A FABULOUS DAY IN CAPE TOWN

Here we go up table mountain! Another cable car. Those seem to be popular everywhere we go! This one was heart stopping. About 25 people could fit in each cable car and while you are ascending and descending the mountain the cable car rotates 360 degrees so everyone can get the best views!! When the floor started moving we all were a little surprised! The mountain rises more than 3,500 feet above the city and it's distinctive flat top is visible to sailors that are 40 miles out at sea! The views from the summit are awe-inspiring.

Kathleen and Nicholas at the summit.


Nicholas thought stepping up on this rock would be the actual summit and wanted a picture here as well. We spent about an hour going up the mountain and admiring the view and then back down again. It was absolutely clear and we enjoyed it tremendously.

We are off to see the Penguins!!! The South African penguins have made a colony for themselves at a place called Boulder Beach. It was about an hour's drive from Table Mountain down to the point at Boulder beach. All along the way was much like the drive on Highway 1 in California. It was rocky at times and then you'd come across beautiful beaches.

This penguin looks like he is shouting. He is not. Our guide told us that the penguins sit like this with their mouths open to cool themselves off! Maybe we should try that in August in Alabama! The temperature was about 95 degrees. These little guys were very cute. They are a little over a foot in height, much smaller than the penguins in Antartica. Those can get to almost 4 feet in height.



The beach was littered with penguins. They were all busy doing something. There were a few in the shade but most of them were swimming, bathing and playing. In the pictures it may not be as clear but it crossed my mind that the penguins are staring at the humans that are staring at them! They would waddle up and give you a look like, "hey guys, look at these new people from the US". Very funny.

They waddle up on these rocks and jump off. Cute little guys in tuxedos.

The drive around the cape area is so beautiful you HAVE to stop and take it in. The beaches with the mountain range in the background were gorgeous. Kathleen and Nicholas found a bench to take it all in.

You may can tell by the shirt this lady is wearing what her job is! You give up?? She is a shark watcher. She has a post high up on the mountain overlooking the beach. She has binoculars and a 2 way radio. If she sees a shark she radios down to her partner down on the beach and they tell people to come in.

This is the beach she was watching! As you can tell she was quite a ways from the beach. I hope her equipment was cutting edge. Otherwise, these swimmers out for a beautiful Saturday swim would be SHARK BAIT!! This whole bay/beach area is called False Bay. It got it's name beacuse some of the first explorers to the area thought they had reached the tip of Africa when they got here. Years later, they found this to be not true, hence the name. The tip is where the lighthouse is erected at the Cape of Good Hope. You'll see that in a minute.

The picture does not show you how many people are swimming very well. There were hundreds. Many were WAY to far out to get in if there was a shark spotted unless they happen to be olympic swimmers! The problem is these sharks are not like the less dangerous ones we have at the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Florida, these are GREAT WHITE SHARKS and they attack at will! One of the largest killed in this bay was 22 feet long! Hard to imagine that kind of monster shark! To any that might be curious, we did not go swimming!! Although, Charles really wanted to!! The children and I were able to hold him back!!

I don't know what I thought the coastline of Africa would look like, but I never thought it would be this beautiful. As I am typing this blog, we are cruising more coastline going up to Richard's Bay, South Africa. Looking out the window, I can see mountains in the distance, a lot of beach area, some developed areas and every once in a while there will be a beautifully maintained lighthouse. Painted in red and white stripes or black and white stripes or sometimes just white. If someone dropped me out of an airplane here, I woould not have thought I was in Africa but I would not have a very good guess either. Amazing.

If you look closely, you can see our shark watcher at work! I did not want to disturb her and cause her to miss a shark!! YIKES!!

After leaving the coast area, we wanted to see where some of the impoverished, migrant workers live. We did not do this in Brazil and we regretted it. Going on this trip it is easy to find the beautiful hotels, restaurants, jewelry stores, mansions and shops. However, the tours don't take you to see the real picture of what some of these people face every day. Don't worry, our guide grew up in one of these "townships" and she knew a guy to call that actually takes people that want to see it, his own neighborhood. This was one of the best things we have done. The pictures here are of a township called Langa. It is located just a few miles from where our ship docked. Within this township there are different levels of living. I'll do my best to try to explain.

This area is for day workers/ migrant workers. Years ago these buildings were for men only and the men could only go see their wives once a year. After living like this for years, women and children were allowed. Today, these are what I'd call group housing. They are like small apartment buildings and have multiple families in them. For example, in a space of less than 400 sq. ft. there were 3 families living there, 6 adults and their 9 children among them. The only thing that seperated the bunks they slept in were tattered curtains. The children have to sleep in the common eating area on the floor on mats. They pay about $3 dollars a month to live here. They prepay for the electricity they want to use. That was different but at least they had power, a shower and a toilet that flushed. In order to have this, you have no privacy.


This little guy did not understand that my camera flashes twice! I took about 4 pictures and never could convey to him to WAIT! I guess in Alabama wait has more that one syllable so he never got it. He wanted Nicholas' Steelers bracelet but the guide told us not to give anyone anything. He said it would cause pandamonium among all the other kids. Sadly, we did not have hundreds of bracelets to offer.

This is their "kitchen". It is basically a kerosene stove and a work station that doubles as a cabinet for their pots. This area was about the size of two public restroom stalls put together.

No GE appliances to get the laundry done here!

This was a church in the township. You have to step over a couple of goats to go worship here!



Another choice of housing in the township is free. You don't pay and you live in a shack. These are all hand built with whatever material a person can find. We passed one in the car in town that was made out of car bumpers that they had found after car accidents I guess and they made a roof out of them. This area of shacks are all connecting but they are private. The guy that took us around said many people prefer to live in these shacks and have their privacy, one family to each shack than to live in the block housing in multiples with no privacy. The biggest problem with these shacks are fires. These people use kerosene stoves to cook and candles to see. If one person causes a fire a whole section burns.
The row of "rooms" are their bathrooms. They have buckets in each one. They get cleaned out twice a month.

Below is a picture of the nicer area of the township and where our guide lives. He was 22 and has never left the township. He hopes to one day. His house was much nicer than the other types of housing. We saw his mom she was nice. He was very gracious to show us around. We never felt threatned by anyone and they welcomed us in their homes like we were old friends. We were lucky to have such an experience. We saw about 7 little boys not much younger than Nicholas sharing an ice cream cone. All taking turns and not fighting about who got the most licks. Amazingly wonderful. They were all just happy to get some of it.

This is the hospital in the township. There was a sign on the side that said "surgery". It would pay to take good care of yourself if you lived here.

This gives a whole new meaning to "cooking out". These ladies are taking a rest after working hard to get their sheep heads ready to boil! Look closely and you can see the pile of sheep heads on the ground next to the pot.






This lady was grilling the sheep heads after they were boiled to tenderize them. She is taking hot "rods" and buring off the fat on the outside. The sheep still have their teeth in them. When you look closely you may can see the sheep smiling at you! They told us it was a delicacy. Since we had just eaten lunch, we were too full to try it!!

We ended our tour of the township and said goodbye to our guide, Joanne. She too grew up in a township. She now lives in the suburbs trying to give her daughter a better life. Many thanks to Joanne for making our day a one we will never forget.

Back at the harbor, a bunch of seals enjoying a nap!









Dinner in the harbor area. Very nice. We sat at the outside cafe and watched the world pass by. A relaxing dinner after a full day of touring!

Almost a full moon over our ship was our view at dinner!






One last shot of Table Mountain and Devil's Peak!



We wrote out some postcards at dinner and had to get up early and go to the mall before we left to mail them. Here are Kathleen and Nicholas making sure the ones they labored over actually got in the right box!



Here it is!! The Cape of Good Hope! This IS the tip end of Africa! What a sight. We are on the port side (left) of the ship so we took this from our room. Goodbye to Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope. On to Richard's Bay, the home of the Zulu tribe!!