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Published: August 2nd 2011
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K - There are apparently two words which are used by South African women (not sure about the men) to cover all eventualities. "Divine" is used to describe anything from there being no queue at a store to winning the lottery whereas "hectic" covers breaking a nail to driving your car off a cliff! On this basis we have been having a pretty divine time on the Western Cape.
It is Winter here but we have had glorious sunshine nearly every day - and yesterday the temperature hit 23C / 76F! On Saturday Michelle and I plus some friends did a charity run at the beautiful Groot Constantina vineyard. Mark & Steve came along to baby and dog sit and take photos - all vital tasks of a support team - shame they missed me running past! The vineyard is gorgeous - the photos don't capture it fully but I didn't take the camera on the run so can't show the beautiful views from the top of the one mile hill we ran up as part of the race......
As a reward for all our efforts we demolished a lovely al fresco breakfast at the vineyard and then drove
to the the Old Biscuit Mill market in Cape Town. This place is foodie heaven - the best food market I have ever visited with every cuisine you could think of represented. Plus you can buy cocktails to drink while you browse the options! We spent a good couple of hours there, ate a delicious Tarte Flambee (a sort of Alsace -Lorraine pizza) and generally had a great time.
The following day Mark & I drove down the Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. These are pretty much (but not quite) the most Southern points of Africa. The coast here is stunning - its like Big Sur (California) on drugs - miles and miles of crashing waves and blue seas. On the way we stopped to watch the cute Jackass Penguins at Simon Town and it seemed rude not to try the local Fish and Chips with mushy peas whilst we were there...so we did. And very good they were too.
After climbing the hill to the Cape Point lighthouse we then drove to Olifantsbos Bay and walked along a mile of gorgeous, white beach to the SS Thomas T Tucker wreck. It
PPPP Pick Up a Penguin
Boulder Beach, Simon Town ran aground in 1942 so there is not much left of it now but the walk was very bracing and I have never seen surf like this- even in Hawaii. Everywhere we looked there were crashing waves and spray.
There are a lot of baboons around this area and we saw several from the car but fortunately none on the beach - after an unfortunate monkey attack in China some years ago I pretty much try and avoid apes and monkeys! They are also the reason we both had rabies jabs before we left the USA. It's amazing how many people ignore the warning notices however and approach these animals with cameras and even food (or their children!) . South Africa is not an over-protective country so if they have bothered to erect warning signs everywhere then its probably prudent to follow them. Or as Mark noted - get a big stick like all the African guys appeared to be carrying!
After the last couple of divine days, today has been a little more "hectic" as we knuckled down to make some camp-site reservations for the early days of our trip as it can apparently be tricky to
find spaces at this time of year. We have done very well so far though - this is probably due to Mark who is one of those annoying people for whom parking spaces miraculously appear as soon as he drives in to a full car park. This can occasionally be irritating for those of us who are not so blessed but it is great when you are in his car or part of his planning process!
Scroll down for more photos! Also, our friend Steve is a professional photographer so there are even better photos (surely not?!) at http://www.thinkingspacephotography.com/Recent-Photographs/Olifantsbos/9501964_HzpA8
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Michelle
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Hey
Hey Mark where did you find such a cute child ??