Cape Town - Day 2

Acorn House is a marvelous place to stay. Everyone is so friendly, helpful, accommodating; and, the breakfasts are amazing and can be custom tailored to your wishes. This morning they made me my "breakfast fort" as Lisa would call it. Two toast (no butter as I wish to keep it healthy) on the bottom with two fried eggs over easy on top of them. Next we put 3 or 4 slices of bacon on top of that. Presto. Breakfast. Add grapefruit juice, a tad of yogurt with fruit, a nice pastry and we have a great start to the day.





Today we decide to keep it simple and take it easy. We walked to the waterfront. An interesting place, a bit weird for me as it is a blend or mix of commercial (shipping, fishing, etc) combined with the usual touristy stuff Including a couple of large bur tasteful malls. The wharfs along the water are not your typical straight shoreline. They jut in and meander out, and crisscross, and almost go over and under. Makes it almost a small community rather than a long strip of shoreline. Very cool in that respect.

























We did some shopping, took a 23 second (I timed it) ferry ride from one wharf to another - no charge. Save times rather than walking all around. We lunched at Paninaro's at the Alfred Mall. Under $50C for lunch for four including beers. I have a 250gr hamburger/ostrich burger with an egg on top. It was ridiculous. It was way too much. They forced me to finish it. I did.


























More shopping, a taxi ride home with a cabby that drove, and read receipts in one hand while texting in the other - for most of the way back until (I was sitting in the fron't seat) I said you are going have to pick one, driving or texting. Ridiculous!!

























(until next time baby...)


Tonight we will grab a bite across the street, pack and hit the sack. 0600 pickup. Three flights in front of us. The planes will continue to get smaller and smaller.

Hopefully I will be able to continue blogging nightly - not sure about Internet connectivity as we go deep into the African jungle...

If you turn off all the sounds in your house, read slower, and slower, and close your eyes, you will start hearing the sounds of the jungle, the monkeys, the elephants - hey if you can't, it is because you didn't following the instructions. Ie. Close your eyes... Can't keep reading with your eyes closed...

Ephesus is ready!!!

Entry for 8 June by Lisa is done. Plead go there, Lisa did a great job.

Cape Town - Day 1 continued...

Another lovely day in Cape Town. We started off with a great breakfast at our guest house and then a pick up with our driver. Had a mini van just for us which is what we wanted. A short tour around Cape Town and then headed for the Atlantic coast. We drove past the World Cup stadium but could not see it for the fog. Fortunately we saw it yesterday from Table Mountain so we could at least say we saw It.




We could occasionally see some waves breaking but otherwise did not see much water until Hout Bay. This area is a fishing area and one can get a boat out to Seal Island to see the seals.



































We passed on that and took some photos instead including one of a fellow feeding his sea lion pieces of fish from his mouth.

















// Would you believe 3 oceans meeting? I don't think so. // Ed

Our next stop was over looking Houts Bay and Geno had his first "best photo of the day".


















We proceeded up Chapman's Peak which has a bicycle event once a year drawing 35,000 cyclists. It is often closed for short to long periods for rock falls.

// Would you believe 2 oceans meeting? I don't think so. // Ed

Our next stop was Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. Along the way we took pictures of ostriches at an ostrich farm and baboons playing along the side of the road. Also saw some great sculptures but decided Bloomingdale Terrace was not ready for the life size female nudes or buffalos.


























// Would you believe 1 ocean, a baboon, and an ostrich? // Ed

The Cape Point original light house is a 15 minute walk up the hill. I opted for the short ride in the funicular. Because the lighthouse is so high up the hill it was often obscured in fog. After many ship wrecks a new light house was built lower on the mountain which can be seen for 65 miles.


























































Near there is the most southwesterly point of the African continent call Cape of Good Hope. We were sure that was where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans met but Geno was right and the Atlantic Ocean met the Atlantic Ocean at the point. The meeting with the Indian Ocean was 200 km east of there. Definitely cold and windy there, great waves and some female ostriches wild on the beach.



























As we returned to Cape Town via the False Bay route we stopped for lunch at a great restaurant by the water and actually ate on the patio. Near there were some penguins nesting so we were able to see some adult and younger chicks. These were black and white with some red but were not colored the tuxedo black and white we are used to. The penguins were originally called jack ass penguins because they make a hissing sound but had been politely renamed African penguins. So if you hear Geno acting up and we are calling him a penguin you will know why.

















The last stop of the day was for wine tasting. Most of you know I would not drink that much wine in a year so I can't give you any long descriptions about the wine. I know they each had one wine that was acceptable and some wine which they poured out before they even returned to the table. It was a lovely end to a great tour.
















































We finished the day off with dinner at Miller's Thumb where Paul again tried to educate them about rum. Apparently Captain Morgans and Southern Comfort are not the same as home and are considered blends. Paul didn't consider them fit to drink. We were all tucked in by 10:00.

// Thanks to Nancy for today's blog entry. // Ed

Cape Town - Day 1 (for Lisa and I)

Good morning...







You will have to click on the image to enlarge it to get the full effect.

Today our goal is to get to Cape of Good Hope, where I was told before we left Canada we had to go because it was where the three oceans meet. The Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans.

I was immediately skeptical. Three oceans meeting. How can you tell? Do they paint yellow lines in the water?

And really, I thought the Atlantic might meet something, but not both, not possible. And so I was still very skeptical about two oceans meeting, but three, no way. Yet I was ostrich-sized or pooh-pooh'd one might say...

Cape Town - Day 0.5

FYI... As I blogged yesterday... When I mentioned the 9 hour flight, it was actually today. Ie the blog crossed days and I kept typing it under yesterday's date. Clear as mud?

Back to our story...

After a quick ride from the airport we arrived at Acorn House. What a lovely place. And what a lovely room. Much room. A sitting room, a bedroom and a large bathroom with what Lisa has been missing. A bathtub.

Also here at the Acorn House, and more importantly, were our good friends and neighbors Paul and Nancy Doane, our safari partners. They arrived here a day earlier after some annoying flight delays in Halifax and London.












After a quick refresh of clothes etc, and because weather was ideal, sunny and warm, 18C (remember below the equator so winter), we decided to attack Table Mountain (which is practically in our back yard). We took a cable car ride up, walked around, enjoyed the view, blah blah blah, then took the cable car back down. Everyone gets a full view in the car as the floor rotates 360 during the ride, either going up or coming down. Very cool.





















































































































































































Back at the ranch, after another quick refresh, out for a steak dinner. Yummy.

With so little sleep on the overnight flight Istanbul, I was a bit run down and not feeling top-notch, I headed off to bed while the others congregated in the living room for drinks and conversation.

Note. Paul has discovered that there is no good aged rum in South Africa. They don't even know you can get aged rum. I noticed drinks are cheap. A vodka and orange is R17.5 (rands) or divided by 7 get get $2.50C. Booze is crazy cheap. So are other things like a cab ride to the restaurant, R20 or $2.86C. Crazy.