Hanging Around Cape Town

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Geo: -33.916, 18.4222

The blue skies and good weather of yesterday was not to continue. After breakfast at our catered apartment suite at the Hyde, Nat and I elected to purchase a two-day-pass on the City-Sight-Seeing Bus to explore Cape Town. These buses are double decker and take tour routes, a red route around the city centre, and a blue route outside of Cape Town, around the mountain and back via Hout Bay, and along the coast. You can jump on and off as you please.

With todays weather looking dreary, we had to plan carefully which sights to see. The forecast for tomorrow and most of the week, was also rain. Whilst the weather was just overcast and not raining, our first stop was the Kirstenbosch Gardens. We managed to walk around and enjoy the gardens for a few hours, with little rain, a slight drizzle at times. These are beautiful gardens showcasing many types of flora and fauna, the signature flower being the impressive bird of paradise. Surrounding the gardens was a beautiful mountainscape, as you can see all around Cape Town. Small animals and birds also grazed the gardens.

Just as we re-boarded the Sight-Seeing bus, the rain hit, and hit hard. As a result, we elected to put the nearby Bird World off to tomorrow, and head to visit Cape Towns Oldest Wineries at Groot Constantia. The Groot Estate was first, for tasting and lunch, then to the Eagles Nest. Winest here were reasonable, again, without being especially memorable.

The wind on the drive back was so strong, it near blew our Double Decker bus into the waves off Hout Bay. We took the bus into the CBD, to visit the Diamond Works Jeweller, again trying to get Nat's ring fixed, with dissappointing results, and poor enthusiasm from the staff. We hiked back to the V&A Waterfront for window shopping and gelati.

Exhausted, we caught a cab back to the Apartment, grabbed some take out pizza and collapsed in bed soon thereafter.

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Photos

Nat @ Kirstenbosch Gardens
The Weather just about held off for us

Kris Statue
@ Kirstenbosch

Nat
With Bird of Paradise Flowers, the emblem flower of the gardens.

Greenhouse
Thats the Baobab Tree. Also known as the upside down tree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobab_tree

Kirstenbosch Gardens
With Grey Skies

Guinea Fowl at Kirstenbosch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmeted_Guineafowl

Arrival at Groot Constantia
The oldest winery and vineyard in South Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groot_Constantia

Groot Museum
Full of Dutch Craftsmanship, furniture and art.

Enjoying Lunch at Groot Constantia
With some tasty wines on the side!