunday without going to church. Instead we watched a video service from Armadale, led by Rev Wietze Huizinga – downloaded from their website. It was a good sermon on Psalm 22, originally written for Easter but perfectly applicable today too, and we were surprised at how easy it was to follow on the laptop.

The day had started off quite chilly, with the temperature hovering around the 12-13 degrees mark. But once the sun gets out and warms things up, it counterbalanced the chill wind and the result was quite pleasant. We wandered a bit around the length and breadth of Karumba – which did not take us all that long because there was not a whole lot of l and b in the place.

When that got boring we sat down to some serious reading/blogging.

"Dikkie, do you really have to?"

The happy hour area

In the evening we decided to try our luck at the sunset again. There was a bit of high cloud, so the possibility of a more interesting sunset was there. Apart from that, the beach setting (covered with slabs of sedimentary rock which were chock-full of seashell fossils) was just so romantic and beautiful that it would have been worth going to even if a cyclone was threatening. (I am exaggerating, but you get the picture...)

So we toasted the setting sun with our wine and dips, made the necessary pictures, and lingered on until it was completely dark. There is a technique to sunset watching (covered in the Idiot’s Guide to Grey Nomadding – not to be confused with the Grey Nomads Guide for the Dementia Sufferer which just repeats the title page over and over again). Said technique is to stay until after the sun has disappeared below the horizon. It is only then that the really beautiful colours appear in the horizon, and the whole world becomes suffused with a wonderful warm glow. There is a wonderful silence about it as well (there being no surf and the tide out a kilometre or so). A slice of moon – which was there all the time but is only noticed as the light fades, and our trusty Southern Cross over our shoulders behind us. Perfect!

All of this was lost on the AAPT bus driver who I’m sure had his motor running before the last sliver of sun disappeared below the horizon. His gaggle of oldies stumbled and bumbled across the stone slabs, mortally afraid of being left alone on a dark crocodile infested beach. They aimed desperately behind them with their point-and-shoots at the retreating sun (with FLASH on!!!) and collapsed into their seats, absurdly grateful that the driver had cared to wait for them.

Couple on the beach watching the sunset.

Another Karumba sunset

Unidentified waterbird pecking fishies in the sunset

Dirk and Joke on Karumba Beach. It was dark at this stage. The slightly glassy look is due to the 20 second exposure and NOT due to too much celebratory imbibulation.