For the Families — Day Three

The thinking

There is one thing on this coast that children talk about for the rest of their lives, and it is not an animal behind a fence.

Swimming the horses in the Atlantic, bareback, through the surf at Pearly Beach. Nobody needs to be able to ride. Anyone who has never sat on a horse goes in with two handlers beside them the whole time, and the horses have done this a thousand times. I will be in the water with them.

The rest of the day is deliberately empty.

The day, hour by hour

Morning

Pearly Beach

Forty minutes along the coast to Pearly Beach, a village of about six hundred people with eight kilometres of empty sand in front of it. Wetsuits for the smaller ones, because the Atlantic here runs at about sixteen degrees in April, and then out into the waves. Parents who would rather watch will find they do not watch for long.
Lunch

Somewhere with sand on the floor

Back to Hermanus, to a table on the harbour where the boats come in and nobody minds wet children.
Afternoon

Whatever they want

The village, which is small enough for a nine-year-old to be allowed off the lead. The cliff path, twelve kilometres of it running the length of the town above the water. A boat out to Dyer Island, where about sixty thousand Cape fur seals live on a rock. Or the pool at the house, which after a morning like that is usually what wins.
Evening

A fire, and the stars coming out

Dinner at the house. The children are asleep before the adults have finished.

Who is where

John Sparks	In the water at Pearly Beach.
The riding outfit	Two handlers for every inexperienced rider.
Russian trip guide	With whoever needs me, wherever they go.

Guests	Up to 14
Fixed appointments	One, in the morning
Accommodation	Two private villas, Hermanus — night 3 of 3

The thinking

The day, hour by hour

Pearly Beach

Somewhere with sand on the floor

Whatever they want

A fire, and the stars coming out

Who is where