This trendy beach seems to be bustling every day of the week. I find myself wondering "What do these people do that allows them to spend their days at the beach?" Camps Bay beach is backed by a palmtree-lined street filled with upmarket restaurants, beautiful hotels and... a petrol station? Strange but true. Behind Beach Road towers the Twelve Apostles mountain range - mentioned in a previous post.

I had to drive out to Stellenbosch yesterday to fetch my driver's licence (our licences have to be renewed every 5 years - what's the rule in your country?), so I took a little detour to buy some yummy lemon butter biscuits and get a photo for you. This was taken at a deli and restaurant close to Stellenbosch (which is about 40 minutes from the centre of Cape Town). Stellenbosch is wine country, and in the background you can see just a small portion of the farmlands stretching out over the horizon.

We found this kind of amusing when we were having lunch at the Waterfront the other day. The one on the left is the salt shaker - what gives you the idea that they have a problem with the sea air making the salt damp? Click for the larger version if you can't see what's in the "salt" shaker...

I took this picture at the V&A Waterfront on Sunday afternoon. I believe ours is the only national flag in the world that features 6 colours - this, coupled with its relative youth (the new flag was first flown in 1994, the year of Nelson Mandela's inaugauration as president) means that most South Africans over the age of 30 would probably not be able to draw the flag correctly if asked. It's a wonderful symbol of our "rainbow nation" though, don't you think?

Yesterday saw 35,000 cyclists taking on the winding hills of the Cape Peninsula, in the the largest timed cycling event in the world, the Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour. Yesterday's 109km race was won by a South African, Robbie Hunter, in a fitting celebration of the event's 30th anniversary (not only because he's a South African, but also because he himself will be celebrating his 30th birthday next month!). I took this shot in Camps Bay, which is pretty close to the finish, and on the flat. The city was absolutely overflowing with people this weekend - as much as HALF of the income brought in by Cape Town's top 5 events each year comes from the cycle tour alone.

This scenic vista was taken from one of the posh apartment blocks overlooking the Clifton beaches. The Clifton beachfront is broken up into four beaches, each separated by large granite outcrops. Clifton 4th beach is the largest of the four, very trendy and our favourite beach ever. The beaches are numbered 1 through 4 with 1 being closest from this photo's perspective. Bear in mind that it's not what I would call a family beach, as the water is freezing cold and topless tanning is permitted. This photo shows off the Twelve Apostles mountain range - for reference, Table Mountain towers off to the left (not visible in this shot). If I have it right, then this link should load wikimapia's satellite images of Clifton.

These cute and furry creatures are plentiful in the Cape Town area. Yes ladies, squirrels look sweet and playful, but beware - they can be vicious. This one was blending in to the oak tree so well that I nearly missed it being there. I fortunately managed to escape its ambush through a series of carefully placed side-steps. Can you see how his dark and beady eye is following my every move? I'm normally much braver than this, really...

Last night we visited friends out in Uitzicht, which is a relatively new suburb out to the north of Cape Town. This is the view from their back garden - it's very peaceful, until the Egyptian geese start quacking. Actually, they don't quack so much as bark... There is something of a plague of Egyptian geese around Cape Town, and the possibility of culling has been mentioned once or twice. It doesn't seem like a very appealing idea, until you realise how the population has exploded in the last couple of years, and how they're chasing away other species of duck and waterfowl. To be honest, I'm just glad it's not my decision to make.

This is our rush-hour traffic into the city centre, photographed at about 08h20. If you have to get stuck in the traffic every day, you might as well have something pretty to look at, not so? Rush "hour" usually lasts from around 06h30 until 09h30, with most people having to start work at around 08h00 or 08h30. Tempers flare when minibus taxis (a ubiquitous form of public transport in South Africa) ignore traffic regulations and drive in the yellow line to get ahead of the slow-moving traffic. The yellow line is meant to be kept clear for emergency vehicles and police, and besides, people just don't LIKE other people getting ahead of them by devious means... :)

Paul took this shot yesterday, when he went to a seminar at the grand old lady of Cape Town, the Mount Nelson Hotel - affectionately known as the Nellie. She's also called the Pink Lady, and if you look at the walls behind the mirror, you'll see why...
That's Table Mountain hiding coyly behind the trees, by the way.

The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are a great place for a Sunday afternoon picnic or nature walk, but from time to time they also double as a concert venue. Last Monday and Tuesday, for instance, the concert area was host to popera stars Il Divo; tonight, Wednesday and Thursday it's the turn of the legendary Sir Cliff Richard. Seating is unreserved - and picnic-style on the lawn - so concert-goers have to start queuing really early if they want to get a good spot. It's all worth it though - on a clear night, with a full moon, the silhouette of these mountains forms an awesome backdrop to the stage.

This weekend was carnival time in Cape Town. The annual Maynardville Carnival is a fundraising initiative run by the Community Chest charity organisation. The main focus is on food, with stalls selling everything from Austrian cheese and Chinese food, to Belgian waffles and seafood. This year we were brave enough to try a piece of chickpea fudge from the Hare Krishna stall - and hey, it was pretty good!
The carnival has been an institution for as long as I can remember, and has a very particular smell - a combination of all the food being cooked - that brings memories flooding back each time I visit.

Welcome to the Cape Town daily photo blog. Each day we (Paul and Kerry-Anne) will bring you a new photograph, taken somewhere in or around our beautiful city, here in the south-west corner of South Africa. We'll share a little bit of history, a little bit of culture, perhaps some entertainment, a smidgen of sport, and a whole lot of enthusiasm for the place we call home. Come and explore with us...