Dateline – 7.24.2010 – Cape Town, South Africa
The internet troubles persist and we soldier on, writing our blog on Word, ready to cut, paste and publish and a moment’s notice!
On to today. We rose with the intention of going to the tope of Table Mountain. However, we were thwarted by the “Tablecloth” of clouds and a surprise visit from the lawyer. Thank God all of us were dressed and the only embarrassment was the untidy state of our kitchenette. The good news from the lawyer is that the University of Cape Town is VERY interested in Uncle Bill’s papers! We are thrilled in that this is really where they should be. They are SO interested that they are hosting a luncheon for Kiki on the 3rd. Lovely but the date is playing havoc with our itinerary! We will adjust.
Since we could not go up the mountain we decided to go around it and over to Hout Bay and on down the peninsula and down to the Cape of Good Hope. We were fairly certain we would see penguins (yes, Cute and tiny African penguins). Not a ‘guin was to be seen. Little buggers!
We had a wonderful lunch at Penguin beach (again, NO penguins!) but lots of tour busses! Yipppeeeeee! Once in the park we promptly saw a troop of baboons at the side of the road looking lazily over the cliff and False Bay. It was a tiny pull out and another car tried to cram in with us. What an erratic driver. After they had their fill of baboon life they tried a 3 point turn which came amazingly close to the cliff’s edge. As we held our collective breath and awaited the tumble we felt sure was to happen, a tour bus (perhaps we had eaten lunch with them) also tried to join us on the tiny pull out. Did I mention that the pull out was on a curve? We simply waited as the tiny blue Citroen challenged the bus. Finally it all came to an end (with all vehicles still on the road) and we wended on our way.
Next up, Jesse’s eagle eye spotted some buck. Turns out he had managed to differentiate four elands from all of the rock. They were gorgeous with the Atlantic Ocean behind them. And then, ostriches at the barren Cape of Good Hope. There are few things that seem more out of place than an ostrich at the ocean.
When we came to the end of the road and were watching the waves crash about we sent Jesse scampering up the precipice to see what he could see…and what he could see was dassies, a.k.a. rock Hyrax’! Now, this is of particular interest to some of us but may be of at least passing interest to the rest of you so I shall explain. Desmion/Dussie really started with the nickname Dassie as her father noted that the originals had no tail and neither did she.
It was a gorgeous day, but it took its toll on Tante Kiki. She has been a trooper, but the long days are difficult for her. Tomorrow, Johann, the attorney, is coming to take Kiki to lunch and that will be about it for her. Jesse, I am sure, will be heading to the beach.
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