It's not necessary, I'm sure, to say that trees are vital to our ecology. When we think about trees and their worth I guess we'd all consider how they protect land from soil erosion, provide places for birds to hide from predators, and how they act as a source of food for many animals. Take a moment to read this article on the value of trees by The Department of Biodiversity & Conservation Biology of The University of the Western Cape.
Governments around the world regularly meet to discuss desertification and formulate policy and law to protect the natural environment. South Africa isn't any different, our government have put in place various pans and policies to protect our fragile environment. Some would argue that they're not doing enough, and other would argue that they're doing the best that they can with the available funding.
Take a look at this pamphlet that deals with the conservation of plant life, produced for last year's Arbour Day by our local government.
This photo was taken in our leafy suburb of Tokai on the slopes of Table Mountain.
Isn't it interesting that this deli stocks bread that has allergies? Why would they do that? I've never even heard of bread having allergies, so I guess they'd have to give it away free of charge! ;)
I make my fair share of grammatical errors, but still I find it terribly amusing when signs read differently to how they were intended to read - like this one, and this one.
The sign is located at the Tokai Plantation's tea garden - and I'm sure that they mean that the bread is free of common allergens, or in other words, that they sell allergen-free bread. :)
In my experience, surfers are always chasing perfect wind and waves. I recently discovered a website that provides wind direction, speed and temperature information as well as swell information, beach webcams, and weather forecasts. Take a look at windreport.co.za - it's not the prettiest site, but it sure does have a lot of weather-related information that surfers and other outdoor-types would find useful.
The Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is a cocktail described in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as "the alcoholic equivalent to a mugging; expensive and bad for the head.". Apparently, drinking one is like "having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon, wrapped 'round a large gold brick."
Isn't that perfectly awful?
Kerry-Anne ordered this drink at Eastwoods Lounge, near Tyger Valley Center. She reported that the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster never had the alleged brain-smashing effect on her and was fairly tasty, albeit just a little too sweet for her liking.
Most people are familiar with Fanta Orange - it is after all the second drink that the Coca-Cola company produced after the original Coca-Cola. In South Africa we get two flavours of Fanta, the traditional orange flavour and the dark red grape flavour - shown in this photo.
I learned that Coca-Cola in Australia doesn't produce Fanta Grape, so I did a little research on the subject. I was surprise to hear that worldwide Coca-Cola produces several flavours of Fanta... so I wonder why we only get two.
I took this shot of an old photo that's hung on one of the walls at Dunes Restaurant in Hout Bay.
Isn't it crazy how much Cape Town has changed over the years? This view of Cape Town (from the harbour) shows Table Mountain on the left and Lion's Head on the right. The road that you see stretching across the water, into the city, is Adderley Street - our cities main road.
Take a look at thesetwo photos that I grabbed from Google Earth - they show a modern version of the same view as the main photo. You'll notice that although Adderley Street still leads to the harbour area, it no longer allows direct access to the harbour, and the bridge that use to extend over the water has long since disappeared.
One of South Africa's most popular soft drinks is Creme Soda which, in South Africa, is a bright-green, sweet, bubbly, vanilla liquid. The earliest memory that I have of the drink is enjoying it as a Creme Soda ice-cream float at one of our local restaurant chains. Yum!
I believe Creme Soda tastes fairly different in other countries and is more often a clear, light brown, pink, red, or even blue drink. For us, drinking a glass of differently-coloured Creme Soda would be much like trying to drink a mug of red coffee or blue tea. Perfectly distasteful!
When visiting South Africa, you absolutely have to try Creme Soda.
It's green, but you'll love it. :)
All over our peninsula you'll find road-side vendors that make and sell beaded items... often animals like these. My nephew bought the pink elephant in Hout Bay for a mere R70. Given the amount of time it must have taken to make the little fella, I think he picked up a bargain!
If you're a local, or a visiting tourist, please support our roadside vendors. In a country with a high person to job ratio it's one of the few ways that these guys can make money. Thanks! :)
Slangkop lighthouse on our south coast, near Kommetjie, is South Africa's tallest cast-iron lighthouse. Built in 1919, it stands 33m high and shines a 5 million candela beam approximately 33 sea miles out to sea at a height of 41 meters above sea level.
Consider making the lighthouse a stop on your way to Misty Cliffs, Scarborough, Cape Point and Boulders Beach. Give the lighthouse (map) operators a call on +27 21 783 1717 for more information.
Imagine taking a sunset cruise on a warm and windless evening. Wouldn't it be awesome to then stay overnight chilling on the deck, watching the full moon rise?
I tried to find a company that specialises in full moon yacht charters around the Cape Town coastline, but found only those that offer day and sunset cruises. Given perfect weather, wouldn't a night time cruise under a full moon be the best?
We have family visiting from Australia and one of the first things that they commented on is how cheap our beer is in comparison to beer that they purchase back home.
Our average local bottle store sells a fairly good variety of beer that costs about R130 for a case of 24. That obviously excludes expensive beers imported from Belgium or Germany - those easily cost R350 for a case of 24!
I guess it's clear that one can't simply convert AUD, GBP, or EUR to ZAR to compare - but it would be interesting to know how much locally brewed beer costs in various countries. Leave a comment on this post, and let's see if we're as lucky as our Australian family thinks we are. :)
To easily convert your currency to ZAR, try using Google.
For example, do a search for "20 GBP in ZAR".
Don't you just hate roadworks? Don't you especially hate roadworks that result in you being parked in the hot sun for 10 minutes while oncoming traffic uses the only available lane?
The good thing about the stop/go system is that it forces us to pause in the midst of our rush to get somewhere. The bad thing about it is that 10 minutes can make all the difference when you're late for an important meeting. (Which we fortunately were not.)
A while back we signed up to attend the MP3 Experiment event in Camps Bay. The idea was that everyone attending the event was to download an MP3 audio file that they weren't allowed to listen to before the event. At precisely 15h00 everyone gathered at the specific spot in Camps Bay was to start playing the MP3 - obeying every instruction given by the "omnipotent Steve".
For over an hour we stretched, waved, walked about, played tag, made a human dart board, and engaged in "The Epic Battle"... all under instruction of the voice in our MP3 players.
A friend from the UK recently visited South Africa for the first time, and since it was the first time he'd been to an African country, and since he was here on business he decided to make use of transfers and taxis.
After reviewing the cost of transfers to the airport to various suburbs I realised that I must certainly be in the wrong profession - taxi operators must be making a killing!
What I found strange was that it costs more than double the price to get from the airport to where I live in Durbanville than it costs to get into the City... even though the distance is largely comparable. What's also interesting is that it costs the same amount of money to travel from the airport to Durbanville than what it costs to travel another 20 or 30 kilometers to Melkbos (the small seaside town a little way beyond Blouberg).
If you plan on visiting Cape Town, rather hire a small car with a GPS - you'll more than certainly save a lot of money (unless of course you intend never leaving your hotel). :)
Cape Town is one of the three major centers in South Africa. However, even though this is the case it's always been known to be a little more chilled than our northern and north-eastern counterparts. We're often referred to as "slaap stad" (sleep city), and we've been known to knock off at work a little early to cycle around the mountain, visit the beach or walk in the forests.
Lately however it seems that with the migration of hard-working Johannesburg residents to Cape Town that the city has started working longer and harder, and that we've started missing out on what our natural surroundings have to offer. With all the stress and strain our harder working regimen has brought we've started ignoring the natural rejuvenation that nature offers - and it's taking a toll on our minds and bodies.
This I'm guessing is the reason why over the past few years we've seen a huge increase in the number of day spas all over the city and suburbs... if only we had the time to make more use of them... if only we had the time to make use of our mountain, forests, and oceans!
Cape Town has a small subculture of people who love the punk and goth style of dress - and Emily the Strange provides of these folk with some of their awesome gear.
While many people find folk who wear punk- or goth-style clothes strange and even weird, for some reason I find that I more often really them. Most often I find their eccentric demeanor (which in my experience completely contradicts who they really are) strangely attractive.
Perhaps it's exactly that contrast and their different experience of life that I enjoy. Now isn't that strange?
Well, I guess I'm bias when I say that a large number of the world's prettiest woman come from Cape Town. Firstly, I live in Cape Town, and secondly, the girl in the photo is Kerry-Anne.
Since I'm not particularly widely-traveled, and since people's taste differs on beauty, it's difficult for me to justify saying that Cape Town's most-beautiful-woman quota is on the high side when compared to the rest of the world. But, from what I've experienced in the USA and Australia, I have to say that we're right up there on the top of the pile. :)
Intelligence, personality and attitude are all huge contributing factors to actual beauty - so taking all into account, how would you rate Cape Town, and if you disagree with me, what country would you say is the birth place of the world's most beautiful woman?
Most people able to identify this variety of grass know it as Bunny Tails, or Hare's-Tail Grass. It's real name is Lagurus Ovatus and besides just being pretty in it's natural form, people often dry the long stems with the fluffy ends, using these as ornaments.
Even though they may make serve as great ornaments, don't you think they look better in the wild?
In September last year I posted a photo of this Turkish bulk carrier that had ran aground off Blouberg beach. The ship ran aground in June last year and by today's photo I guess you can see that she's still there!
I'm sure you can see that progress has been made in taking her apart, but still there's an awful amount of metal that's yet to be removed. Isn't it weird how easy it's for a ship to sail across the water and how difficult it is to remove it once run aground? I'm sure if it were possible that the ship would have been towed to Table Bay harbour for dismantling. :-/
Doesn't the couple approaching the boat in the photo give you some perspective of how large the vessel is?
If I'm not mistaken, this boat is very similar to the Gubert Tide, a vessel that I was once asked to take photos of while passing by Table Bay. Perhaps it's obvious from the design of it's stern, but this type of boat is often used to carry supplies between harbours and oil rigs. I guess in some way they're the bakkies (pronounced buck-keys) of the ocean. :)
A friend of ours bought one of these babies a few months ago - and oh my, it's an amazing beast of a car. He took us for a quick drive and, to be honest, the car had more of a superbike feel than the feel of a car. The roar of the engine, the sequential gear box, the acceleration and how close you feel to the the road is quite unlike anything else I've ever driven in.
The problem of course is the matter of speeding fines - and the other (and more serious) issue of the soon-to-be-introduced Demerit Points System. Under this system, whenever a traffic offence is committed a point will be awarded to the offender. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of point you're going to do the dance of joy over. An offender's license is suspended for three months once they exceed 12 points. That's serious stuff, considering our less-than-ideal public transport system.
Every three months a point is subtracted from one's balance - reinstating the license when the number of points reach 12. The thing is, if a license is suspended three times it's automatically cancelled. Now that's serious stuff!
I'll put it out there - I just don't trust seagulls. Have you noticed how they sit, "innocently" viewing the landscape. I tell you, they're up to no good. Just take a look at this photo!
On the more serious side, did you know that seagulls can live for 20 or more years? The same seagull has most probably been attacking your seaside picnics for 20 years! No wonder there are so many of them around!
This must be the most beautiful ceiling fan that I've ever seen. The large blades remind me of a historical scene in which Cleopatra is relaxing in a boat on the Nile with servants fanning her with large leaves.
Truth be told, since the large room in which I found these is fully air-conditioned, from what I could tell these fans are more decorative than functional (although they work perfectly). Still, it's far nicer to imagine that the cool air filling the room is the result of such a pretty fan rather than a fridge in the ceiling, isn't it? :)
While having breakfast at the Table Bay Hotel and enjoying our quiet spot outside, we noticed a burst of excitement on the pier. Gazing out towards Fish Quay, we spotted a small school of dolphins playing what seemed like a game of tag.
Contrary to how it may appear, we don't actually spend that much time at the Waterfront, and while I'm not sure how common this sight is, it's certainly the first time either Kerry-Anne or I have seen dolphins in the harbour.
The small school frolicked in the water for about 10 minutes and eventually headed off to the open sea. I'm sure it was a very memorable experience for the tourists visiting the Waterfront at the time - especially one little Asian boy who kept jumping up and down like a jack-in-the-box, pointing in the dolphins' direction. :)
Would you call this a flock of birds or a small family of siblings? I haven't quite decided, but they do kinda look like a quintet of sisters. The five of them appeared to potter about the lawn in a small cluster, attacking worms 'n bugs with great enthusiasm. A second before I took this photo a loud sound startled what I presume to be the oldest sister, causing her to take flight towards shelter, with her four sisters immediately following suit.
My untrained bird-watching eye identifies these birds as being of the Cape Sparrow variety, often referred to by the Afrikaans name, Mossie (which sounds something like "maw-see"). Assuming my bird-watching eye hasn't let me down, then these are five females, as the males, you'll find, have black feathers covering most of their head.
Because of strange sounds emanating from the ship, I watched it a little longer than normal to discover what was happening aboard. I could hear banging, clanging and grinding of metal. With my telephoto lens I observed little people clambering all over her deck. I even saw sparks fly - presumably from the grinders and possibly from welding machines!
The people on board appeared to be repairing the ship and the noise was possibly a result of them grinding away rust and replacing broken bits with new sheets of metal.
I thought at first that this was an awesome workshop. From this location workmen on the ship have a perfect view of Table Mountain and close-up view of the beautiful Blouberg beaches. However, considering this a little longer led me to decide that it must be a terrible place to work! It may be great when the weather's good, but surely it's awful to be stuck aboard this "prison island" when the weather is poor and the seas are rough? Nowhere to escape, nowhere to run, not many places to hide!
Great as it may have been this day, I'm a little surprised to come to the conclusion that I think, on average, I'd still prefer my air conditioned office!
Turning left at this interchange leads to the Waterfront, and continuing straight over these traffic lights lead to the N1 highway (heading out to the northern suburbs) as well as Eastern Boulevard and the southern suburbs.
This particular interchange always use to be a difficult crossing for pedestrians - but that was before the city received a makeover in preparation for the football World Cup in 2010. The pedestrian bridge (which you're able to see a part of on the right side of the photo) as well as the well-marked pedestrian crossing make it far easier that it use to be to cross the Buitengraght double carriageway.
If you visit the Google Map for this location - you'll notice that the satellite image doesn't show the bridge. If you then switch to StreetView you'll discover that depending on where you're positioned the bridge appears and disappears (showing that the various StreetView photos were taken some time apart).
If you read this article (and click on the links to StreetView) months or years after January 2011 you may not see the difference in StreetView - Google may have sent the little StreetView buggy around to update it's records. Sorry about that! :)
We're not often invited to review the restaurants that we write about, so when we were asked to visit Sinn's in Wembley Square (map) to try out their summer specials, it was a no-brainer.
Owner and chef Thomas Sinn was on leave for the day, but left instructions for his chefs to prepare taster-size portions of 5 of the 6 dishes on his Summer Lunch Specials list, some of which I've included in the photo above. Each of these Summer Lunch Special meals costs just R50. Based on the size of the dishes and the quality of the food, it's a definite bargain!
Below we've ranked the five dishes in order of our preference. Even though we've ranked them, allow me to say that every dish was pretty impressive, and each would have been perfectly satisfying on its own.
The first on our list, and top-right in the photo, was the Zorbian Chicken - a very mild chicken curry served with basmati rice, poppadums, and sweet-and-sour aubergine. This one won first place because of the variety of tastes and the unusual (and yummy!) sweet-and-sour aubergine.
Paprika Chicken was next on our list, and was in fact a strong contender for first place. The dish consists of chicken in a rich and creamy paprika sauce, served with spaetzle. The chicken in this dish was tender, the spaetzle was a good accompaniment, and the paprika sauce was out of this world - so much so that we both highly recommend this dish.
The Oriental Seared Sirloin is, in our opinion, the next logical choice if you'd prefer not to have chicken or a cream-based sauce. The (perfectly) grilled pieces of marinated sirloin were carefully laid over a salad of lettuce, cherry tomatoes and sprouts. I'm not exactly sure what the dressing contained (it was sweet, with perhaps a hint of chilli), but what I can say is that I found myself scooping every last drop from the bowl. The dish was pretty darn good and if I were in the mood for red meat, I'd definitely have this one again.
I can't recall that I've ever had Croque Madame. For someone who enjoys toasted sandwiches, this was a real treat. The sandwich (bottom left in the photo) contains cheese and ham, and is topped with a fried egg. The dish also includes a variety of simple salads and a portion of chips. The sandwich itself was very good - I enjoyed it plenty - and the salads offered a nice range of flavours. Although Kerry-Anne enjoyed the chips, I can't say that they were the best I've ever had.
The final dish on our list was the Roast Vegetable and Tomato with Chilli Penne. This is the vegetarian option, which I guess is part of the reason it ended up in last place on our list. The pasta dish tasted nice: the vegetables were yummy, the penne was cooked perfectly, and the sauce was good. As I mentioned, we only had a small portion each, but after some thought I decided that a full portion could have become monotonous to eat (I usually have this problem with pasta dishes, though, so perhaps that's just a matter of personal taste).
After such a massive quantity of food (which I'm mildly embarrassed about finishing), it was a real treat when Dylan, our waiter, brought around a lovely apricot sorbet (bottom right) to conclude our lunch. Kerry-Anne loves sorbet, but I'm not usually partial to it. This one was pretty good, though, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
In conclusion, all the dishes were very good, and any one of them is truly a bargain at R50. All the staff seem to enjoy working at Sinn's (which creates a great atmosphere) and our waiter specifically was attentive, friendly and knowledgeable about the food and its ingredients.
In a previous post I showed you a photo of the lawn outside of the Eden on the Bay shopping mall at Big Bay. This is a photo taken inside the mall. It's quite different to the dodgy-looking Big Bay that you may recall from a few years back, don't you think?
Isn't she pretty? A few years before the stadium was built many people living in this area complained bitterly, wrote petitions and threatened legal action - all to prevent the stadium from being built. They said it would be a blight on the landscape, that it would damage the environment.
To the contrary - Cape Town Stadium turned out to be a remarkable feature sporting a large greenbelt with beautiful lakes.
I took this photo on the night of a double-header between four South African football teams. The teams and the fans are so lucky have the privilege of a world-class stadium.
