On top of the table

Today we only had a half day tour booked but it has been a very full day. Clive collected us after breakfast and we had a city tour. Cape Town has a well maintained and clean city centre, not many other South African cities can boast of that. The buildings are all in excellent condition and it was a pleasure to drive around seeing the highlights, and the square where Mandela first addressed the people on being freed from prison. 

Our next stop was Bo Kaap, the old Cape Malay quarter. This area is well known for its colourful houses, and it attracts many photographers for this reason. We walked around the area enjoying the brightly coloured buildings and the local artists galleries - see first extra. This is the area that the slaves settled once slavery was abolished and the theory is that they painted their houses in bright colours to celebrate their freedom and expression of ideas. The Malay people were brought to the Cape as indentured labour on the vineyards. We then drove to signal hill to get the views of Table Mountain (next extra) and the sea below. 

Next stop was the famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which ranks in the top five in the world. Set against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain it is filled with indigenous plants including fynbos, and has so many varieties of proteas (the national flower of South Africa). Clive was very knowledgeable about all the plants and led us around the gardens until we reached the bottom of the trail that leads up the mountain. The youngsters had decided to hike up Table Mountain - Clive warned them it was steep, difficult and estimated it would take them about 3 hours. Shortly after they set off the rescue helicopter was hovering in the mountains and someone was airlifted off, so he wasn't joking about it being a tricky hike.

We continued exploring the gardens and then drove to the base of the lift, where we went up the mountain. It was pretty cold on top even though we had blue skies. This image is taken from the top of the mountain - when the cloud comes down and covers Table Mountain it is like a table cloth covering the table, but we were lucky today that this did not happen. No sooner had we got to the top when we saw Adam - Clive could not believe he had ascended the mountain and walked across the top to the lift station in 1 hour 27 minutes! The three of us descended by the lift while the others arrived later and then hiked down the other side so only got back to the hotel much later.

I must mention our guide Clive. He has been excellent and is quite a remarkable person. He grew up in the 'coloured township' (an informal settlement for mixed race people classified as coloured in the days of apartheid) but managed to lift himself out of that, trained as an accountant, had his own business, has run many marathons all over the world and is a very knowledgeable and interesting guide. He and Gavin immediately bonded over their love of long distance running. His views on South Africa have been so interesting, and despite our different starts to life in this country we found we have much common ground and views.

Gavin worked all afternoon as he had a meeting at 6pm, the rest of us were chatting and then it was supper time. We walked to a very good restaurant in Mouille Point for supper (Bobo's) and now it is off to bed as we have an early start tomorrow morning.