GIANT DELIGHT IN DE HOOP
The vulture looked down through a circling gyre of wings, hundreds of metres to the turquoise sea. From her vantage point she could see the sea churning on the beach, clouds of sand and surf giving way to clear water where the waves were formed, where, too, the whales were born. From up there, she could see 40 or more silky black bodies gliding in the ocean, keeping vigil over newborn calves that bobbed alongside or sidled up to their motherʼs nurturing teat.
As she circled, the land was revealed, a band of golden beach rising to dunes. On the leeward side, dense coastal forest stopped the sandy march inland. Beyond that, fynbos stretched to a dark, brooding vlei and then climbed the easy slopes in patches of pink, brown, grey green and dusty lime. An ochre road marked the division between wild land and farm, which took on regimented forms of deep green. Then swathes of yellow canola stretched to the horizon, where faded mountains rounded off the scene, their peaks
