A Month of Sundays: Floating Around in the Floods with Family & Friends

January, and early/mid February appear to have slipped by in a stream of frantically full weekdays, punctuated by Sunday's sanity - escaping to the river. We like to frequent the secluded section below the rapids where we share space with hippos, crocs and waterbirds - while very seldom encountering another boat or human presence...

Beginning my collection of watery Sundays in 2011 - an afternoon with our two boys, before they headed back South to university and their city lives. This one last Sunday together  in mid January marked the final end of the festive season for us! 

Making a long afternoon of it ,all the way through to traditional sundowners - the four of us caught up, reminisced, and generally talked a lot of rubbish while just enjoying being together...

After the kids left, they took the sunny weather with them, and a couple of weeks of non-stop rain and business crises seem to have obliterated much of the rest of January and forced a dramatic transition out of festive season decadence!

Now is the time for the seasonal flooding of the Chobe River, so each progressive Sunday sees a dramatic rise in the water levels. The last Sunday in January brought a welcome window of rain-free weather, so we wasted no time in escaping. Here is my dad, currently scorning the Northern Hemisphere winter, enjoying a true African sunset, and a cold Hansa beer on the river!  

Progressing to the first Sunday of February: the river now races and eddies round obstacles, and the rapids are all but gone - a rushing expanse of noisy white water marks treacherous rocks below, and whole islands have disappeared underwater.

The anvil-headed cumulus clouds at this stormy end to the rainy season are spectacular, and photogenic!

A flying weekend visitor from the UK was on board last Sunday - here our friend Matthew captures some floating sunset atmosphere on video...

I love the changeableness in my sunset photos. Purple and pink as above, and glorious gold a few minutes later, in a different direction.

Nature-loving Sundays definitely give me strength and peace to face another week - even if, lately, this state of tranquility is in serious need of topping up by the time Friday comes along!

Today, being a perfect rain-free Sunday, we will be doing more of the same... then only two more weeks before our long awaited holiday! Sending peaceful weekend greetings to all reading this...