Cape Town the Beautiful

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I am sitting in Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg after spending a wonderful four days in Cape Town. We will likely be away from internet access for the next 10 days, so I am rushing to post this now. Chuck is in charge of the post about the Great White Shark cage diving, so you will have to wait for photos! It was an incredible experience and no, I did not pee or otherwise soil my wetsuit.
Back to Cape Town: this city is one of the most beautiful we have ever visited. The surrounding mountains provide a dramatic backdrop, and the scenic drives along the coast are breathtaking (not just because of the strong winds!) We made the most of our four days and the weather cooperated. Of course we had to do the double-decker bus tour (for those of you who don't know, Rachel LOVES double-decker bus tours!) and in addition to the shark dive, we hiked up Table Mountain to take in the views, and rented a car to explore Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. These are in an amazing, windswept, exotic landscape less than an hour away from Cape Town. We saw ostriches, Cape baboons and dassies (also known as Rock Hyraxes) which are the African elephant's closest relatives (we are not quite sure how...) The food was great, the people were friendly and we managed to stay on the right (left) side of the road. In all, it was a great way to start our trip and we would love to go back some time in the future.

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Photos

An unmarked, windowless truck transporting prisoners from the courthouse
An unexpected sight on our double-decker bus tour

We made it!
More of an accomplishment for out-of-shape Rachel than marathon-runner Chuck

View showing our ascent
We started at the road below

We took the lazy way down by cable car
Ascent took 2 hours, descent took 4 minutes

We made it!
Out-of-shape Rachel's success was more precarious than marathon-runner Chuck's

Comments

[Katherine]

Jealous!
Just a tiny bit jealous. I miss you guys already. The pictures you are taking are really great - very beautiful shots guys. Looking forward to the next post. PS. Acacia is wearing the Adidas shoes you gave her Rach! xoxo kat

[Andi]

Amazing!
Wow! Cape Town looks amazing...can't wait to see the Shark post and, of course, all the others. Safe travels!

[Christine Lacombe]

Stunning picture (s)! Hope it is all you expected it to be!

[Jen]

So dassies are the closest relative of the elephant...those must be some huge rocks they're scurrying across. Keep up the posts guys! Great hat Chuck - love it. ...jen

[mom]

love the hats