Following what seemed like never-ending tumultuous months, I grabbed the opportunity to get away when I was invited by my nephew to Sheffield Beach, on the North Coast of Kwazulu Natal.
The weather was on our side - blue skies and sunny days, and as we're in autumn, there was hardly any humidity.
My nephew lives in Minnesota and booked the stunning eight-bedroom Airbnb, First Light Beach House, two years in a row. (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Thank you Jason and Michael ♥
He loves his new life but still misses his country of birth.
Many say that once you have Africa in your heart, a piece of your soul will always long for it.
Sadly Arthur and I could not join the family last year, as he was still recovering from his second procedure, and some in the party had flu/COVID, the mild strain, but we were playing it safe!
This time around I invited a friend to accompany me. Thank you Josh♡
The drive along the N2 from Durban and back is busy during peak hours, with roadworks underway, and we were caught in it on our way up, but all was forgotten when we arrived at our destination.
Sheffield Beach is just under an hour's drive from Durban, a little north of Ballito, a popular coastal holiday destination on the North Coast.
The Accommodation
First Light Beach House is quite overwhelming at first; it is enormous!
The upper level has a massive open-plan kitchen, with a mile-long dining table in the centre, a scullery, two living rooms, and five beautiful sea-facing bedrooms with doors leading onto the balcony with unparalleled views of the ocean and the beach, watching the tide come in and go out.
The downstairs level could actually be used as a self-contained unit, with three sea-facing bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining area, a living room, and a corner nook with divans for kids.
These two furry friends gave us a good chuckle; sat themselves down in one of the rock pools as if it's the most natural thing to do. They must live in one of the homes on the hill, lucky fellas;)
Volcanic Rock Formations
The beach in front of our weekend home had many rock formations, and rock pools, with short sandy stretches, and we started exploring as soon as we'd unpacked.
It soon became clear that these were not just your everyday rocks found on most beaches, they looked like volcanic rock, something I'd not seen on any other beach.
I learnt these rock formations were formed millions of years ago by volcanic eruptions, possibly during the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, and are called Dolerite breccia, which is broken pieces of dolerite rock kind of 'cemented' together.
Dolerite is a type of volcanic rock that forms by molten magma cooling underground, forming weird shapes and indentations.
Some of the rock formations resemble sculptures of animals, mushrooms, seats, wherever your imagination takes you!
This rock is home to many crabs; it almost looks like a seal sunbathing on top of the rock.
Is that a sculpture below of a seal being washed by the ebb and flow of the ocean?
A weird kind of mushroom?
The perfect seat on top of the flat rock for an old gal.
A hole in the rock!
These 'lacy' patterns on the thin layer of sand on the rocks, are crabs tracks, not hardened as it looked at first.
I needed a helping hand now and then, but felt at home walking on those rocks, as we spent many holidays and weekends by the sea when I was growing up. Everyone in the family fished, except me, so I did a lot of exploring on the rocks while they stood with their rods, patiently waiting for a tug on their lines.
Nature's Bounty and Beauty
This section of the North Coast is very popular with anglers, and divers. We saw flashing lights on the rocks in the dark, well before daybreak, and realized it was fishermen with headlamps. There's plenty of crayfish, oysters, and mussels at low tide, so if you know how to harvest those, you will never go hungry here.
We saw a group of snorkelers, this part of the coast is popular for spearfishing as well. There were canoeists and fishing boats out at sea, a regular sighting, as were the fishermen.
The guys tried fishing but had no luck, only the little four-year-old in our party caught a small fish which had to be thrown back to grow into a big fish one day!
A fairly large pod of Dolphins showed up on the first two mornings after sunrise, both giving us one of the best shows on Earth.
Rock-hunting
We picked up rocks in all shapes and sizes; round, triangular, long thin 'cigarettes', 'pipes', flat disc-like rocks, and even a couple of heart-shaped rocks. I brought home my little bounty of rocks and may try my hand at rock painting.
My bounty
Bibi's awesome rock sculpture being washed by the waves.
Meal Planning
When one goes on self-catering breakaways in a large group, menu planning is vital, (thank you Gayle). Basic supplies were allocated to avoid unnecessary duplication, making the food side of the weekend a breeze.
No guessing what the first night's menu consisted of - a proper South African braai (BBQ) of course, while the gals let their hair down!
The Company
My brother and his extended family, my son and his girlfriend drove from Johannesburg to join the party, 
came, and my bestie was my room mate.
Both girls loved their new-found family, and together with Papa Chief (who threatened to sue me if I published him skinny-dipping) were the lead #500 Double Trouble puzzle builders, although we all had a teeny weeny hand in it.
As often happens with shared puzzles, pieces of the puzzle were missing. The missing pieces of that puzzle were a stark reminder of the very big piece of puzzle missing in my life!
But, it was a happy carefree weekend, filled with tons of laughter. When the girls got together, we had the best tummy workouts ever,
The Surprise Birthday Party
My brother's 60th birthday is still a month away but my nephew arranged a surprise party for him, invited two of his old school friends that he keeps in touch with, and arranged for private caterers, who served a finger meal prepared in our kitchen. It was a very special experience, we all felt so spoilt being served delicious food in our beach house, and the company was great.
I will tell you all about the food and the 60th birthday party next time.
Will however share the cherry on the cake, literally, which was a special birthday cake!
One of my brother's hobbies is woodwork and the cake resembled a log of wood, complete with a hammer and chisel, a cutting blade, and nails, all edible.
My sister-in-law Mandy's words sums up the weekend:
When you put all the heartache away and enjoy the beauty of the sea and surroundings.
Family, good friends, company, and great food.
It all came together in more ways than one.
Some of the Images were taken by my fellow weekend housemates.
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