Sundowners

A sundowner is a drink enjoyed in tropical climates at the time the sun sets. The web tells me that the term originated in South Africa, and celebrates the end of what is often a long, hot, thirsty day.  In this picture, taken in Namibia, the tourists - which included us - are experiencing what some would consider a perfect sundowner, taken after two hours of jolting around in the bush.

Since we've lived in and visited several tropical countries, we've experienced various sorts of sundowner, of which my favourite is one taken....

....while sitting on a shaded veranda looking out through the palms and across a white-sand beach to a tropical lagoon.

Sundowners became so much part of our lives that we've exported the habit to wherever we have lived. So, even in the dark evenings of mid winter in the far north of Scotland, we still sit down each evening to a 'sundowner'.

The trouble with our sundowners today is that places like Scotland are plagued not only with a sunset whose time varies with the seasons of the year but also one whose time is altered by our obsession with moving the clocks each autumn and spring. So we changed one of the most important and enjoyable features of sundowners, which is drinking them while actually watching the sun go down, in favour of having a fixed time to get together for a relaxing evening drink.

Included with our version of sundowners are 'nibbles', little dishes of snacks to go with the drinks. I recall from my Mombasa days sitting on this veranda overlooking the entrance to Kilindini harbour, that the best of these nibbles were the salted, roasted cashews - which didn't come in a packet as today's do but were bought raw and then cooked to perfection by Ouma the cook.