Kommetjie rocks - Final resting place for marine mammals

We really are having a late winter! This September must go down as being one of the worst ever - three cold fronts over the last three days and another one tonight and Thursday going to be a big one, we hear. If only we had a row of water tanks to catch all this water - it seems an awful shame to watch it going down the garden in a river on its way to the sea. I suppose we can take comfort from the rising water table which hopefully will see us through the summer months via the wellpoints.

The third duvet has gone back on the bed, together with two dogs and a cat, and two hot water bottles every night! Unheard of even through the darkest nights of July and August! And yet we still cannot complain - every day for a few hours the sun comes out as the clouds blow away ahead of the next cold front. The sea has maintained its storminess and last night it threw vast piles of kelp up onto the path along the rocks - a long time since that has happened, and at half-moon is quite a testament to the weather.

About a week ago, a foul smell of rotting flesh assailed our nostrils as we walked near the lighthouse, and we eventually spotted the carcass of a large seal wedged among the rocks. Hopefully the sea has now reclaimed it to decompose in a more dignified manner away from curious dogs and scavenging rats and crows. I often wonder if they die of natural causes or have been hit by the boats and ships that ply up and down our coastline. Of course, they are not endangered and it is probably just good luck that the rocks aren't littered with more dead seals.

About ten years ago, a whale washed up onto the shelf of rock near the lighthouse and the surrounding area was covered in a thick layer of slippery blubber for a long time after the carcass disappeared. As I recall, the whale was burned by lighting fires all around it at low tide and once the blubber caught alight it didn't take too long before just the skeleton remained. The prevailing wind direction fortunately took the smell and acrid smoke out to sea - it would have been too awful to have that drifting through the house and I'm sure we would have been put off meat for a long time.