trip to cape town, christmas 2015

Christmas in

Cape Town

2015

Bill Cairns

Some simple maps to put the story in context ...

The frontispiece on the previous page shows the Shosholoza Meyl passingthrough the Nuwekloof Pass. This picture won the first prize for Holiday pictureat the Kokanje Digiphoto group in January 2016.

South African railways Map of the MainPassenger Routes

Cape Town andSurroundings. The mapis from Wikimapia and Ihave added Edgemead

in red

The Official V&A map

Tuesday 15th December 2015Off we set. Or not quite immediately as the bus was only due

to leave the Toyota garage at 10h40 and the Tarbotons were only dueto pick us up at 09h50. So we had a leisurely and good breakfast ofnearly Eggs Benedict (there not being any English muffins andprecious little Hollandaise) and sat around and waited as one is apt todo in these situations.

Warwick and Michèle arrived on time and took us down to thegarage and then we had another period of nothing happening until thebus arrived at 10h35. The instructions for the bus told us to be therehalf an hour early so as to achieve maximum standing around time.The Tarbotons stood around with us for some time, but eventuallythey decided that watching paint drying would be more interesting andthey went off to find some wet paint. Goodbye and Happy Christmasto the Tarbotons; it was nice of them to provide the limo service.

The bus finally arrived and we checked in with the nice hostesslady and the nice bus driver put out suitcases in the hold. The bus wasquite full and we had good seats just behind the driver. (I say “goodseats” because that is where I like to sit to get a good view of wherewe are going. In this case the position might have increased myfrustrations.) Off we drove slowly to Bela Bela on the road that isclosed to heavy traffic which our bus definitely was. To compensatefor being on the road illegally our driver drove at 60 kph the wholeway. We were subjected to the conversation between the driver and the

hostess which did not reach verystimulating heights but which wasimpossible to ignore. She rightlygave him a hard time for throwing a

coke tin out of the window.

We stopped briefly in Bela Belato pick up two more passengers andthen proceeded southwards toPretoria. Once we hit the highway,the driver put his foot down and weraced along at 80 kph. I don't know ifhe was obeying any legal restrictions (if he was, he was the only busdriver doing so), but it was certainly rather frustrating for uspassengers. It is certainly more pleasant to be driven to Pretoria ratherthan driving oneself, but the bus is not the most comfortable and itcertainly does not hurry.

Eventually we arrived at Pretoria station and were off-loadedfrom the bus. We engaged a young chap with the name of Robert asour porter to take us off to the Gautrain. So we loaded our suitcasesonto his trolley and set off past the old station building and round thecorner to the new Gautrain station. This path is cunningly designed totake one past McDonald’s and the bus arrival was cunningly designedto bring us to Pretoria at half-past lunch time and so we stopped therefor a hamburger.

This was virtually our first experience of McDonald’s. I hadonce eaten at McDonalds in Minneapolis way back many yonks ago –probably in the 1980s. Theexperience almost exactlymatched my expectations: thepremises were clean, the servicewas fast, the food was not cheapbut not expensive, not cardboardbut not particularly tasty. We had

The Journey to the Cape

Jill and Robert at Pretoria Station

From the bus in Bela Bela

The old Pretoria Station

a long chat with Robert (who had lucked out into us buying him ahamburger too) and learned that he was a bright young man who hasjust enrolled with Unisa to study Mathematics and who wants toeventually work in IT. He is one of the many bright youngsters whomwe have met recently who have passed matric and are now strugglingto get a higher education.

Goodbye to Robert and onto the Gautrain. We put somemoney into my Gautrain card and bought a new one for Jill. I put inR600 altogether which the nice man assured me was enough for areturn trip to the airport and which was actually further than weintended to travel.

I have been impressed by the Gautrain before and continue tobe impressed. It is as good as the Singapore or Madrid Metros whichare what I can compare it to. (Well, it is also infinitely better than theLondon Underground but, in fairness, it is also 100 years younger).Before we got on we had a chat with a nice Indian lady from BuffaloCity who had been in Pretoria for a swimming championship. It washer first trip on the Gautrain and she was happy to find that Jill wasalso a novice.

We arrived at Rosebank and carried our luggage up twostaircases because we were not smart enough to have looked for a lift.

We phoned Pete who told us where tomeet him and then walked through Rosebank to the appointedmeeting place. Pete has been lying in bed with a bad gastroenteritis soit was good of him to drag himself to come and meet us.

To Pete's house and hello to Kirsten who was rather wary of usat first. Taryn came home before long and Kirsten then decided thatwe were probably harmless and became friendly and playful.

An excellent roast chicken for supper and early to bed.

Wednesday 16th December 2015Jill eventually sent Kirsten in to wake me up at 07h30. I heard a

voice saying, “Grandpa” and opened an eye to see her pointing at me.That was enough to wake me up.

The cunning plan was to walk to the restaurant in the park forbreakfast, but it was spitting with rainand we adopted Plan B which was towalk to the shops and have breakfastthere. Plan B was cancelled, presumablybecause one gets just as wet walking tothe shops as to the restaurant, and so we

Pretoria Gautrain Station with McDonalds at left Train coming in UNISA from the train

Rosebank

reverted to Plan A again. Unfortunately, Plan A was aborted after wewalked around the corner and met a couple who said that the bridgeto the restaurant was broken. Plan C was that Taryn went home tofetch the car and drove us to the restaurant.

The restaurant, the Delta Café, gave us a good breakfast. I hada Greek breakfast of bacon and scrambled egg and fried tomato – itwas made Greek because it included some fried haloumi. Back to thehouse and a quick expedition to the local Spar for lunch necessitiesand then we waited for Kirsten to have her morning sleep. I decided

that if my granddaughter could have a morningnap, I could too and also had a nice lie down.

Then we all went off to William andYolande's new house. It is a nice house – smallerthan their last multi-roomed mansion but quitebig enough for a slowly shrinking family. Thehouse needs quite a lot doing to it, but is quiteliveable as it stands.

There were lots of family there: William,his two sons and one daughter, John and Pete

and his family. So we missed Yolande (who is auditing in Zimbabwe)and Margaux. We had a fun day together with a William roast chickendone in the Weber together with the nice salad that Taryn had made.We had a bit of an early Christmas with presents all round.

Back to Pete and Taryn's house at about 14h30. Kirsten did hercute and that kept us busy until we had a boiled egg for supper andoff to bed.

Thursday 17th December 2015Everybody was up at 06h00 it being a work day for Pete and

Taryn and a bye bye day for us. They all had breakfast, Stefina arrivedand we said hello and goodbye to her, and off we all went.

Pete parked in the Sasol parking garage and pointed us on ourway to Fourno's as a good place for breakfast. He went off to do hisproductive work for the country and Jill and I abandoned our luggageand went to get something to eat.

Fourno's is a chain larnie bakery with an eatery restaurant andcoffee shop attached. We had a “light” breakfast there of bacon, egg,

Kirsten not being too sure about this lady Breakfast Family

Kirsten and her bestXmas present

tomato with fancy toast and I would not like to haveto attempt their “full” breakfast. I enjoyed the foodand the atmosphere and spent some time longinglylooking at their range of bread.

Breakfast took more than an hour with lotsof fascinating people to watch. There was a coupleof muslim women dressed very soberly in black butwith brightly coloured scarves; there was a priest(probably Catholic) in full uniform who spent histime drinking coffee, talking on his cell phone anddoing the crossword; lots of people who dropped into buy a slice of custard or a bagel; some ratherbored looking women who came and looked butbought nothing.

We went on to the Rosebank Mall where wewindow shopped and looked at Exclusive Books(buying nothing) and at Incredible Connection(buying more nothing). Eventually it was time to goback to Sasol to meet Pete who dropped us off atthe Rosebank Gautrain station. By now we hadlearned to find a lift and not lug our luggage up anddown flights of stairs. We found the right platformand waited a few minutes for a train to come. Weused our time to advantage by chatting to a youngZimbabwean who had done aeronauticalengineering at Wits and was now designing planes inCenturion.

On to the train and what seemed a very quicktrip to Park Station (Johannesburg Station). In thevery old days I had driven that route many times atrush hour and it could take an hour or more. Nowthe train did it in about 15 minutes.

Clockwise from top left: Inside Forno's, Forno's from theoutside. the compartment, Jill making a toast, the dining car,Park Station,

There were no signs to anywhere useful at ParkStation but we assumed that the signs to Metro Railwould be showing us the right direction and it turnedout that they did. We found an Enquiries and weretold to go down one level and then turn back thereand round there and back there. We did all that andfound that we had done the Great Circle route. Itturned out that we ignored the instruction to “Godown the escalator” in favour of using the lift. If wehad followed directions we would have been exactlywhere we needed to be. Either way we had found theShosholoza Lounge where we checked in and drank acup of tea.

It was about 11h45 when we arrived so we wereearly for the train which was only due to depart at15h00. However, we had a pleasant place to wait witha comfortable lounge, a TV broadcasting the news, teaand biscuits and later fruit and sandwiches and evencake. I did go for a stroll in the station outside andbought Patrick a lovely book, “Where's Zuma?” beinga local political take-off of “Where's Wally?”

Eventually the train manager came and talked tous and we boarded our train by going down yet onemore level. We had a very comfortable compartmentwith our two beds already made up. There was anelectric power outlet for us and that was a bit of arelief because we were not sure of how we wouldkeep our phones and tablets charged. Thecompartment was very similar to the first classcompartments of old except that there were only thetwo beds instead of the bunk beds that thecompartments used to have. I suspect that the wholecarriage is actually just a reconditioned compartmentof old.

Clockwise from top left: the train before leaving, paperworkin the dining car, the corridor outside our compartment,Krugersdorp Station, an old building

Going Past LaingsbergFirst Sight of the Karoo

Beaufort West Station

Laingsberg

Ostriches

Karoo Flowers

Karoo Koppie

Solar Power

The End of the Karoo

First Vineyards

A Glimpse ofMatjiesfontein

Before we even left we were chivvied off to teaand given our instructions on tea times and so on. Backto our compartment and we watched the West Rand as itwent past us. After a bit it started raining and thenstorming outside and soon the train soon ran intoproblems as the lightning knocked out the signal systemand we had to stop at every signal point and wait fortelephonic permission before carrying on. So we lost anhour on the way to Klerksdorp and only arrived therewhen we were already having dinner.

Dinner was a bit over the top with soup (whichwe passed), chicken salad, roast beef, tiramisu and icecream (which I also passed). Coffee, and finally cheeseand biscuits which I also passed in favour of some nicegrapes .

We were in bed about 21h00 and went off tosleep at about 22h30. I did not go to sleep quickly andlay for a long time listening to the train. It does not goclickety-click like trains used to go but grunts and groansinstead. It is not an unpleasant noise but certainly not assoporific as the old clickety-click.

Friday 18th December 2015I woke up feeling that the train was definitely the

way to travel. If we had been driving, I would havewoken up in a B&B somewhere with the horriblethought of a heavy day's driving ahead. As it was, I wokeup to the lovely thought that I had to do nothing untilsomeone had delivered us to Cape Town.

In we went to breakfast of bacon, eggs and mince(with an offer of porridge that we declined). While wewere sipping our fruit juice I got a phone call fromSchalk and had a nice chat with him, but I could nothelp wondering why he was calling. It was only when hewished me a Happy Birthday that I realised that todaywas the 18th of December and that I was now anotheryear older.

We stopped at Beaufort West long enough to getoff the train and have a leg stretch and admire a Whitekaree growing there. The last time we were in BeaufortWest we still had another three days driving (OK – theywere short drives each day) before we got home. Thetrain seemed to take a long time to leave Beaufort West.Firstly, I think that we stopped there longer than theadvertised 15 minutes, but even after the guard (actuallyour friend the train manager) had blown his “All aboard”whistle and we had climbed on we still sat there beforemoving very slowly a couple of kilometres out of townand then sat waiting for something to happen for abouthalf an hour. We had a good view of the KarooNational Park from where we were sitting; although wecould not see the entrance gate, we told each other thatwe knew where it was. Eventually a train came past fromthe other way and we were able to carry on to CapeTown, but all the time that we had made up overnightwas now lost again.

A shower and a shave and then I spent themorning mostly sitting and watching the Karoo slip past.We had good views of the mountains and we admiredthe flowers (yellow shrubs and yellow Acacia karoos)

Taken from the train

that gave the semi-desert a lot of colour. Oneof the joys of the train trip to the Cape isthat, through the Karoo, the railway line runsnext to the N1. As one sits in the comfort ofthe compartment, one can see the big truckshurtling along the main road with the strings of cars stuck behindthem trying to pass. One gets a curious, sadistic, satisfaction fromseeing the discomfort of others. (Schadenfreude also known asepicaricacy is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Thisword is taken from German and literally means "harm-joy". It is thefeeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail or suffermisfortune. It is also borrowed by some other languages. ) [FromWikipedia ref Schadenfreude]

We had a nice lunch: a “Fish salad”, which was a piece ofbattered fish, Chicken Cordon Bleu with mashed potatoes and veggies,strawberry cheesecake. Good grub. I should probably not have eatenthe cheese cake, but did. I had a little nap in the afternoon and missedWorchester completely, but I had seen Matjiesfontein zoom past andsaw the beginning of the change in the country from Karoo toOverberg. We admired the rich vineyards and fruit trees and imposingmountains. I checked on my GPS to see where we were and at first didnot believe it: I had not realised that the train suddenly veers off northto get around the mountains. The road, of course, takes a short cutthrough the Huguenot Tunnel to go from Paarl to Worchesterwhereas the train has to go the long way round through Wolseley.

We passed Wellington and Paarl and the train eventuallydawdled its way into Cape Town giving us good views of thecountryside as we went past. It was a good thing that we were in nohurry. We arrived at the Esplanade station and sat there for a bitbefore we finally drew into Cape Town station.

We were right at the end of the train and had to drag ourluggage all the way to the Cape Town Shosholoza lounge (well Isuppose that we could have waited for a porter to do it for us) andmade enquiries about where the pick-up point was and set off thereonly to be met by Patrick who told us that we were off to the wrongpick-up point and that he and Grace were parked in the otherdirection.

We eventually all got together, said a belated Hello to Patrickand later to Grace, and off we set. It was good to see Patrick andGrace looking good and cheerful. We stopped on the way to buy somecoke and then on to their new house in Edgemead where we met thedogs, Ernie and Lexie. Ernie (the slow one) remembered usimmediately but Lexie had to have a good bark at us beforeremembering that we were part of the pack.

Lots of talking and chatting and a nice Moroccan lamb withArabian roast vegetables. Quite early to bed and a complete collapse.Anybody would think that we had being doing the work rather thanthe train driver.

Wind Farm

A First View of The Mountain together with aless Luxurious Train

Rail, Road and River: Pass through theMountains

The Witberge

In Cape Town

Saturday 19th December 2015In the morning we went to watch Patrick play a

competition bowls match against his friend Dave in the handicapsingles at the Edgemead Bowls Club. Jill and Grace went off to aChristmas Morning Market but I stuck to my responsibilities as atrue fan and watched the whole game. It is a very smart clubwith three good greens and a nice club house. The game wasover quickly with Patrick winning 21-3, but it was closer than thescore suggests with Dave playing well against Patrick playingvery well.

Back home and there was a real invasion in the afternoonwith the arrival of Chris and Ciska Thurman with their childrenHanna and Jesse. Then came the Barnados - Claude and Grace'ssister Claire together with young Claudie and with them cameDiana, another of Grace's sisters, who had to rush off almostimmediately to catch a plane back to Joeys. We had a funafternoon which ended with Patrick reading Winnie the Pooh tothe children and Chris, Ciska and Hanna listening.

Above: Patplaying bowls;

Right: the gamewith the

EdgemeadClubhouse

behind

Left: Patrickreading "Eeyore'sBirthday"; Right:the audience Jesse, Ciska,

Hanna, Caudie withChris behind

Sunday 20th December 2015Grace and Jill went off to the airport to fetch Pete and Kirsten

(Taryn still has to work and will be down later). Patrick and I drovedirectly to Table View to Mike and Lynn Brennan's house (Lynn beingJill's niece and thus Pete and Patrick's cousin). Lynn's sister Annie wasstaying there together with her husband Martin McLeman and theirchildren Abigail and Alexis. Mike and Lynn's kids Lily and Jack werethere of course and so, once you have added in Pete and Kirsten, youhave a real Chaos of a Collection of Cousins.

We had a braai there for lunch with meat everyone hadprovided. It was a fun party all in all.

Tower UP ... Tower Down

Brennan House

Mike and Martin

Lynn and Grace Annie

Above: Lynn and KirstenBelow: Pete and Girls: Abigail, Alexis and

Kirsten

Monday 21st December 2015After the excitement and constant partying of the

last couple of days it was good to do virtually nothing.Of course, having Kirsten around means that there wasconstant activity.

Tuesday 22nd December 2015We celebrated the summer solstice (or was that

yesterday?) by having another very peaceful day.

In the morning, before breakfast, we took thedogs and went off to a lovely park in Durbanville orTygerberg or somewhere. We had a great time walkingthrough the trees and past the dam. The dogs had awonderful time and we managed to see quite a few goodbirds.

The only remaining activity of any consequencewas going off to Makro to buy Bubbly for Christmas.They were having a special on Pongracz and we stockedup with a few bottles of that together with a couple ofother bottles for comparison purposes.

Claire and Claudie came around for a swim and avisit. We had a braai for supper including someroosterkoek using a dough that I had made. In theevening Pete introduced us to a game that he said wascalled “Oh Hell!” (and so it is, although it seems that itis more politely known as “Oh Heck!) a good game thatcan be played with any number of players from 3 toperhaps 7.

Wednesday 23rd December 2015Off I went with Patrick to play bowls.

Wednesdays are a special day at Edgemead bowling club:casual dress, “tabs in”, mostly geriatric bowlers. Theyrun themselves as a sort of club within a club and raisemoney for special teas and lunches – today waspancakes with tea. I played pairs with Micky, who is OCWednesdays and another couple and we had a fun game.I played with Patrick’s new “Professional” bowls andenjoyed them, but I doubt that he will let me keep them.We dutifully had our tea and pancakes and had a goodchat with some of the members.

In the evening Patrick's friends from Orapa,Kitso and Chaks Robert, came to dinner. I played withKitso and Chaks and Patrick in that tournament inMafikeng some years ago. It was good to see them againand to chat about the old times in Orapa.

At the dam

View of the gardens

Kirsten and Guinea fowl

Patrick, Lexi andErnie

Chaks, Kitso, Grace, Patrick, Jill, Bill

Thursday 24th December 2015A day of preparation for this evening and for tomorrow. There was shopping to be done,

ham and chicken and stuffing and ... to be cooked.

The party started arriving at 17h30 or so. There was Claude and Claire and Claudie and thenRoger Griffith (Grace's uncle) and his wife Pippa. A great meal: Pippa brought a salmon mousseand then the chicken, ham, stuffing, roast potato … An excellent hot Christmas dinner. Why anyonewants a hot Christmas dinner I am not sure, but if you are going to do it, do it in style like this. Oh,then there was ice cream and meringues. [It was actually a Pavlova that Claire concocted - Jill.] Wedrank three bottles of champaign – or Methode de Champagne bubbly anyway – first Simonsig andtwo Pongracz. The Pongracz wins that competition.

We played “Oh Hell!” again after supper. A fun evening.

After we went to bed I managed to kick the stool at the foot of the bed and managed to cutmy shin. Patrick and Grace had gone off to midnight mass and so I just had to bleed.

I gave Patrick a copyof my bread book for

Christrmas

Top: the Christmas Party Jill, Claire,Claude, Roger, Grace, Patrick, Pippa.

StartersPud

Below: the Mains

St Michael and All Angels, Edgemead

Crib Scene

Friday 25th December 2015Christmas Day.

My shin was a bit sore but not sore enough tostop us walking to St Michael and All Angels, thelocal Anglican Church, for the Christmas service. Jilland I agreed that it was wonderful to attend a properAnglican service in English for a change. In fact, Ican't remember when I last had one of those!

The service was led by Anthony Gregorowskiwhom I met many years ago at one (or perhapsmore) of the synods I attended. He obviously didnot remember me.

We were home about 10h00 and had someEggs Benedict for a late breakfast (we had survivedthis far on a bowl of cereal). Patrick had invitedDoug Taylor, one of the old chaps from the bowlsclub, to lunch and we had left over chicken and hamand a new bottle of Krug sparkling wine that wasnot as good as the Pongracz either.

After lunch, which went on for some time, weplayed some Boulle on the parking lot of theMethodist Church over the road.

Claire and the Clauds came around in the

evening nd there were more Christmas presents.

We had boiled eggs for supper and watchedShrek the Halls which is a pretty good short Shrekmovie. It did not make much sense, but then youwouldn't expect it to.

Saturday 26th December 2015Boxing day.

We needed a quiet day and managed a quietmorning with French toast for breakfast and somecricket on TV (most of which was watching it rainat Kingsmead).

Pete, Taryn, Kirsten and Wendy came forlunch which was a braai using meat that Petebrought. It was another fun meal with goodcompany, but I feel that I am getting a bit over-partied.

Kirsten and Pooh

Wendy, Taryn, Kirstenand Ernie

Chef Pete

Sunday 27th December 2015Patrick went off to join Kitso for a game of bowls while Jill

and I went off to church again. This time the service was taken byAllan Marshall, a self-supporting assistant priest.

Patrick and Grace went to a wedding in the afternoon but Jilland I chilled at home watching cricket (not going well for SouthAfrica) and catching up with diaries and photographs.

Monday 28th December 2015We were up quite early so that we could go off with Patrick

who was playing a Five-a-side soccer game along with Claude andClaude's (other) brother-in-law. They went on to do their thing atCanal Walk but dropped us off first at Intaka Island.

This was our second time at Intaka Island. The last time wewere here we spent a lot of the time dodging waves of school kidswho had come here to be educated about sewage disposal and greenbelts and bird sanctuaries and so on. This time we almost had theplace to ourselves and could enjoy the birds in a bit more peace.

Intaka Island. Top: Table Mountain, Canal Walk and one of the Lakes.Above: Coots, Ibis, Yellowbilled ducks

Left: One of the nesting platforms with Ibis and Cormorants

So we spent a happy few hours wandering around looking at thenesting cormorants and ibises and all the other birds there.

Patrick and co picked us up again after their soccer whichsounded as if it had been quite fun.

About 12h30 the four of us went off to D'Aria, a local vineyardwith a restaurant, to meet Andre and Lee-Anne Kunz for lunch. Andreis an old school friend of Patrick from Lyttleton Manor days and wasdown on holiday in Cape Town. He is now a DJ on a radio station. Itwas good company and it was nice to see Andre again and nice to meetLee-Anne. Unfortunately the food and service at the restaurant did notmatch the company! We started off with an excellent “Bread Platter”which had good fresh bread with some pate. We should have stoppedthere. Grace had a paella which was inedible; Jill had a “pulled pork”hamburger which was dry and disgusting; I had a tuna steak which wasway overcooked … So it went on. There was only one waitress tryingto service about 10 tables and she was inexperienced on top ofeverything. It took about 45 minutes for her to bring me a glass ofwine.

We were late home. There was talk of going to a movie butsleep prevailed.

Tuesday 29th December 2015The cricket was not going well for South Africa.

Patrick and Gace went off to go canoeing on the ocean withPete and Taryn and we went along to be spectators. The canoeists metat Three Anchor Bay, were lectured by the guides, put their canoes intothe water, and set off up the coast and around Moulle Point towards

Lunch at D'Aria: Jill, Patrick, Grace, Andre, LeeAnne

Below; A Classic Tablecloth over the Mountain

the harbour. Jill and I wandered alongthe coast on foot and met up withWendy and Kirsten. We had a nicebreakfast (I had fried eggs and trout)while waiting for the intrepid seafarersto return.

The kayak trip seemed fun. Isuppose that they were out for a bitmore than an hour and they sawdolphins, seals and a brief glimpse of awhale. I would have loved to havedone it, but my experience with themokoro in Botswana has proved thatthere is no way that I could sit for thatlong in that position without any backsupport. We walked back to welcomethe sailors and then took them forbreakfast and Kirsten for a play at theplayground. Goodbye to Pete and hisside of the family.

The rest of us went on to the Vand A Waterfront and visited anexhibition of Wildlife Photographythere. It was good “arty-farty”photography so that , while admiringthe skills of the photographers, I feltthat they had perhaps missed the pointabout this being an exhibition ofWildlife photography. The exhibition

The canoeists out at sea and, below, coming back to harbour Top: Ready to go;Middle: Pat and GraceBottom: Pete and Taryn

shared premises with a museum of thearchaeological dig of the battery thatguarded the harbour in the Dutch EastIndia and early British colonial days.

Patrick had cleverly avoided thecrowded parking lots of the Waterfront andhad used a parking lot close to theexhibition. It was easy getting into thisparking lot but almost impossible to get out.There were lots of cars driving around andaround with desperate looking touriststrying to find the way out. The secret,Patrick discovered, was to ignore the arrowsthat pointed to “Exit” (they merely tookone to a “No-entry” sign), but to drive inthe opposite direction. It was also importantto have paid for ones parking on the P2level before trying to escape. Why the onlypayment machines should be on the P2level was difficult to understand (we wereparked on the P3 level, the pedestrian exitwas one level above the P1 level).

We managed to get out and homewithout major mishap. In the evening wewent to the movies at Canal Walk and sawSpectre, the latest James Bond movie. It wasquite fun as long as one did not expect acoherent plot. We stopped for supper at theCape Fish Market and I had some excellentsushi.

Wednesday 30th December2015

It was very hot. Apparently it is justas hot, if not hotter, up there in Limpopo.But I bet that there is not a high humidityto go along with it.

Patrick and I went off after breakfastto play bowls. Patrick played in the ClubChampionship Singles and lost. He said thathe was doing well and only 13-15 downwhen he knocked the jack into the middleof his opponent's woods and suddenly was13-19 down. He then did virtually the samething on the next end and lost the game 21-13,

Meanwhile I played trips with aboutas unfriendly a crowd as I have ever met ona bowling green. Not only was the companynot stimulating, but our skips decided thatwe were going to play 18 ends and 18 endswe played despite the fact the all the otherbowlers quit after 14 or 16 ends and werelong gone into the pub by the time wefinished in the heat. Patrick had beenwaiting for me for nearly an hour by thetime we finished.

Back from bowls and time for aquick (and very welcome) shower before wewent off to Claremont to an Halaal

Grannies, Taryn and Kirsten

Let's do cute!

The Lighthouse

Seapoint

Wildlife Photography

Battery

Gunnery Equipment

restaurant, “Café on the Deck” to which Patrick and Gracehad won a free lunch voucher. We shared bowls of curry:prawn, chicken korma, butter chicken and very good theywere too. The only problem that I had with the meal was

that it was still a very hot day.

31st December 2015The last of the year and a busy day. After breakfast we went off

to visit The Spice Route which used to be – I suppose it still is – theSiederberg Wine estate. Many years ago we went there with Erina Bruntfor lunch, but it has certainly changed vastly since then.

The Spice Route is a pleasant tourist trap with three (?)restaurants, craft brewery, wine tasting, distillery, coffee, chocolatefactory, art gallery, glass blowing and probably other things. We had agood wander around and tasted beer (Patrick, Grace, me), tastedchocolate (Grace and Jill), drank coffee (all of us and I had the bestespresso that I have ever drunk), had an excellent lunch of mostlyantipasto and so on. We had a look at the glass factory (where Erina'sNik used to work) and saw the very expensive glassware that they wereselling some of which was quite attractive although I am not sure whowould want to buy it.

The Spice Route clockwise fromtop left: lunch, old buildings,

vineyards, beer tasting, chocolatetour, hops

We were home again about 15h00and had a lie down until it was time to gooff to a New Year's Eve party with Claireand the Claudes. We had some lovelysushi for supper (Grace and Claire likesushi almost as much as I do) and dranksome more bubbly. We played a gamethat was a sort of cross between charadesand 20 questions and that was fun.

Jill and I managed to escape fromthere at about 20h30 and went home tosleep. Patrick and Grace came back sometime next year, but Jill and I had provedyet again that the New Year does notneed our help to come in.

Bill, Grace, Patrick, Jill, Claire, Claudes

New Year SushiSpread

Grace and Claudie

Friday 1st 2016We were up at 06h30 which was a

bit silly after last night, but we hadagreed to go to the Newland's Forest. SoJill, Patrick and I set off and met Pete,Taryn and Kirsten there and went for apleasant walk. The Newland's Forest is alarge park on the side of TableMountain and there is a lot of naturalbush amongst the alien pines and gumswhich are being slowly eradicated. Wesaw some good birds including a Lemondove which I cannot remember seeingbefore.

We had a peaceful rest of the day.hamburgers for supper and a game of“Oh Hell!” before going early to bed.

Clockwisw from Top Left:Walking up the road,Lemon Dove, Map of

Newland's Forest, "Whatbird was that?", "Hello

Grandpa!"

Saturday 2nd January 2016Pete turned up in time to have a nice breakfast of sausages and

then off we set to the Newland's Cricket Ground to see the first dayof the Second Cricket Test against England. We arrived there in timeto hear the national anthems from outside the ground and arrivedinside in time to see the first ball being bowled. England had won thetoss and were batting.

The day was another stinker and our seats were good forwatching cricket but were out in the open in the full sun and the sunwas hot and it was not pleasant. The cricket was very dour and tightand I enjoyed it and would have enjoyed it more had I been in the

shade. The crowd was probably more than half English and so theatmosphere was good. I am glad that I went but I don't think that Icould have taken another day.

Patrick and Grace went off to dinner with some of Grace's oldUniversity friends and Jill and I chilled quietly at home.

Sunday 3rd January 2016We had kippers for breakfast and then Jill and I went to off to

church at St Michael's again. By now a lot of people knew who wewere and we felt very welcome. Anthony invited Jill to come up to thealtar and concelebrate and we thought that was a lovely gesture.

Back home again and Pete arrived with Tarynand Kirsten on their way back to Joeys. We saidgoodbye to them and Grace took them off to theairport.

I spent most of the day watching cricket in thecomfort of the lounge rather than in the burning sun.South Africa struggled in the morning with Stokesscoring a magnificent 258 off 198 balls and helping getEngland a first innings score of over 600. But then, toshow how easy the pitch was, South Africa went in and

were comfortably (if slowly) at 130 for 2at the close of play.

Grace and Claire went off tochurch and, when they came back, wetook the dogs to Dolphin Beach nearTable View. The dogs had a great timerunning up and down and paddling (well,Lexie paddled but Ernie doesn't) in thesea. The conditions must have been nearlyideal for kite surfers with the windrunning parallel to the beach and weenjoyed watching them. Perhaps if I wereonly 20 years younger? Unfortunately,ideal kite surfing conditions are not idealbeach conditions and the wind andblowing sand made it a bit unpleasant forpeople. So we did not stay there long butwent on into town to get some springrolls from a Chinese / Thai shop andsome curry from an Indian shop. Homefor a nice supper.

Monday 4th January 2016Our last day in Cape Town – just as well as

Patrick had to start working again and was hunchedover his computer from early in the morning.Fortunately he was able to spend the rest of the daywith us.

After breakfast we all went off to the Waterfrontagain. This time our destination was the TitanicArtefacts Exhibition which mostly consisted of stuffthat had actually been brought up from the wreck of

Jill concelebrating at St Michael's and All Angels

Scenes at Dolphin Beach, kite surfers andthe family

the Titanic. It was a very good exhibition I thoughtand they managed to make the whole tragedy veryreal. There were a lot of old photographs of theconstruction of the Titanic and then there were alot of details about the accommodation – absoluteluxury in 1st Class, pretty basic in 3rd – and theengineering of the ship.

I was struck by a couple of things. TheTitanic was very big even by today's standards; thenthe Titanic was surprisingly “modern” in terms ofwhat are often considered new technologies: shewas fully electrified, in full (if only Morse) radiocontact with the shore and other ships, had fullrefrigeration, gym and swimming pool (1st Classonly!). The Titanic was a very safe ship and onlysank through a combination of bad luck and somevery poor decision making.

It was poignant to see things that had beenpersonal possession of travellers who had died,which had sat for 70 years at the bottom of the seaand were then salvaged. There was a watch that had

belonged to a South African passenger and whichhad been returned to his daughter. When thedaughter died, the watch was donated to the Titanicmuseum.

We had lunch at the Food Market near theexhibition. I had an excellent Indian vegetarian talawith a nice craft beer.

Back home and South Africa was doing wellat the cricket with Amla batting like the championhe is. Grace and I had sent-out-for sushi for supperwhile the non-sushi Jill and Patrick had the rest ofthe left-over curry.

Left: Market

Top: Mountain from the V&A, CraftBeer, Craft Cheese

Tuesday 5th January 2016I suspected it before, but this trip has now proved to

me without question: train travel is far better than airtravel. It is more comfortable, less stressful, moreinteresting and perhaps, most important, less tiring. Thereis only one advantage in train travel and that is that it isquicker. If it were possible to travel from Johannesburg toEngland by train, it would take weeks whereas one can getover the agony in a few hours in an aeroplane. (I don'tknow if it is possible and it is an interesting question, but Isuspect that there is a large hunk of Africa betweenNairobi and Addis Ababa where one might have to resortto buses. And I am not sure if the famous Cairo toJerusalem train still runs. And does the railway go furthernorth than Jerusalem?) (Not long after writing thatsentence, I watched a TV program about the trains inTanzania and Kenya. No, it is not even possible to travelthrough Tanzania and Kenya by train let alone furthernorth).

But whether or not the plane is faster than the train,it still takes a day to get from Cape Town to Johannesburgby air. The day is made up of: breakfast, packing, sittingaround waiting for something to happen, driving to theairport, checking in, sitting around waiting for somethingto happen, boarding the bus, sitting around waiting forsomething to happen, driving to the plane, boarding,finding one's seat, sitting down waiting for something tohappen, taking off, sitting down waiting for something tohappen, landing, sitting down waiting for something to

happen, getting off the plane and onto the bus, standingwaiting for something to happen, driving to the terminal,walking to the baggage collection point, standing aroundwaiting for something to happen, collecting baggage,walking to the Gautrain station, standing around waitingfor something to happen, boarding the train, sitting aroundwaiting for something to happen, travelling to Sandton(sitting down waiting for something to happen),disembarking and waiting for something to happen …

And that was the story of our trip from Patrick'shouse to the Sandton Gautrain station. Patrick and Gracekindly took s to the Cape Town airport and even wentinside with us to show us where to go. Jill wanted her bagwrapped up in plastic and she took it off to the chap whowhirrs the bag round and round while the plastic sticks toit and then he cuts holes in the plastic so the wheels stillwork and the handle is accessible. The queues to check inand to go through security were long and that meant thatwe did not have to sit hardly at all before waiting to getonto the bus to wait to go to the plane. It was a Mangoairlines flight which means that we had to pay an excessiveamount for a vegetarian sandwich (they did not havechicken or beef) and a cool drink. In Joeys the plane parkedabout as far as it is possible to get from the arrivalsterminal and that must have added a half hour to our tripto the baggage pick-up. That didn't mean that we had towait any less time as we still had to wait there because,presumably, our baggage took the same half an hour to getfrom the plane to the round-and-round baggage thingee.

Waiting: to get checked in, waiting forbaggage, waiting for the train to go ...

... and home we went.

Have I given the impression that I don't enjoy flying very much?

Pete very kindly picked us up at the Sandton Gautrain station.(There was some confusion there because he waited to pick us up fromthe first parking garage and we waited to be picked up from the firstparking garage and there were two parking garages that could be regardedas being the first. Fortunately cell phones help solve that sort of problemquite quickly; in the old day we would probably have spent an hourlooking for each other). We stopped at a wonderful fish shop to get somefish for a supper braai and then we stopped at Spar to buy some groceriesfor when we got back to Kokanje. On to Pete's house and hello to Taryn(who was home from work already) and Kirsten who seemed quite glad tosee us.

We had the excellent fish braai for supper and went early to bed.

Wednesday 6th January 2016The excellent chauffeur service provided by Pete drove us all the

way from Johannesburg to Modimolle in great comfort. Kirsten sleptsome of the way and was excellent most of the time.

It is always nice to be on holiday and always nice to be home.

[Pete and Kirsten spent the night before returning to Joeys, andspent most of the time in Kokanje in the pool because it was so hot - Jill]

Waiting at the Gautrain Station

The Fish Market perhaps the only reasonto live in Johannesburg

Stefina

trip to cape town, christmas 2015

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