Monday, 09.10.06

Today we were driving along the coast road to Cape Town. It was still cloudy but the wind had calmed and the rain had stopped too.

In Cape Town we first visited the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. It was not very difficult to find because of the generally very good signposting in town. Also one can always see Table Mountain from almost every corner of this beautiful green town what makes it pretty easy to orientate yourself.

Kirstenbosch lies at the foot of Table Mountain. Here one can see a variety of indigenous plants like proteas and erica amongst many others. We liked to walk the neatly trimmed lawn and it is even allowed to sit down in the grass for picknick!

	Very lucky shot - Red Collared Sunbird on Pincushion Protea
Milkwood tree	Strelitzia "Nelson Mandela"

We were lucky this time for the clouds gave way to the sun and so we decided to take the opportunity and go up Table Mountain. A good many times the mountain is covered in clouds by its table cloth and in some cases the cableway even stops to operate when conditions are getting rough.

Up there we went for a short walk of about an hour. Fortunately we had been well equipped  - at this altitude of almost 1.100 m a very cold wind was blowing and one could even see the breathing.
The various viewpoints offer fantastic views of Cape Town and its surroundings in every direction. At the plateau mountain fynbos is predominant - proteas and erica again.

Lion´s Head and Signal Hill          Robben Island and Table Bay                     Cape Town and Waterfront                             Northern Suburbs
Twelve Apostel mountain ridge spreading south along the Atlantic Seaboard
Mountain proteas
	No Harry Potter out-take - the old mountain hut at the top

Back again safe and sound we drove up Signal Hill from where the Noon Gun still signals noontime every day. For centuries the signal was used to set the ships´ clocks.

The last 3 nights we were staying at Hout Bay Lodge in Hout Bay. => 

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