Goodbye South Africa ……

Tuesday 14 May
Last evening we met up with two of Fiona’s golfing friends Leonie and Mollie and together with Hugh and Joan, we had a very enjoyable meal at Fiona and Stewart’s house.

This morning after packing our cases, we went over to Joan’s flat for our final meal together. Joan put on a delicious quiche which we ate out on their verandah

Joan and Hugh’s verandah

Then it was time to collect our bags and head out to the airport and say our goodbyes to Fiona and Stewart after an extremely enjoyable stay in Cape Town. Should Stewart ever consider returning to work he should become a tourist guide, as he knows Cape Town so well and is so interesting for a visitor to listen to.
We were able to book our flight all the way to Perth which saved us having to do so again in Johannesburg. Whilst awaiting our departure I was a little startled at how inexperienced some pilots are in South Africa when they have to identify planes such as this!!!

I just hoped our pilot would be more experienced!!

Our trip to Johannesburg was uneventful and although we had three hours between flights, we used all of that up browsing the numerous souvenir and duty free shops and the time passed very quickly. We boarded our plane for a 10 pm departure and were surprised to find it was only half full. The trip across was extremely smooth and with a tail wind, we landed in Perth 45 minutes early, but after a sleepless night. Penelope was there to meet us and we were in bed by 7 pm Perth time, trying to adjust to the time difference!

After a very late start today we had a visit from my brother Don who stayed for lunch and we spent the afternoon catching up on his news in Capel. Tomorrow we are catching a midday plane to Melbourne where it is apparently very cold and this will mark the end of this blog. We have both thoroughly enjoyed this trip and wonder when we will see our South African family and friends again.

An evening silhouette of a Cape Town icon

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Cape wine lands

Monday 12
Today we set off inland into the mountains that surround Capetown to visit some wineries. Some of these places were established in the mid 1600’s so are very old and have beautiful gardens. Along the way we stopped off at butterfly world at Klapmuts

There were many different colours and sizes and other animals too

But we went there to taste wine and we did!!

the gardens and views had to be seen to believed

We first visited Uitkyk past Kanonkop then Muriatie, where the Melck family have been since the 1600s. Then we visited Delheim, up through Helshoogte Pass to Delaire. We then had a look at Zorgvliet (where Lauren Baiocchi got married ) and had lunch at Vrede En Lust. All of these farms with the exception of Vrede en Lust are on the Stellenbosch wine route with fantastic views and some very nice wines. Fiona and I tasted and purchased quite a few

What a fantastic day!

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Mother’s Day

Sunday 12 May
As it was Mother’s Day we decided to go a little way up the coast and have a beachside breakfast to celebrate. We went to a place at Big Bay Blouberg beach where we had a delicious omelette.

Waiting for breakfast to arrive, what a life!!

As always, a great view of Table Mountain

This is the Atlantic ocean which is freezing cold, but does not stop the local swimmers!

Afterwards we did some more retail therapy and this time I purchased some items. Jill didn’t manage to find her size in that store, but later on found a top she had been chasing, at another shopping centre just near where Fiona lives. Ahh……!! Success at last!

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The Beginning ……

Thursday 9 May
Wow!! We have been having so much fun and doing so much I forgot a whole day!!! On Thursday, the day after returning from Paternoster we caught up with Jill’s friend from university days Gale, without whom from my point of view there would be no Jill and of course no children. It was Gale who talked her flat mate into coming to a party as a blind date. The party was for my good friend Gilbert and the flat mate was a pretty young brunette named Jill. The rest of that story is of course now history!!!

We met at Rhodes Memorial for morning tea

where we had the biggest portions of lemon meringue pie and carrot cake you could wish for

I had not seen Gale for 43 years !!

as you would expect the views were amazing

In the afternoon the 3 girls had some retail therapy while Stewart and I had a hard day watching Telly!!!!

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Around town 3

Saturday 11th
After touring Century City we set out for Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens, a very old well established garden with a huge variety of South African plants and flowers

there were some blooming pretty sights

with a mountain backdrop. How could you go wrong

Jill managed to make a new friend.

These gardens are huge and we only covered a small part of them. We then went and had a very nice lunch in the cafe before returning home to try and catch up with our blog.

A beautiful day.

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Around town 2

Saturday 11th
Today we had a look around the area just near where we have been staying at Fiona and Stewart’s place, where there is a rather interesting development on what was formerly swamp land. We started with a canal ride.

We travelled in a narrow canal boat past a mixture of dwellings and office buildings.

They even had a train just like Jill took to school. That was in the olden days, around the same time as the dinosaurs!

In the centre of the canals is a bird sanctuary

A red knobbed coot a common water bird

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Around town

Friday 10th
Off to see a very old winery founded in 1685 called Groot Constantia, an old Cape Dutch building that belonged to Simon van der Stel who was an early Governor of Cape Town. The building was originally built by slave labour

We did a tour through this original old homestead with its Cape Dutch furniture

it is obvious why that old furniture is still around

I wonder how Craig would go bush bashing in this

After a good look around and a small sampling of the wines we headed off over the mountains to a lovely fishing port called Hout Bay for some lunch. We sat right on the waters edge and watched the seals playing in the water whilst we ate.

The food was good and the view was great.

After lunch we meandered our way home through some of the amazing bayside suburbs

Cape town is made up of many such bays such as this.

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Paternoster

Monday
Today we set off to spend a couple of days at what turned out to be a beautiful unique fishing village about 120 kms north west of Cape Town. Jill thought it looked just like a Greek village with its white houses

there were three sisters

who had three husbands

the village had white houses

there were amazing sunsets

entertainment supplied by the locals

there were even mermaids on the rocks

these are fishermen returning from a day out on the seas

we even got to climb to the top of the lighthouse over 3milion candle power

We had a nice slow trip back, calling into many different bays on the way home. A fantastic couple of days away was had by all.

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Robben island

Sunday 5 May
Today we visited the place where political prisoners were housed during the apartheid days. We traveled the 11kms on the Sea Princess with Joan and Hugh on a nice calm sunny day, the trip taking about half an hour. When we arrived we were met by an African tour guide who took around the island showing us the quarry where the men worked and the special accommodation where Sobukwe the leader of the Pan African Congress spent his time. The thing that must have been most frustrating for the prisoners was that Cape Town looked so close but was so far away. We then had a tour through the actual prison. Our tour guide this time was an ex prisoner, Sparks, who served 7 years on the island for insurrection. We saw the dreadful conditions they lived in and we also saw the actual cell that Nelson Mandela was incarcerated in for 18 years. It is very sad that these things happened in our lifetime, but the Africans seem quite philosophical about it all now.

Our transport to Robben Island

and no-one got seasick

Nelson Mandela’s home for 18 years

Sparks our Tour Guide

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Table mountain

Saturday 4 May
We at last have Internet so now is catch up time. Today we went up Table Mountain, ,something I did 45 years ago. Fiona &Stewart took us up on a fair weather day as the weather was all over the place. We drove up to the cable car which is now a big flash one that goes around so every one gets to see the view. I had forgotten just how spectacular Table mountain is, it is only just over 1000 meters up but much more impressive than larger mountains. The sheer ruggedness and sheer walls have to be seen to be appreciated. When we got to the bottom of the cable car ready to start going up I realized I had come out with a flat camera and could take no photos!!!!! Fortunately though Fiona had her camera with her and took a lot of photos which we have copied, so we have a good record of our visit. The weather turned out to be almost perfect with a mixture of sunshine and swirling clouds. I am so glad we got to do this trip as the terrain around Table Mountain and on towards Cape of Good Hope really is a sight worth seeing <

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On our way up the mountain


sitting on the table C T behind


photos cannot do justice to this place


another one with us on top of the table

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