Milnerton, Jamestown, Paarl, Hout Bay

For Easter we booked a little closer to Cape Town centre. This was a newly built unit with views over the beach but situated a bit back from the beach and behind the main road. Traffic noise was high if the balcony door was open and it was a bit hot with the door closed.
We visited friends of Sally's for Easter. Really nice day to meet friends and wonderful lunch.
For the remainder of the week we visited the local shopping mall and did beach walks.

For our birthdays we wanted to be able to walk out of our unit into some gardens. We were starting to get a bit of cabin fever from being locked up on the fifth floor. We enjoyed our first stay in the Stellenbosch area, so back again for our Birthday week.
Highlights were walks around the golf course, wine tasting and restaurant lunches next door. First taste of Springbok - yum. We had a long chat with a young coloured waiter about his experiences with racism and growing up in a coloured community and going to school in a white community.
A major storm came through and ripped off rooves and caused a fire to a local historical home. We were concerned that the golf estate was on fire the smoke was so thick.

After discussing our motorhome build with a facebook group member we were invited to stay at his guest house. Thank you Jack and Luzanne. Luzanne made great South African meals for us and we had long discussions about local issues.
We visited more wineries to the extent that the saying "Not another .........." came to mind. Wining and dining daily has not helped us maintain our weight. Beautiful country and great food.
A balloon flight for our Birthdays was something different. Neither of us had ever done a balloon flight. Not too early, coffee at 7am while they inflated the balloon followed by a gentle flight over wineries, cow padocks and a safari park with giraffe, orstrich, buffallo and buck. We also saw some wild jackal. Champagne on landing and then off for a cooked breakfast.

A bit concerned about our choice of location this week. The nicest looking accommodation was on B&B but this does not give you an accurate location, just an area. Once confirmed we found we were a few hundred metres from an informal settlement. We decided if it looked too dodgey we would just leave. We are paying more attention to our personal safety and security and it looks like it will be fine.
Walked along the harbour the day of our arrival and saw sunken boats and lots of jellyfish, dilapidated buildings awaiting demolition and seals being fed from the game fishing boats.
We took a drive to Cape Point National Park to get a photo at the southern tip. On the way were signs on the walkways that we shouldn't walk alone etc. We considered our safety. On one of the walks we saw a couple with large backpacks. I asked if they were camping. They said no they were parasail packs and they were planning on jumping off the cliff and floating back to the beach. Puts the risk into perspective.
At Cape Point we saw a large baboon. A tourist walked up within a couple of meters and took a photograph - crazy. If you want to see the potential consequences google baboon atack at Cape Point. The scenery was spectacular. We visited the Diaz monument again as we did on our honeymoon. Sally remembers seeing something about a funicular railway but we missed it. Now that I have researched it, I am sorry we missed it, cable car railway up to the lighthouse.
We stopped in Simon's Town for lunch. This is a little harbour side village that reminds me of Maleny on the Sunshine Coast. Lots of little tourist nik-nak shops and antique shops. We discovered a two storey shop for sale and discussed setting up a home base above with the retail tenant below paying the outgoings. Unfortunately not enough room to park the truck so we decided against it.

Cape Coloured culture: Sally asked the car parking attendant for her photo because she was missing her front four top teeth. This is a cultural tradition in Cape Coloureds called the passion gap and is practiced by both men and women. The girl in the photo had one, and was so beautiful. When Sally asked for her photo she stood up proudly. When Sally gave her her tip for protecting our vehicle she said "Thank you my lady".