Kirstenbosch

Cape Town, South Africa

We woke to another fine day, still a bit windy, but a good temperature for a group of us to visit Kirstenbosch, which was high on Jenny and Phil, and Richard and Martha’s list of ‘must do while in Cape Town’. We left Karen and Geoff to have some peace and quiet and set off for the short drive. We stayed together at first and walked on the Tree Canopy Walkway, a wooden bridge which sways through the tree tops and gives fantastic views of the gardens and Cape Town itself. After walking round for an hour or so, with beautiful trees and shrubs in all directions we decided it was time for a coffee – as seemed to happen quite frequently we soon decided that we should also have something to eat – rude not to really! We had a selection from the menu, sandwiches, omelettes, and in our case a savoury afternoon tea with omelettes, fresh bread with dips and salad, all delicious. Our energy levels restored we looked round the art exhibition where we saw the unforgettable sculpture of naked Adam and Steve – a variation on Adam and Eve but with 2 male models! We split up a bit after that, Richard and Martha going off to explore on their own, while we all visited the protea and fynbos gardens and walked up to the start of Skeleton Gorge, one of the paths up Table Mountain. On the way we came across a large group of pre school children with their helpers, all the children singing their hearts out and high fiving, saluting or waving to us on the way past – they were incredibly well behaved and very obviously really enjoying themselves, lovely to see. We also saw what must be the fastest tortoise in the west – if he was in the Olympics they’d test him for steroids he was so quick off the mark! He was also quite happy to pose for photos before speeding off in another direction.