Cape Town - Day Twenty-one

Slept in ’til 7:30 this morning after 9 days of 5:30 wake-ups and started the day in a very groggy fashion.Today the weather is once again clear with brilliant blue skies so drove over Chapman’s Peak to Noordhoek where we had a lunch reservation at The Food Barn. Amazing drive and views as anyone who has driven it can attest. Many racing team bikers to be seen on the ascent and descent as Sunday is the Cape Argus bike race, and these guys are clearly practicing. Some with team cars drafting for them and some in packs doing a fairly intense climb and descent. The Argus is, apparently, one of the top half dozen sporting events in the SA annual sporting calendar. Like the NY Marathon, it has a large number of entrants, about 35,000 and everyone gets a finish time, not just the elite racers at the front. There are teams from around the world here, with team cars, live helicopter feeds from along the course and the whole city turned out to watch. Many closed roads along the 90k course which starts at the V&A waterfront, loops around the Cape Town peninsula, climbs Chapman’s Peak from the Noordhoek side, and descends into Hout Bay and so on through Cape Town to the Start-Finish line. Going to be very exciting and we’re going to be there when the elite guys come down the mountain, cameras in hand for what, I hope, will be some pretty spectacular shots.

A gold-standard lunch at the Food Barn and then a leisurely drive to see the penguins at Boulders Bay and then on to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Point a tourist hash; too many buses and assorted humanity but we tracked back and followed the road to the Cape of Good Hope, which was much quieter, only a few cars and no buses, and no retail outlets. As it was late afternoon, there were great streams of birds flying home from a days foraging along the coast and heading for their roosts. At the same time, as this is troubled sailing waters, there were large breakers crashing and creating large sheets of spray on the boulders and rocks about 100 metres offshore on one of which was a resting seal. I spent about a 1/2 hour trying to catch a moment when a flock of birds flew by, silhouetted against the white spray. A tricky exercise as some flew by at a calm moment, some flew by too high or too low and all the perms and coms. Took literally hundreds of shots, but have not yet had time to look at them to see if any will make the cut.

Dinner at a takeout fish and chip place on the harbour, Fish on the Rocks, which we brought home to eat and which is mooted as the best fish and chips in the world. Not even going to bother linking to their site; another sad tribute to the triumph of marketing over content.