Cape Town!

OK, this is definitely one of the hghlights (for me at least).  I've been wanting to come to this city for decades... all those Wilbur Smith and Bryce Courtney novels had me believing this would be the prettiest city in the world... and they didn't let me down.  There are 5.5M people in Cape Town but like most African cities, you can't find them... it seems like about half the size of Ottawa.  We'd heard about the terrible traffic in Cape Town and all the congestion but even with our rush hour drives into and out of the city, it was like driving into Toronto at 9pm.  On one day, I didn't feel like making a bunch of quick highway interchanges so went right downtown to get on a familiar interchange and it added 5 minutes to our drive home (instead of driving past Cape Town).

Its a very neat and clean city (again, Toronto is a dump in comparison) and we had no trouble from a crime/hassle perspective.  They do have an unusual habit of having street marshals stand by parking spaces and you pay them a few rand (25 cents) to watch your car but I suspect this is more about employing the unemployed than preventing crime.  They were always unfailingly polite whether or not we used their services and would help you back in and block traffic while you pulled out).  They did have sqeegee kids ut again, if you waved them off, they'd cheerfully go to the next car... same with the cell phone charger sales men.  (This seems to be a common theme in African traffic stops).

About the only complaint, I have is the street signs are nonsensical.  Sometimes they are missing, sometimes they are on the curb, sometimes they are in front of the street and sometimes they are behind it.  Sometims they are in English and sometimes in Afrikaans (you need to know High Street is Hooght Strasse or \church Street is Kirk Strasse).  We got good at driving around blocks in Cape Town or going around ONE... MORE... TIME... around a roundabout while we figured out what was meant by the (lack?) of signage.    Drivers are very polite and will let you in if you make your intentions known (if you are tentative, esxpect to wait).  They also will move right off on to the shoulder to let you pass and if you do the same for them, they'll blink their 4-ways for you to thank you for the trouble. Speed limit signs are exactly as they should be...  they have speed cameras all over South Africa but the speed limits are set such that (in the Toyota crap bucket at least) you are doing that speed or slightly less anyway.

Our first morning in Cape Town... there's that view again! (I never got tired of this)

Cape Town proper (on zoom)

The famous "Tablecloth".  To watch this up close and in motion, is really something.  It looks like a living breathing animal.

Shopping for Giraffes in Green Market Square

A beautiful Cape Church at Green Market Square

On the other side, a nice little cafe...

Four Nobel Peace Price winners - Albert Latuli, Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk and of course Nelson Mandela.  |The milk crate statue in the background is particularly apropos!  They call this... Nobel Square.

It took 5 takes to get them all looking at the camera.  This is shooting across the V&A (Victoria and Alfred) Waterfront towards Table Mountain.

It took one take to get this one right with the two trouble makers out of the action. :-)

Here comes the Table Cloth... its quite spooky to see in action as the clouds just seem to slide over the mountain and then disappear as they get lower. (As the cold air sinks, it warms up - by 2 degrees Celsius for every 1000') and when it warms up, it can hold more moisture so the clouds evaporate right in front of your eyes.)

The world's most beautiful city

The table mountain cable car... we didn't do it as we had planned to climb up but saved it for a day that the mountain was socked in with table cloth so never did it... my legs thanked us!

The ride up would have cost us over $150 as I recall... for less than 3 minutes so we said pass

The table cloth 

Camp's Bay (part of Cape Town on the back side of Table Mountain)

The backside of Table Mountain... not any easier to climb up here either!

A couple of Ragged Tooth sharks (about 9' long) on the prowl...  in the Two Oceans Aquarium!

I just can't stop taking pictures of Table Mountain!  It's always changing.

A Cape Buffalo (the most dangerous animal in Africa)

Silly tourists are going to have to fight to keep their cones

This little thief tried to steal Jen's ice cream cones.. he was starting to climb up her back when I  scared him off... and he wasn't very happy about it!

Signal Head

This is the shoal that sunk the Lustiana in 1903.  It is called the blohole... and we saw it shoot waves 40' in the air

The walk up to the light house - Atlantic on the right

My girls

Shawn's as high as he can get...

The Cape of Good Hope

She's come a long way from New York!  That's Antarctica over the horizon...  8500 kms from the south pole!

As far south as we could go...

From the Cape of Good Hope looking down... way down

The birds like it too!

The Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope waves

Beautiful Cape architecture... that roof is almost 1' thick thatch

Hout Bay - Still Cape Yown

Chapman's Peak Drive - Stunning

The beach in front of our condo... the water was 11 degrees... brrrr.  It was out last day in Cape Town.   <sniff>

 Sorry for the really long post but I had to do this as one post because I'm falling behind... and not finding typing with one hand and one finger easy!  Now it's on to the Garden Route.