May 13th

Had a lovely first day, leisurely  hotel breakfast,  after which we headed off for a trip up Table Mountain as it was a beautiful morning, with clear blue skies and good visibility. Unfortunately May 13^th, happens to be" Mother’s Day" in S. Africa, and so the whole of Cape Town had the same idea, and it proved impossible to park anywhere close to the cable car station. So we abandoned that idea, and decided to head to the Cape of Good Hope, via Boulders beach and the Jackass penguin colony.

Boulder beach is aptly named, and is a beautiful bay, where the penguins are quite happy to ignore everyone else and carry on in their own sweet way. Whilst the weather was lovely, neither of us were brave enough to swim with them as the water is now quite cold. Penguins everywhere, and a lovely location too. Two dassies (Rock Hyrax) resting in a tree was an unusual bonus on the way back.

 

Then it was time to head on to Cape Point, however as we drove south the skies began to darken, and upon our arrival it was apparent that rain was imminent. Lunch seemed to be a good idea whilst we waited for the weather to pass. Bry’s option of “Surf&Turf” was a very appropriate choice as by now the wind has started to get up too. By the time lunch had finished, and I am not going to mention, the mini pavlova or crème brulee’s that we needed to test J it was time to board the funicular train to the top of the point. By this time it was almost 4pm, and we were only able to purchase one-way tickets, and had to walk down on our return (much to Bill’s disgust) At the top, it was certainly very breezy, and the views whilst still stunning were not as far reaching as they could have been. Soon it was time to head back down, and fortunately Bill managed to convince the train driver that he couldn’t walk back, and so he cadged a ride back down, whilst Bry & I opted to back walked down. It was only on arriving back at the car park she showed me a photograph of a warning sign I had missed, advising caution, as there were cobras in the scrub surrounds. OK for her in her leather boots, I had flip flops on L. 

We then headed on round to the Cape of Good Hope. By this time the wind and rain had really set in. We stopped for a brief photo opportunity at the Cape, before heading pack through the National Park towards home. We were hoping to see wild Ostrich; however we were out of luck, but did see a grand Eland, and a small herd of antelope.

Arrived back in Cape Town about 7pm, so we made a quick stop-off at the waterfront and a visit to the Red shack for some retail therapy and liquid refreshment was necessary. A lovely end to a very enjoyable day, & my last as a 59 old.