New Blessings

As our holidays down in the Western Cape draws to an end I leave you this photograph of twilight over False Bay with the little villages of St James, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek and Simon's Town and the Cape Peninsula in the background being attacked by fog. Although it is near the end of our holidays, it is the first day of this year and we look forward to this spanking New Year ahead. This is the year that Salted Lightly project will be born. With so much promising feedback on the idea, 2009 year of our Lord is the year of new blessings.

Through the Elephant’s Eye

Wow, we've have done many hikes while here on holiday in Cape Town. The last hike of the year was from the Silver Mine dam to the Elephant's Eye. If you look west from Tokai towards Constantia you'll see the mountains form the shape of an elephant. In the head part of the elephant is a cave. The opening is large, about 30m high and 20m wide but does not go more than 30m in. We could see the cave from Aunt Winnie's home yesterday evening. It was then that we planned to hike up to the cave. It is not a long hike with good views of the Cape Flats and ends with a refreshing dip in the Silver Mine dam. As we look into the future through the elephant's eye, I want the wish all my readers a blessed 2009.

Cape Point

Being a tourist is quite easy. Just dress casual, put on a hat and sunscreen and grab a camera. So off I went to Cape Point with Anthony, Alison and Matthew. Alison who is from Ontario said although she has never been in the northern parts of Canada, she has never seen such beautiful scenery. And from the sounds of it, she has travelled quite a bit. We spent nearly 7 hours exploring the Cape Point. The hike down to Dias Beach, in the cove in the background of today's photo, took quite some time though. In the evening we joined the Parows and Dickson for a family braai at Aunt Winnie's. It was a good finish of a wonderful day.

Shark Ahoy

The sirens blared and the bathers fled the water as the black flag was changed for a white one with a black shark on it. Yes, a Great White shark was seen in the water just beyond the bathers at Fish Hoek. They have a flag system here, a green flag means "Shark spotter on duty and no shark seen"; a black flag means "Shark spotter on duty but poor water visibility"; a white flag with a black shark on it means "Shark spotted in water" and a red flag means "Shark spotted in the water in the last 2 hours". Enter their world at your own peril. That put an end to any thoughts of the beach today. So we went penguin watching at Boulders Beach and whale watching near Miller's Point as a Humpback whale frolicked near the shore.

Maagies vol, oogies toe

After such a wonderful family time yesterday, today is just for recuperation. Matthew slept at Malcolm and Joy’s place last night and after picking him up, we went to Signal Hill to view the table cloth on Table Mountain and to plan our ascent in the next few days. We are planning to climb via Platteklip Gorge. In today’s photo, the steep gorge is about a third of the distance across from the Upper Cable Station. That is if we make it with our full tummies and sleepy eyes.

A wet Chapman's Peak