We all have these photos … throwback photos!

It’s described as ‘nostalgia-inducing pictures … from a different era of your life”.

Every Thursday we will throw a few photos of ‘way back when’ on our blog. Why on a Thursday? Because it’s just a day away from the weekend … and we love weekends!

You are welcome to join in or just enjoy the photos (#TB Thursday).

July 2012 – Paternoster (West Coast, South Africa)

This throwback post deserves some background. In his mid-thirties, Berto decided to take up part-time study. While he was at school, playing rugby was much more important than schoolwork. So, I was quite surprised when he said he would like to get an LLB degree.

But a few years later he achieved that – through hard work and determination he obtained his degree in July 2012. To celebrate we took a week-long holiday, booked a house in the lovely town of Paternoster and just relaxed.

Paternoster:

Paternoster, meaning “Our Father” derives its name from the prayers of ship-wrecked Portuguese sailors.

It’s one of the oldest fishing villages on the West Coast of South Africa and located 145km north of Cape Town. This is a very popular holiday destination and can get crowded during holidays and weekends. But, since we were there during the middle of winter (and during the week) it was quiet – just the way we prefer our getaways.

The view from the porch of our holiday home

During our week-long stay in Paternoster, we hardly ever saw other people, except for a few locals. We did have a few visits from animals though. Every morning when we opened the front door, there was a cat sitting on the outside table. He seemed in good health so we assumed he was just wandering around. We gave him some treats and a few days later a little cocker spaniel joined him. He was dressed in a South African rugby jersey with a number 9 on his back (perhaps he was the reserve scrum-half of the Springboks).

Our very pleasant visitors

Our evenings were mostly spent indoors as it was raining (it was winter after all). We prepared dinner, played board games and had a few drinks … the perfect way to relax.

Rummikub (the recent graduate won by a few points)

During the day we enjoyed long walks on the endless pristine sandy white beaches of Paternoster. Among other things, there are a handful of small shops, art galleries, holiday homes, a few restaurants and a hotel. In other words, Paternoster is the place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city!

Finding our way down to the beach

The beach at Paternoster

Paternoster is famous for its abundance of crayfish (lobster) and every morning we saw small fishing boats going out to sea to collect the day’s catch.

Colourful fishing boats on the beach

Fishing boat

Tietiesbaai:

On our last day we took a 15-minute drive to Tietiesbaai, located in the pristine Cape Columbine Nature Reserve. We have camped quite a few times here and normally this campsite is packed with tents and caravans, but as it was the middle of the week we only spotted one camper. We walked up a dune to get a lovely view of Tietiesbaai.

View of Tietiesbaai

Although we have visited Paternoster many times since 2012, we have particularly fond memories of this week in Paternoster.