If you visit Cape Town, and if the weather's right, you'll see a similar blanket of cloud covering the mountain. The weird and enchanting thing about the clouds is that they continuously descend from the mountain towards the earth but never seem to reach it. They billow over, almost like you'd imagine a witch's cauldron would. It's quite enchanting.
I don't normally walk up to strangers and ask to take their photo - which is silly I guess - but this time the friend I was with managed to convince me that they, in fact, wouldn't bite my head off.
And, well, much to my surprise, they were fairly happy to have me take the photo. :)
You need to visit here.
It's a nice place to be. I kinda envy those who work in town and are able to take a stroll though this area at lunch times.
I'm used to picnic food being packed into disposable plastic containers, and the food itself being nothing more special than what I could buy at the local Pick 'n Pay. Warwick's was quite different - the food in our picnic baskets was packed in these beautiful glass jars and was prepared and presented to be visually appealing, and was super-fresh and extra-tastey. :)
What I thought was a neat idea was that the beetroot salad on the right was layered in such a way that only when it was tipped out did the beetroot juice mix with the rest of the salad. The sliced beef was pretty much the most tender beef I'd had in a really long time, and the Parma ham with cheese and marmalade was the perfect compliment.
Even though I'm on a low-carb diet, and even though I don't normally enjoy the taste of olives, I couldn't resist the soft freshly-baked bread, and was somewhat surprised that I really enjoyed the olive tapenade!
Imagine sitting at a secluded shady table with friends, enjoying Warwick's award-winning wines while delving into a picnic basket that I can pretty much guarantee you won't regret having ordered.
If you don't really know the what "fracking" is, then before chanting along "Ban fracking, renewables now", read about the process - the benefits and negative consequences to get a better idea of the bigger picture.
A rough synopsis is that miners use water mixed with sand an a few chemicals to hydraulically force small fractures in rocks. The fractures release fuels that aren't easily mined using traditional mechanisms, but at the same time release hazardous gasses and liquids that affect the ecology. Three interesting things I learned from the Wikipedia article are:
1. Fracking can release radioactive gas! What?!
2. Fracking may be less hazardous than traditional mining. Really?!
3. Fracking may be more hazardous than what we're lead to believe. Probably.
So, as you can see from the above, I'm pretty conflicted and don't really know what to believe. For an interesting illustration of fracking dangers, take a look at www.dangersoffracking.com. It'll help to explain why fracking in an arid region like the Karoo may be a really bad idea.
The Cullinan Hotel is named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the Pretoria mine where the largest gem-quality diamond was mined back in 1905. Before it was cut, the Cullinan diamond (also known also as The Great Star of Africa) had a mass of approximately 3106.75 carat - which is more or less 621.35 grams!
The Cullinan 1 diamond, cut from the raw Cullinan diamond, now has its home in Britain's crown jewels, forming the head of the Sceptre with the Cross.
There's an interesting story about how the diamond was transported to England via registered mail - read about hit in the Wikipedia Article.
You can access this spot from where the Constantia Nek hiking trail starts - right where Rhodes Drive meets the circle before the descent to Hout Bay.