Cape of Good Hope

Friday 3 May
Today Stewart and Fiona took us on a grand tour showing us the beautiful sights around Cape Town. We set out travelling through a number of townships along the back of Table Mountain until we came to Simonstown, which is where Stewart did his naval training. Here we met up with Just Nuisance, who held the rank of Able Seaman during the Second World War. This would not be unusual other than the fact he was a great dane dog. His story is very similar to Red Dog’s in Australia and there is a statue commemorating his contribution to the war effort. We travelled on through some very spectacular scenery and ended up at Cape Point where we had lunch after having gone up the funicular (a cable car) to the top. Usually there are loads of baboons around here, but today they must have been on strike as we didn’t see any. After a very nice lunch we headed off to the Cape of Good Hope nearby for a photo opportunity. This is the most south western point of Africa. We could see heavy clouds swirling out at sea, but we managed to avoid the rain and it made for rather nice photos but it did turn rather cold. As we came back along the other side of the Cape we saw some ostriches and finally came across a congress of baboons (a mob) eating pine cones alongside the road.
Heading back home we did the Chapmans Peak, Clifton, Bantry Bay, Seapoint drive. This beautiful area is similar to the Great Ocean Road and although we took many photos, they don’t adequately reflect the spectacular scenery, which has to be seen to be really appreciated. We could see Table Mountain in the distance as we approached Cape Town with Signal Hill, where the canon is fired at 12pm every day and Lions Head and then Devils Peak next to Table Mountain. The area around Cape Town makes it perhaps one of the most scenic cities in the world .

Cape of Good Hope where over 600 ships came to grief

One of the locals we were watching out for

Able Seaman Just Nuisance

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