Hello From Heather in Cape Town

Kiwi Heather is currently jaunting around Africa.

Kiwi Heather,
at the Chinese Art Exhibition!

This is her latest letter:

Carol and I arrived in Cape Town to sunshine on Saturday about midday.

We are staying in a wonderful backpackers called, The Backpackers! The place has been a great choice as it's clean, friendly and a comfortable place to stay.

A staff member recommended that we use the afternoon to go up Table Mountain. We were tired after a long flight with minimal sleep, but took his advise.

To get up the mountain, you take a large cable car with a revolving floor. The views are spectacular, both on the way up and on the top. We spent a lovely afternoon walking the paths on the top and looking down on the city. It really is a unique location with a "wow" in every direction.

We finished the day with a meal at a lovely restaurant with a jazz/blues singer providing the entertainment.

The next two days we spent seeing the city and out-lying areas on the open top bus. This turned out to be another great choice as the weather closed in and we realised just how lucky we were to have been up the mountain when we did.

Despite the inclement weather, we decided just to go for it, and visited the impressive Kirstenborsch Gardens.

Then we took a private Township tour to see the work of Irish volunteers and donations in building little houses with water, sewage and electricity to slowly replace the tin shacks in the shanty town. Then we went to the harbour complex and saw around the city.

For the next two days we hired a car and yesterday drove down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. This was a truly exhilarating day. We stopped off at Boulder Bay and saw the penguins where they come in to nest and breed. The area was teeming with thousands of them waddling about, quite unconcerned about people. And we saw these big furry animals that looked like overgrown guinea pigs, although their closest relatives are apparently elephants!

The cape itself is very exposed, mountainous and rocky. You stand down on the beach with the large waves crashing in knowing that there is nothing between you and Antarctica. We saw ostriches grazing metres away and there are these large crosses commemorating the landings back in the 15th century by Dias and Vascoe de Gama.

Today we drove to Hermanus, in reality further south and east than the cape. A beautiful drive around a rugged coastline with again those amazing layered rocks. We went first to a vineyard for a delightful lunch and glass of bubbly, and then to the coastline where we really saw whales! They were not close and at the start we thought it might have been our imagination, but the photos taken through my zoom lens confirm the spray to have been whale blow and showed very clearly a fin and the outline of a whale. Very exciting.

Tomorrow we are visiting Rodden Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 25 years and then in the evening we will meet with our group for the overland trucking trip. Excitement, sure, but more than a little trepidation.

The next three weeks will be spent in Namibia, Botswanna and Zambia.

We have enjoyed Cape Town very much although at times there have been things to disturb a little. Tell you about them later.

Must go as my time is running out. I will write again when I can, but don't suppose there will be many computers available, let alone internet access.