2007's big holiday was in South Africa - along the Garden Route from Kariega Lodge (near Kenton on Sea) to CapeTown. We've split the holiday into 4 pages so they'll load in quicker.
Rather than drive straight to Cape Town, we chose to visit the African Penguins at Boulders Beach, Simon's Town on the way.
If the penguin has a tag on its wing, it means he/she was rescued. Humans view the penguins from wooden boardwalks so the birds don't get too disturbed / stressed.
The V&A Waterfront is Victoria and Alfred after Queen Victoria and her son, Alfred.
As we were only in Cape Town for a day we decided to get a feel for the city by taking a city bus tour - very good it was too.
From there we went past the dry dock to the clock tower then past the working harbour.
After the tour we came back to this area for yummy pancakes at Harrie's Pancake House.
The bus then wandered around the city while we listened to a very interesting live commentary and admired the various styles of architecture.
There were also a few statues here and there. The next two are the BofE statue and the following one is of Bartholomew Dias.
The photo below right is Jonathon messing around with reflections!
Moving away from the city centre, we went through District 6. District 6 was one of the areas that was declared "Whites Only" by the nationalist government and all non-whites were forceably removed, including the family of our hotel doorman, Brian Mtsewu (lovely man). If only we'd had more time to talk to him but he had a job to do! The District 6 museum was the second fallback visit if the rain came (it managed to stay away while we were there).
The non-whites were moved to outer suburbs where unemployment was high (and still is) and from where it was difficult to get into the city to work. Following the abolition of apartheid, people can live where they want again but District 6 still has a lot of empty space - perhaps there are just too many painful memories?
.... and all the time in the background was Table Mountain. Occasionally the top peeped out of the cloud but not for long!
Table Mountain was our next stop. We had hoped to go up the cable car to the top but there seemed little point when we looked up at the clouds. There was even less point by the time we got there as the cable car just disappeared into the clouds. It was closed soon after we arrived due to the high winds so if we'd gone up we could have got stuck up there and had to walk down (not in our plans).
Instead we had a drink then admired the views of the city from above.
The hill in the photos immediately above is Signal Hill. The noonday cannon is still fired every day except Sunday. Apparently cruel Jo'burg people claim that it's the only time Cape Towners know what time it is hence their laid back lifestyle.
The hill on the right is Lion's Head.
Finally (and all too soon) it was time to say Goodbye to South Africa.
There are loads of reasons to go back - the beautiful countryside, the wildlife, the wild flowers, the lack of jet lag but most of all the people. Everybody we met was really friendly and helpful and genuinely kind.
We can definitely recommend this part of SA and hope to revisit in the near future.
