Table Mountain

A perfect day for visiting Table Mountain. Blue skies, no wind and mid 20's. We had rather a long queue - about 45 minutes to the gondola. We passed the time talking to a couple from Dubai. Conversation started with us and the wife. He was moaning about people jumping the queue (they were) but after a wifely stare and a couple of muttered words (the power a wife has) he then joined in the discussion which covered a wide range of topics related mainly to African tourism. Eventually we were hoarded into the circular gondola with a number of others. The floor did a full 360 + degrees, slightly unnerving since we were told not to hang on and we came to the open air part at the top.  Said goodbye to our fellow queuers and started off in different directions (we wanted the sun behind us for photos). How amazing we had unexpectedly arrived. We had been told the cable car was closed for maintenance,  likely to be closed due to Wellington gale force winds and  cloud (apparently the most common weather condition in Capetown at the time of year).  We wandered for ages, taking lots of photos and just enjoying the dizzy heights. We said hello to a Dassie (in my eyes a cross between a Guinea pig and a stoat, but in the eyes of scientists the closest relative to the elephant). We saw some indication that spring is on its way - flowers budding and a few coming out for us.

Back around the bays on the hop on hop off bus. Up and down a few hills where we managed to get a few photos of houses and beaches.  After some tea and chips and a wander through the local markets we joined a walking tour of Bo Kaap. Slaves originated from India and Asia. They brought with them the love of music, colour and Moslem religion. Freed slaves painted their houses colourfully (a response to living with dreary colours as slaves) and built at least 3 mosques in the area. When I asked the taxi driver on the way  in from the airport what percentage of the population were moslem he said he didn't know "but there are a lot because it is a moslem holiday today and see how light the traffic is".

We walked back down to the harbour.  It wasn't an enjoyable walk. Three lanes of traffic and not one pedestrian crossing light seemed to be working. Lots of people in high vis shirts pretending to be security guards tried to help across roads for money.  I did wonder if they had managed to jinx the lights. In contrast we then walked along the canals where owners boats are moored outside their front doors and saw our fellow table mountain queuers from Dubai.  We didn't get an invite to join them for dinner so after a quick "how was the rest of the day" we wandered around to a Belgian restaurant and ate an enormous dinner and listened to buskers outside. The highlight for Harry was his hot chocolate - 8 chocolates I kid you not - arrived to stir into his hot milk!!