Argus cycle race in Cape Town

The annual Argus cycle race took place on Sunday. It is 110km long from Cape Town to Cape Point and back and has about 35,000 competitors, all of whom are times, so quite a big event. Many of the roads are closed and so, for us, it would have to be a walking day.
We set off for Company Gardens, but on the way, passed through the former free slave (Malay) quarter. Slaves were not allowed to paint their houses and so when the people were free, they painted their houses with bright colours, and so they remain. The brilliant blue sky complemented the houses.








When we reached the Gardens, Victoria was there to greet us




Parliament is close by and she sits in the grounds.




We wandered through the gardens which were an oasis of peace and tranquility.








Table mountain dominates the city and is often there as a backdrop.




We came across the slave bell




We stopped for a drink in the cafe where a classical concert by a Cape Town orchestra would soon start.




At the far end of the gardens is the South African Museum




And an art gallery




We came across some Egyptian Goose goslings sheltering from the sun under a waste bin their parents were not far away but seemed unperturbed that humans were going fairly close to their chicks.




On our way out of the gardens, we found tall bamboo with carvings that were growing up and up as the bamboo grew.




We went past St George's cathedral and along St George's Street which is traffic free but the roads crossing it are not!




Off St George's Street is Greenmarket Square where there is a craft market of African arts, masks, paintings and nick nacks - very colourful and quite cheap, we nearly bought a painting.








Then it was time to find lunch. There wasn't much open, but we did find this Ethiopian restaurant nearby which had already attracted our attention by its colourful display and jazz music.




We had plates of vegetable starters eaten with the fingers using the moist white flatbread, extra portions of the bread came in rolls like napkins. The food was delicious.




We headed back to our apartment passing many cyclists who had completed the race and were returning home. The roads were now open to traffic.




After a short rest, we set out by car for the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens which are on the southern slopes of Table Mountain.




The gardens are huge, 36 hectares. Parking was difficult because a sunset rock concert was about to start in the grounds. So for some of our stroll we had a musical accompaniment.




The gardens are only stocked with indigenous South African plants - fynbos, proteas, cycads. Some of the fynbos have very distinctive flinty smells.








Pat spotted this Sugareater and managed to get close.




Protea just about to close for the night.




The largest pelargonium we have seen




A scary looking bush that looked like it might harbour spirits.




And an amaryllis




Pat and John on tour

Robben Island

We were pleased to see blue skies on Saturday because we had booked to go to Robben Island- a 45 minute boat trip.

The dry dock had been empty when we passed earlier in the week, but now it was occupied by two ships.





There was a rowing competition in progress in the harbour




While waiting for the boat to depart, we saw seals in the harbour, but they were too quick for us to photograph.


There were magnificent views of Cape Town from the boat as we headed out to sea.















The maximum security prison from the sea.



Robben Island is now a world heritage site and one cannot just wander around. New arrivals are herded into a fleet of buses for the tour. The island has been used as a prison, an animal quarantine station and a leper colony by the Dutch, the British and the South African regimes, so there's plenty of history there.

This is the leper graveyard



This small open prison camp only ever had one inmate, Robert Sobuwke, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress. He encouraged black people, who were then required to carry identification at all times, to destroy their pass and hand themselves in at a police station. In the event of a mass protest, the police system simply would not be able to deal with the number of protesters. A protest march led to the Sharpville massacre. Robert was kept in the building on the left. The other rows of cells were built later, bigger than the solitary confinement cells in which Nelson Mandela was kept, they were used as dog kennels.




This is a quarry where prisoners worked. The cave to the left was the only refuge for the prisoners from the sun and was also used as a toilet. In time, the warders avoided the cave and the prisoners had use of it. It was in this cave that the more educated prisoners taught the less educated at a time when education was banned in the prison. Later, this restriction was relaxed and many prisoners followed correspondence courses.




This pile of rocks at the entrance was made when ex prisoners revisited the island for a reunion after their release and commemorates their visit. Nelson Mandela laid the first stone.





The 'Irish village' is where the medical staff lived when Robben Island was a leper colony - there are seagulls everywhere.




The prison governor's house is now used when state dignitaries visit the island.



We were allowed out of the coach for 10 minutes to take photos etc. There was a good swell and good visibility across the bay and towards Table Mountain.








This gun was part of the Second World War defences, however, it wasn't ready until 1947, so has never been in use.





The lighthouse






The Anglican Church still stands being the only privately owned building on the island





This is a shrine next to the prison in honour of a muslim prince who died there.





We left the bus and entered the high security prison where we were shown round by an ex-political prisoner. He gave moving accounts of this time there and his much worse time in police detention. No one ever escaped but they did find ways of exchanging information and Nelson Mandela did manage to smuggle out a document, another was discovered by the guards buried in the garden.








There were communal cells of which this is one. It would have housed about 70 prisoners. The mat in the middle was what the prisoners slept on until the Red Cross kicked up a fuss and bunk beds were then used.










But the elite prisoners (leaders) were held in individual cells in block B. This was Nelson Mandela's cell.




When we left the prison, it was a short walk to the boat, but we took the path to the penguin boardwalk - we guess this raised walkway is above the nesting area but it was not the right time of year to see them there. However, there was a hide by the beach and we got to see a large group of African Penguins on the beach.





On the way out of the harbour, John managed to snap two seals basking on the artificial rocks of the harbour wall surrounded by nesting cormorants. It was quite rough on the way back even in a large catamaran. There was a collective Aaaah when we went over our biggest wave.






Back on the mainland, we found some lunch and ate it outside watched closely by these 4 Nobel peace prize winners: Albert Lutuli, Desmond Tutu, F W de Klerk and Nelson Mandela





In the evening, we ate a good meal at 'Savoy Cabbage' where we had a clearview of the kitchen. John had a salad with beetroot and cheese, followed by lamb and Pat had a goat's cheese salad followed by impala.




Pat and John on tour

The Heart of Cape Town

We woke up to heavy rain with the forecast showing that it would continue for much of the day. Outside there was screams from the children as they ran across the playgrounds in the rain. The junior school (Prestwick) that we overlook must be well known as we were asked directions to it by someone who wanted to build one like it in India.

We spent some time on admin, blogging and sorting out and decided that we would go to the Christian Barnard museum (called The Heart of Cape Town Museum). John's cousin Georgina was part of the team in the first heart transplant - sister in charge of the intensive ward to be precise.

After lunch, we called a taxi and set off for the museum. The exhibits are set in the rooms where the first heart transplant took place. This part of the hospital is no longer used for patients as a newer hospital was built next door twenty years ago. The original building is rather grand, the new one a concrete box.






The guided tour takes a couple of hours and includes much memorabilia. There were only six people in our group. The operating theatres that were used for the donor, Denise Darvall and recipient Louis Washkansky are set up much as they were on the night although not all the original equipment is there.









Georgina is there too, in photos and in videos. The tour was an interesting and moving account of this phase in medical history and of Dr Barnard himself and how he came to be the one to perform the first operation. In this photo Georgina is with the registrar, being interviewed by the press.





We summoned our taxi to take us back to the apartment and John, hopped out at Michael's second chocolate shop to take photos. It was well past closing time for the shop but Michael was there packing up an order in his workroom.





We had a table booked at a nearby restaurant which had been recommended by the owner of our apartment, La Pigalle. It was also about number 20 out of 400 in TripAdvisor which was also a good indication. It wasn't quite what we expected! It was a very large restaurant (once an ice rink) with a dance floor and band.





We hasn't been able to book a table until 9 although there were pleanty of empty tables and it was 9.30 before we sat down. We just managed to get our order in when a couple of bus loads of people arrived and filled the place!

John ordered ostrich which was cooked exactly as he had ordered. Considering the size of the restaurant, that was impressive. The waiter explained that this was because the owner was Portuguese and that the chef has been working with him for 30 years. All our food was wonderful and we enjoyed the dancing too! The music was Pop, Jazz and Latin American. We got home late!





Pat and John on tour