If you don't mind paying full price then it would be quicker go up the mountain at about 17h00 as it took us about 45 minutes from joining the queue to climbing into the cable-car.

You are allowed to take your own picnic basket, including alcohol if you choose, up the mountain. It's not completely necessary however - there is a restaurant on top of the mountain. We never bought food, so I can't comment on price or quality - but we did buy hot chocolate at R9 for a mug - which in my opinion is pretty cheap.

Note: No matter how hot it is at ground level, take warm clothing along. The mountain is just over 1000 meters higher than ground level - it get's cold up there as soon as the sun sets.

Kerry-Anne bought the most amazingly tender rump steak from Pick 'n Pay - although the packaging was labeled "rump" I swear that it was in fact fillet. Either that or this specific animal must have had daily "rump massages". Well done, Pick 'n Pay, for an excellent cut of meat.

If you're unfamiliar with Cape Town it may sound awfully posh or perhaps even extravagant to go from Cape Town to an island for dinner. The truth is that while Woodbridge Island is an island off the mainland, it can't be more than 100m from the shore and is connected to the mainland by a small bridge.

The island has at least two restaurants, about 600 inhabitants (mostly living in a clustered residential estate) and a tall lighthouse. Even if you have dinner somewhere else, try and stop by the island to watch the sun set behind Table Mountain.

Tank is a bar and sushi restaurant with blue lights and a huge fish tank giving it an aquarium-like feel... I guess it makes the sushi seem super-fresh too. :)

Rick's is right near the top of our list of places to chill. In addition to the tables in the restaurant section, there are big comfy couches both upstairs and downstairs, so you can put your feet up and relax for the evening while still being sociable.

Of the four of us who went through to Beleza for breakfast, I was the only one to actually have the R12 breakfast. (For report-back purposes I resisted the urge to super-size my morning-meal.) My compatriots had variants that cost between R18 and R25, which is still very cheap for breakfast.

All in all, our breakfast at Beleza was definitely worth the trip. The food was delicious, the service was friendly and the location - just great. (Oh, and they have free wi-fi too, by the way.)

It took about 15 minutes to reach the seals, and then we spent about 10 minutes bobbing around really close to the seal colony. The 45-minute round-trip was cheaper than the ones available at the V&A Waterfront - although the trips from the Waterfront are, in my opinion, prettier and offer far more to see than trips from Hout Bay.

If you are intending to do this trip, or any boat trip for that matter, my suggestion is to try and do it as early in the morning as you can, and on as windless a day as possible... unless you love funfair rides. :)

There we paid the R32 (per person) entrance fee, found a grassy spot (as if perfectly manicured lawn was difficult to find :)) and hauled out our picnic lunch. I'll write about the gardens some other time, but just to put you in the picture, we watched ducklings waddle across the lawn, turtles duck into ponds (and come rushing back after us when we left), and baby guinea fowl trying desperately to keep up with their mom.

We caught the next City Sightseeing bus from Kirstenbosch over to Hout Bay and then along the coast past Llandudno, Camps Bay and Sea Point, before heading back to the V&A Waterfront.

In theory you could do the entire trip in two and a half hours - we took slightly longer because of our Kirstenbosch lunch meander through the gardens. All in all the trip was definitely worth the ticket price of R120. The only two cautionaries that I'd like to leave you with are:

1. Use sunscreen if you're going to ride on the top deck
2. Try and choose a day that's not too windy

If you decide to visit, prepare yourself for a very humid experience. They've tried to make the 1000-square-metre enclosure comfortable for the butterflies by keeping it warm and humid inside. Unfortunately this means that it's slightly uncomfortable for us humans.

All in all it was a fun albeit hot visit, and certainly worth an hour or so of your day if you're en route to the wine farms of Stellenbosch. :)

Day visitors are allowed to picnic and swim at the large rock pools. We wanted to hike up the mountain river to a large pool about 1.5km above the camping site - so we had to hire two camping sites for the day, which worked out more expensive, but was certainly way more fun.

We spent about 4 hours hiking, swimming and applying copious amounts of sunscreen.

If you visit the cheetah enclosure some time, be sure to go along on the guided tour. The guides explain what the cheetah conservation project is about and take visitors on a tour to see not only the cheetahs, but also the dogs, goats, jackals, and caracals.

After visiting the animals we had a picnic next to the dam at Spier. The estate allows visitors to picnic out on the lawn free of charge, but insists that you buy your food at the estate's well-stocked (though overpriced) deli. To be fair to Spier, they don't charge an entrance fee, and I suppose that the deli prices might be on a par with what you would pay at a restaurant.

Our niece and nephew (16 and 17 respectively) are visiting with us from Sydney for the next two weeks, so we'll be out and about doing the "tourist" thing and showing them the sights. One of the first stops on our agenda was Sinnful in Camps Bay - quite possibly the best ice-cream parlour in Cape Town.

I'm not sure that taking a walk down to Camps Bay beach, ice-cream in hand, was the best idea though. Our lovely smooth ice-creams quickly turned into crunchy delights as gusty wind sprinkled sand all over them, kind of like hundreds-and-thousands. Still tasted good though... :)

So, the next time that you see the weekend looming and feel like a loser because you don't know what to do, visit one of the places listed here to pick up your copy of The Next 48 Hours. Don't be a couch potato - get out there, have fun and do something.

We've met several American visitors to our country recently and learned a couple of things about words that we have in common, but which mean different things. In South African English a "pavement" is the place where pedestrians walk and a road is where vehicles drive. In American English a "pavement" is a road and a sidewalk is where pedestrians walk. Then there's that interesting American word "turnpike", which is a "toll road" in South African English.

What are some of your favourite words that have different meanings in American and British (or South African) English?

Venus (named after the Roman goddess) and Jupiter (after the Roman god of gods) are the second and fifth furthest planets from the sun respectively.

If I'd had 4 hours to take a drive I guess the best place from which to view this would have been the observatory at Sutherland. About 18km outside of the town one finds the location of SALT, the Southern African Large Telescope - the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. Sutherland is in a cold part of the country, practically in the middle of nowhere, far away from city lights. I've never been sure exactly where Sutherland is, so I took some time to track it down on trusty Wikimapia. Click through to the Wikimapia topographical map to get an idea of where the telescope is, and then zoom in - the guys from Google have made a pretty decent photo available for us.

And just because there's not a "no parking" sign, it doesn't mean that I can actually park in "that convenient spot". If you think I'm a little OCD in this respect (which perhaps I am) you must just watch Kerry-Anne finding a spot to park - she's even worse than I am. It's priceless. :D

The river flows down through Newlands and Rondebosch to meet up with the Black River, which then flows through Paarden Island (an industrial area on the outskirts of the city), finally ending up in Table Bay. I managed to follow the river using Wikimapia from where it joins with the Black River and then up towards its source.

In searching for information about the river I discovered a group called "Friends of the Liesbeek" - a privately run organisation involved in conservation of the river and the animals that live in it. I believe that the group raises funds and actually employs people to clean away pollution.

Thanks to Perdeberg for the wine on our tables, Adesso for the great venue and good service, and the various speakers (Jonathan, Joe, Terri Ann and Jeremy) for keeping us entertained.

I'm always interested to know how much food costs in different parts of the world, so if you have a moment, leave a comment and let us know what apricots cost where you live.

After checking their website for the closing time Kerry-Anne and I popped in this afternoon (because we had NOTHING to eat) to buy some food. Our tip for today is that you don't believe the Willowbridge website when it says that stores close at 5pm... they lie! Fruit and Veg City closed at 4pm, only 5 minutes after we arrived! We returned home with only a few items... it was such a shame, the chocolate looked tauntingly good! :D

If you were to google "Perdeberg GeekDinner" you'd discover the relationship between these two words and hence the appreciation that a bunch of geeks (I'd have to count myself as one) have for Phisantekraal and the folks at Perdeberg. It's easy: they sponsor wine for the bimonthly GeekDinner. :)

Our government's Marine and Coastal Management website has all the information that you will need to know: where you may fish, what you may catch, how much you may take home and what the permit will cost.

In general, licences currently cost between R40 and R70. In the past I've bought a licence from a local Post Office, but if you have any trouble figuring out what to do, don't hesitate to give the client call centre a call on +27 86 112 3626 - they'll be able to give you all the info you need.

Please leave a comment and put us out of our misery if you know the answer.

In case you're not familiar with "The Cape Doctor" - it's a local term for the Cape Peninsula's strong South-Easter win, which is super-effective in clearing the air of pollution... and every once in a while even heads right to the source clearing cars from the roads. :D

I'm not sure how old Sheldon is or even what kind of tortoise he is. South Africa appears to have several kinds of tortoise, like the Leopard, Tent and Angulate species. Kerry-Anne's dad told us about a large tortoise that used to roam the streets of Fishhoek. Apparently the owner had painted the tortoise's name and address on his shell so that anyone who found him could return him to his home.

Incidentally, Sheldon seems to have gone missing in our garden - he's probably burrowing out a little home for himself. Don't worry, Elizabeth doesn't even dream of catching birds, so even though she was interested in little Sheldon she wouldn't think of hurting him. Chances are that Sheldon would scare her off with that big beak and those vicious front claws anyway.

Thanks to Sam for suggesting the name "Sheldon" - we had a few other good suggestions, but this one kind of stuck.

We had the party at my aunt and uncle's house on Kloof Nek, one of the most scenic parts of Cape Town. Although the sun tends to set rather early behind Table Mountain, they do have some of the best weather and the most exquisite sunrises and sunsets in all of Cape Town. In the photo you can see the lights of the City Bowl far below and Devil's Peak rising to the right. This area really does have a unique perspective on the city.

Andrew seems to have taken up residence at this spot, appearing ever so often to warm his cold skin. It's almost the time of the year when Capetonians and visitors start basking in the sun, much like Andrew has been doing.

If you're visiting from a country with a cooler climate, like perhaps England, then be sure to use more sunscreen than you think you need. As a guideline, Kerry-Anne and I tend to use sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 35 - which is the absolute minimum that I'd suggest you should use if you have a light complexion.

The African sun really is as harsh as it's made out to be and each year we see fair-skinned tourists wandering about glowing red from sunburn. I often want to tap them on the shoulder to point out that they really should cover up. The difficult part is pointing this out without sounding like a parent speaking to a naughty child.

Believe it or not, in reality the sun's reflection on the clouds was actually brighter and more saturated than the photo is able to show. It really was a beautiful sunset.

I'm sure the arrival of cloud and rain has something to do with the arrival of two particular IT consultants from England at the beginning of the week. I complained bitterly this morning as they entered our meeting room. I think it was Simon who apologised profusely for allowing the rain to tag along in his suitcase. He's on a flight back to England as I write. ;)

This particular sign is at the entrance to one of the neighbourhood schools, so the chance is great that the culprit attends this particular school. Can the vandalism be simply ascribed to boredom? Is the act perhaps intended to impress friends, or a potential girlfriend?

It's easy for adults to shake their heads in disapproving dismay at the destructiveness of "our youth", but I guess on reflection one might rather be dismayed at the destructiveness of people - after all, some vandalise road signs, others vandalise countries. Which is the greater evil?

When we visited I noticed several students lying on the lawn under the trees, and others at the coffee shop enjoying juices and tea. It seems like the perfect place to hang out and escape the books during exam time. :)