Archive for February 2011

Nest of Tables

Monday, 28 February 2011

The last minute frenzy of visiting or revisiting the sights of Cape Town is beginning to take its toll physically. Yesterday was another full day taking in what we call the Nest of Tables — Table View, Table Bay and Table Mountain. This photo was taken at the end of the day half an hour or so after sunset. It shows downtown Cape Town with the docks in the centre, looking north-north-east across Table Bay. The black blob on the left is Signal Hill.

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Little Badger

Sunday, 27 February 2011

Believe it or not, this little fellow is the nearest closest living relative of the elephant. Dassies (pron. dussies) are like fluffy guinea pigs that you’ll find all over South Africa. Their name is the Africaans version of dasje which means little badger, the name given to them by the first Dutch settlers.

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Pick up a…

Saturday, 26 February 2011

There are a couple of these flowers growing in the garden of our guest house, but I spotted this one on our way to Boulders Beach. It is a Crane Flower or Bird of Paradise or Strelitzia Reginae to give its Sunday name. The horizontal bit acts as a perch for the sunbirds which pollinate the flowers and its scientific name commemorates George III’s missus, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

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Bo-Kaap

Friday, 25 February 2011

As we were turning the car to leave the B0-Kaap, another was coming up Wale Street. It turned right and stopped at the entrance to one of the many side streets, the passenger wound down the window, took a photo and then they were off again. That seems to be what the Bo-Kaap means to many visitors — a quick photo opportunity because of its brightly painted houses and nothing more which is sad because the area has a rich history, both in its own right and as a microcosm [...]

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Robben Island

Thursday, 24 February 2011

There are lots of things you’d like to see when visiting Cape Town, others that are a must-see, but just the odd one or two that are practically compulsory and one of those is Robben Island. I don’t intend writing in detail about the place. Enough has been said about the prison island, about the way it was used by the authorities in a futile to hold back the inevitable tide of change in the country and about the remarkable Nelson Mandela who somehow managed to retain his wisdom and [...]

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F is for Fruit

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

There is nothing like fruit for adding flavour to your five-a-day diet. It also makes for a colorful photograph like the the one on the left, taken in the indoor market in Ashton. This ABC Wednesday post is all about fotos of local fruit, though not in a conventional sense as you’ll see.

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Montagu

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Montagu is a lovely little town. Many of its buildings are a hundred years old or more and have been beautifully cared for, all whitewash, pastel colours and Victorian ironwork of the verandahs. The town was originally founded by Dutch settlers who had crossed the mountains from the west to grow fruit, but they were unable to sell their excess because of the settlements inaccessibility.

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Commercial Break

Monday, 21 February 2011

We visited the city yesterday afternoon thinking it would be quieter that the noisy chaos of Saturday. And it was, mainly because pretty much everything closes on Sunday in Cape Town. It felt like the day of rest used to be in the UK before the stores, shopping malls, pubs and restaurants decided there just weren’t enough days in the week for us to spend our money. It’s something I really like about Cape Town.

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Klein Karoo and Route 62

Monday, 21 February 2011

Plettenberg Bay was no more than a stop over — a place to have dinner and lay our heads in the very pleasant Amakaya Backpackers with its en suite room, balcony terrace and tv in the room with the sports channels to catch the highlights of United beating City 2-1. We breakfasted at The Lookout overlooking the bay and the group left fishing off the rocks. It was my first taste of the South African idea of the most important meal of the day that included steak and chips, as [...]

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