Cape Town

I suppose every international tourist needs to spend some time in at least one big city.

So our time has come - a few days in Cape Town.

We did it tough, staying at the Table Bay Hotel, following Barack Obama's lead.

It's right in the heart of the waterfront:



Here's the view from our bedroom window:



That's Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain you can see.  Here's a better view:



We took a cable car up to the top of Table Mountain... great views of Cape Town from up there:



It was quite relaxing walking around the top of Table Mountain, although a little dangerous if you wanted to take some good pics:



There was a lot of poverty on display around Cape Town.  There are a number of shanty towns which look overcrowded and quite sad - Dr Google says there are 150,000 people living in these corrugated iron townships, but I'm guessing this is a wild under-estimation.

Yet they spent about R4bn (about A$400m) building this soccer stadium:




Go figure!

To help put the poverty out of my mind, Ruth and I had dinner at a place called Myoga - it was a really wonderful meal - quite special indeed.

We also took a day to visit the Cape of Good Hope:



We took time to explore the area and noticed some extraordinary bird nests on the side of the Cape's mountain:



Here's a close up of a row of nests.  Notice the delicious white icing each bird's nest maintains:



You get some nice views from the Cape of Good Hope.



Quite pretty looking back towards Cape Town:



Here's a pic of an animal we hadn't seen up till then:



Ostrich, not emu.

Then we drove up to a small town where they have Jackass Penguins:



Yep... that's their real name.  Here's a whole lot more Jackasses:



I was tempted to put up a picture of the Australian parliamentarians - we seem to have a lot of penguins in Australian politics heh!

Bird life thrives around the Cape of Good Hope.



We also visited Robben Island, and I purchased a postcard with a famous celebrity on it:



Pity she blocked out Table Mountain, otherwise we could have sold a lot of these postcards.

Robben Island has had a varied history, but the latest notoriety came from having Nelson Mandella stay there for many years.

Here's the exercise yard - Mandella had up to an hour each night out here.



And here's a pic of his cell:



The bucket was his toilet.  And his bed consisted of a mat. 

Robben Island is now a memorial to remind the world and their own citizens alike about apartheid, and the hardships political prisoners endured for many years.

A key message is the gratefulness South Africa has towards the international community for putting pressure on the government to eliminate the apartheid laws.

Here's a little Steenbok that lived on Robben Island - he was oblivious to all the politics:



We also visited Cape Town's botanical gardens - they were spectacular.  I won't bore you with the 20 flower pics I have, but here are a few:













The one above was a favourite of dinosaurs.  In fact I managed to get a pic of a dinosaur - my grandson Jack will like this one.



Before we left Cape Town, Ruth and I went along to a nightclub, Gold, where they serve you a 14 course meal, and in between a few of the courses, they play and dance to African music.  This was a particular highlight - if you ever go to Cape Town, you must put this onto your agenda.

If you turn up at 6:30pm, they teach you how to drum to the African beat.  I was so good, they wanted me to perform in the main show.

They especially liked my eye makeup:



I don't want to bore you so I'll finish on that note - but I have to tell you that we finish our African holiday with time at Sabi Sabi Reserve - a game park on the side of Kreuger National Park.

I have some fantastic photos to share with you in my next blog.

Cheers.