Senior Morton's World Tour

Kids are done, work is done, Grand Kids…Eh… they'll be here when we get back!

Goodbye South Africa ……

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 16th, 2013

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.

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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

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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!!!

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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.

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An evening silhouette of a Cape Town icon



Around town

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 12th, 2013

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

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

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it is obvious why that old furniture is still around

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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.

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The food was good and the view was great.

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

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



Paternoster

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 10th, 2013

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

20130509-173823.jpgthere were three sisters

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20130509-174211.jpgthe village had white houses

20130509-174351.jpgthere were amazing sunsets

20130509-174509.jpgentertainment supplied by the locals

20130509-174845.jpgthere were even mermaids on the rocks

20130509-175744.jpgthese are fishermen returning from a day out on the seas

20130509-182438.jpgwe 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.



Robben island

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 7th, 2013

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.

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Our transport to Robben Island

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and no-one got seasick

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Nelson Mandela’s home for 18 years

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Sparks our Tour Guide



Cape of Good Hope

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 5th, 2013

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 .

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Cape of Good Hope where over 600 ships came to grief

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One of the locals we were watching out for

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Able Seaman Just Nuisance



Johannesburg to Cape Town

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 2nd, 2013

Thursday 2 May
We have just borrowed Fiona’s mini card as there are problems with Wi-Fi so we’ll do a quick update.
Our last day in Johannesburg we went and saw Granny for the last time in the morning and left her in very good spirits with Jill having reminisced over old times and her showing her memory is in good condition. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, packing and organizing the car collection etc.
The next day we left Eagles Nest at 10 am and headed to the airport where we ultimately caught a plane for Cape Town. Fiona and Stewart were there to greet us after an uneventful trip.
Since our arrival there has been much laughter discussing old times with the Govans and Joan and Hugh who live very close by. We have spent a lot of time going through Granny’s albums retrieving family photos to bring home.
Today we did a tour of the Cape Town Waterfront development which was even more interesting because we had Stewart showing us around and he had spent a lot of his naval time here and had a very good knowledge of the place. We had lunch at a very old restaurant near the docks together with Joan which was very nice and tasted the local fish and chips.
We are booked to visit Robben Island on Sunday with Hugh and Joan so we hope the weather will be calm for the ferry ride.

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Jill getting attached to a local

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lunching with Stewart and Joan

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I had a South African beer for lunch

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view from Fiona’s lounge of Table Mountain.
As you can see we haven’t seen a lot of it yet