Cape Town, Day 3, Nov 11th

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Writing this on 13th, not sure when I will post it

Table Mountain is still under clouds, so that's out of question. Decided to go to Kirstenbosch Botanical garden. The world has 6 floral kingdoms, the smallest and the densest in terms of plant species is the Cape and Kirstenbosch, which is at the foot of the Table Mountain.

The dutch, when they initially settled here, uprooted most of the indigenous plants and planted their own, but the indigenous plants (called Fynbos) survived and mostly in Kirstenbosch.

Took an hour long hike in the garden, the greenery around, the flowers (its not the flower season now) and the view to Table Mountain is serene.

While coming out, saw a section of "Endangered Plants". The South African national symbol, the Protea I believe is one of them.

What we do as human beings in our normal lives impacts all around us. Standing among those endangered (and a few plans that are extinct except in that small corner of the park) was like being in a lost world. A world our future generations may not be fortunate to see. Took pictures of some quotes planted there that I found thought provoling. Hopefully, we will make the right choices for our future generations, hopefully the planet as we know will survive

Another inspiring thing was to see a 70+ grandma hiking there, she was more agile than me for sure 😊

From Kirstenbosch, went to the World of Birds, its the largest bird sanctuary in South Africa, with 3500+ bird species and its built by an individual, with no government support but with the help of friends. Its amazing what an individual can do. The sanctuary was a little scary, especially when I entered the predatory bird section where the birds weren't caged 😊

From there, it was back to Houts Bay, this time for lunch. The food is just mouth watering, 10 king sized prawns for next to nothing. Lunched for couple of hours, the waiters were dressed as Sailors. The guy who served me, Hubos, a law student from Jo'burg, told me about his intention to travel to Peru (great restaurants there 😊

Then back to the hotel, rest. Not clubbing/partying here, will do that when I go back to Jo'burg and meet Rusty

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Comments

[Ranu]

Cool
dude, you are getting better in taking photos...the one on the sea side is really good. we have finally decided to go to australia this december, so will take tips and make it to south africa next year...am envying the prawn lunches you are having.