Cape Town #2

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Ok let's try a second entry to keep you all updated before we head north in a big blue truck!

Today was another early start as our body clocks are apparently already ready for our camping trip of big days & early starts. Once again it was a chilly morning with a crisp wind coming off the ocean and fog smothering Table mountain but this is no deterrent for us when we're on a mission. Due to the less than ideal whether we chose to postpone conquering the mountain & jumped on our big red bus headed for the Company's Garden.

These gardens date back to the 17th century and were created by the Dutch, however over the years they have changed faces and now following English influence the gardens are lined with important institutional buildings, including the grand & beautiful parliament building. Throughout the gardens we marvelled at a wonderful array of flowers & trees, including a fragrant rose garden which were all inhabited with the playful squirrels and colourful water birds. Exploring these gardens gave us both a good chance to bring out our inner photographers and enjoy the fresh morning. From the gardens we made our way to the Fort (which they call the Castle of Good Hope) for a quick squiz at the medieval structure, fragrant herb garden & jump 10 feet high as a cannon goes off on our arrival. A wander through the city centre confirms its time to do a different route down to the beach for a long awaited lunch. During this drive we wound around another face of the mountain through the oldest wine region, Kirstenbosch, had a quick glimpse of the township of Imizamo Yethu and a windy stop at the fishing capital of Hout Bay. Finally we found a quiet tapas bar over looking over the white beach at Camps bay, where cocktails warmed us up! Camps Bay is a wealthy seaside town where the South African celebrities can apparently be spotted in the high season. It is also the home of some great surfing, in this area they do the Night Surf where surfers ar dropped in behind a break of waves the size of a 10 storey building. Therefore it was no surprise to see the wetsuit clad bodies hitting the surf in the sillouette of the thick fog coating the mountain.

We ended our time in Cape Town doing a final walk through the V&A waterfront admiring the abundance of curios & handmade souvenirs on offer before meeting with our tour leaders & fellow travellers. This turned out to consist of 2 lovely Zimbabwean guides and 2 Canadian girls. So the next 3 weeks will be like a private tour!!

Tomorrow we head to Stellenbosch for a day long winery tour & the beginning of a pretty intense camping trip full of outdoor activities & wildlife spotting! I'll try and update as often as possible but there will be a few days of silence!

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Photos

Waterlily
All photos taken at the Company's Garden

6 Flags
The six flags of the residents of South Africa's history.
Dutch, England, Dutch, England, Orange Free State & finally the new Democratic Republic Flag

Camps Bay
Low Fog means a day at the beach, not on top of a mountain.

St Georges Cathedral
This cathedral is the mother church of the diocese and is the oldest cathedral in southern Africa

Empty Land
Areas where houses were bulldozed are kept vacant as a reminder of the areas history.

District 6
Colourful houses bring life back into the torn down district