Monthly Archives: January 2014
Barbed wire sky
Their brand name is County Fair (which I often mispronounce as Country Fair), but the company's actually called Astral Poultry, and produce feed, eggs, chickens and a variety of other poultry products.
The real brown cow
Anyway, can you see how she actually looks female, while the one in my previous post looks male? I wonder if it's this obvious for all cattle.
Brown cow, brown cow
The mountains of Stellenbosch
We really do seem to have the best of both worlds here in Cape Town: We're almost surrounded by the ocean (as peninsulas tend to be), we have a great big mountain towering over our city, and we have big open winelands with beautiful blue mountain ranges. This truely is a remarkable part of Africa!
This photo was taken from the delightful Asara wine estate. The location on Google Maps has been wrong for some time now - here's a map I created to show you the way.
Truth’s old coffee machines
I found this gem at Truth Coffee Roasting, a popular coffee shop in Buitenkant Street. I'm sure it's no longer in use - they do, after all, have far more sophisticated espresso machines these days. But still, it's quite pretty - don't you think?
Not a hipster
* To be honest though, so would I, actually. ;)
How Table Mountain’s tablecloth works
What happens is that a warm south-easterly wind blows up the back of the Table Mountain range, until it reaches the summit (which is about 1000m above sea level) where it quickly cools down as it meets the cold air covering the top of the mountain. Because cool air isn't able to hold as much moisture, condensation and a thick cloud results.
The air continues to move towards Cape Town and Table Bay, and as it falls off the edge of the mountain it descends, meeting warmer air that's able to absorb the cloud's water vapour, making the cloud disappear, literally into thin air. :)
Suburb of lights
Clouds at sunset
The golden ocean picnic spot
Get fit on Lion’s Head
On good-weather days hundreds of people walk up Lion's Head - and then you get the few like the two in the lower left corner that sprint up the hill.
The average person will take an hour, or perhaps an hour and a half, to walk up Lion's Head, whereas the two in this photo probably took only twenty or thirty minutes to hit the summit.
The problem with running up the hill is that as the path narrows and the cliffs become more treacherous, it's pretty darn dangerous for the runner and for the people they're running past. I think it was last year that someone graciously stepped aside for a runner, lost their footing, and fell to their death.
Use Lion's head to get fit - but don't endanger others - rather walk the narrow sections.
Hiking Lion’s Head from Signal Hill
We only arrived at about 19h00, a little later than we'd hoped. By that time our friends had already walked about 70% of the way up to the top, and we'd driven about a kilometer past the start of the hike to find a spot to park. We knew that we wouldn't make it to the top by sunset, so we decided to take a different route, around the right side of Lion's Head - starting from Signal Hill.
The route we took was quite a long, comfortable, footpath that winds around the top of Sea Point and Bantry Bay, finally taking a steep switchback route to meet up with the main path to reach the summit. This photo was taken on the switchback, just before reaching the main path.
I'll post a few more pics in the next day or two. It really was a pretty pretty sunset from above.
White roses, blue skies, pretty photos
In a lot of ways I find taking photos of flowers is similar to taking photos of people, woman in particular I guess.
Hermanus beach
Pig’s Snout Kloof – Stanford to Hermanus
Can you see the pig lying down, with the front of it's snout facing the camera? Do you see it's two eyes? If you click on the image to enlarge you'll perhaps even be able to make out the two waterfalls, one running from each nostril. Kinda gross, but there you have it. :)
Here's a map, with Google StreetView showing the location, and an extra photo, zoomed out a little.
Observatory sidewalks
I wonder if people 50 years from now will look back at our modern suburb store-fronts and make similar comment about how the character in today's designs has been eroded. Probably not hey? ;)
Neoliberalism = Colonialism, really?
Release the Kraken!
To be honest, The Kraken's a pretty clever name for a brand of rum - given that it's the name of a legendary sea monster, and that it's popular knowledge that ye olde sailors used to spend many hours drinking rum on their long ocean voyages (assumedly telling tales of that legendary sea monster).
I took this photo outside of Desparados bar, in Observatory.
Lost lover?
Two things jumped to mind when I read this - the first was "Patrick Jane", and the next "charlatan". Someone should seriously prank these people - it'd make a great YouTube clip. :)
Gritty Observatory
Being so close to Cape Town itself makes this suburb one of the oldest in the province, and the reason for it looking old and worn out.
Similarly to Woodstock, Observatory (affectionately known as Obz) escaped segregation laws of the apartheid era, developing a interesting mixed culture of its own, and when I think of Observatory, for some reason I think of artists, musicians, hippies, crystals, dream catchers, incense, and hipsters. :P
A quiet Lower Main Road in Obz
Summer rain in Cape Town
We were talking about the rain earlier in the week and commented that while it's normal to have a few days of rain here and there in Summer, the amount of wet weather we've had seems to be somewhat higher than normal.
What's interesting is that when I looked back in my archives I found that I posted an article in January 2009 with a link to a page showing that Cape Town's historical average rainfall in January is about 11mm. I'm not sure how much rain we've had in the last 9 days, but I feel fairly sure that it's a lot more than the 11mm average.
Rain at Burnside Road
Chicken karahi special!
Cash for scrap
No entry – geen toegang
Chicklets ‘n chickens
The farm itself has a small shop that sells cheese and other nibbly bits. Right next door is the farm's restaurant that serves an assortment of treats, including picnic baskets for two, filled with cheeses, meats, breads and wine. If you're in the area, it's certainly worth stopping in for lunch.
Groot Constantia’s vineyards
Groot Constantia’s avenue of trees
If you're visiting Cape Town and intend on making Kirstenboch Botanical Gardens part of your trip, then consider visiting Groot Constantia afterwards - the estate's a mere 15 minute drive from the botanical gardens. Even if you don't stop at Simon's (one of the estate's restaurants) for lunch, you can still walk around the beautiful grounds, taste the wine, and relax under the large oak trees.
Note: Simon's is a good restaurant, but they don't provide wifi and have very sketchy mobile data reception. In fact, the whole Constantia suburb area has particularly poor mobile data reception.
Sea Point Public Swimming Pool
Thousands of Capetonians, and those visiting our city, find their way to the beach after their New Year Eve celebrations. The public swimming pool in Sea Point is right next to the ocean and is a great beach substitute for those who either don't like the gritty beach sand experience or parents who prefer to keep their kids from the dangers of crowded beaches.
The pool is open from 07h00 to 19h00 in Summer and costs R20 per adult and R10 per child. Drive along Sea Point's Lower Beach Road - the swimming pool's right next to the takeaway food stalls at the end of the promenade.