Christmas in

Cape Town
2015
Bill Cairns

Cape Town and

Surroundings. The map
is from Wikimapia and I
have added Edgemead
in red

South African railways Map of the Main

Passenger Routes

Some simple maps to put the story in context ...

The frontispiece on the previous page shows the Shosholoza Meyl passing
through the Nuwekloof Pass. This picture won the first prize for Holiday picture
at the Kokanje Digiphoto group in January 2016.

The Official V&A map

Page 4

The Journey to the Cape

Tuesday 15th December 2015

coke tin out of the window.

Off we set. Or not quite immediately as the bus was only due
to leave the Toyota garage at 10h40 and the Tarbotons were only due
to pick us up at 09h50. So we had a leisurely and good breakfast of
nearly Eggs Benedict (there not being any English muffins and
precious little Hollandaise) and sat around and waited as one is apt to
do in these situations.

We stopped briefly in Bela Bela

to pick up two more passengers and
then proceeded southwards to
Pretoria. Once we hit the highway,
Jill and Robert at Pretoria Station
the driver put his foot down and we
raced along at 80 kph. I don't know if
he was obeying any legal restrictions (if he was, he was the only bus
driver doing so), but it was certainly rather frustrating for us
passengers. It is certainly more pleasant to be driven to Pretoria rather
than driving oneself, but the bus is not the most comfortable and it
certainly does not hurry.

Warwick and Michle arrived on time and took us down to the

garage and then we had another period of nothing happening until the
bus arrived at 10h35. The instructions for the bus told us to be there
half an hour early so as to achieve maximum standing around time.
The Tarbotons stood around with us for some time, but eventually
they decided that watching paint drying would be more interesting and
they went off to find some wet paint. Goodbye and Happy Christmas
to the Tarbotons it was nice of them to provide the limo service.
The bus finally arrived and we checked in with the nice hostess
lady and the nice bus driver put out suitcases in the hold. The bus was
quite full and we had good seats just behind the driver. (I say good
seats because that is where I like to sit to get a good view of where
we are going. In this case the position might have increased my
frustrations.) Off we drove slowly to Bela Bela on the road that is
closed to heavy traffic which our bus definitely was. To compensate
for being on the road illegally our driver drove at 60 kph the whole
way. We were subjected to the conversation between the driver and the
hostess which did not reach very
From the bus in Bela Bela
stimulating heights but which was
impossible to ignore. She rightly
gave him a hard time for throwing a

Eventually we arrived at Pretoria station and were off-loaded

from the bus. We engaged a young chap with the name of Robert as
our porter to take us off to the Gautrain. So we loaded our suitcases
onto his trolley and set off past the old station building and round the
corner to the new Gautrain station. This path is cunningly designed to
take one past McDonalds and the bus arrival was cunningly designed
to bring us to Pretoria at half-past lunch time and so we stopped there
for a hamburger.
This was virtually our first experience of McDonalds. I had
once eaten at McDonalds in Minneapolis way back many yonks ago
probably in the 1980s. The
experience almost exactly
matched my expectations: the
premises were clean, the service
was fast, the food was not cheap
but not expensive, not cardboard
but not particularly tasty. We had

The old Pretoria Station

Pretoria Gautrain Station with McDonalds at left

UNISA from the train

Train coming in

a long chat with Robert (who had lucked out into us buying him a
hamburger too) and learned that he was a bright young man who has
just enrolled with Unisa to study Mathematics and who wants to
eventually work in IT. He is one of the many bright youngsters whom
we have met recently who have passed matric and are now struggling
to get a higher education.
Goodbye to Robert and onto the Gautrain. We put some
money into my Gautrain card and bought a new one for Jill. I put in
R600 altogether which the nice man assured me was enough for a
return trip to the airport and which was actually further than we
intended to travel.
I have been impressed by the Gautrain before and continue to
be impressed. It is as good as the Singapore or Madrid Metros which
are what I can compare it to. (Well, it is also infinitely better than the
London Underground but, in fairness, it is also 100 years younger).
Before we got on we had a chat with a nice Indian lady from Buffalo
City who had been in Pretoria for a swimming championship. It was
her first trip on the Gautrain and she was happy to find that Jill was
also a novice.
We arrived at Rosebank and carried our luggage up two
staircases because we were not smart enough to have looked for a lift.

We phoned Pete who told us where to

meet him and then walked through Rosebank to the appointed
meeting place. Pete has been lying in bed with a bad gastroenteritis so
it was good of him to drag himself to come and meet us.
To Pete's house and hello to Kirsten who was rather wary of us
at first. Taryn came home before long and Kirsten then decided that
we were probably harmless and became friendly and playful.
An excellent roast chicken for supper and early to bed.

Wednesday 16th December 2015

Jill eventually sent Kirsten in to wake me up at 07h30. I heard a
voice saying, Grandpa and opened an eye to see her pointing at me.
That was enough to wake me up.
The cunning plan was to walk to the restaurant in the park for
breakfast, but it was spitting with rain
and we adopted Plan B which was to
walk to the shops and have breakfast
there. Plan B was cancelled, presumably
because one gets just as wet walking to
the shops as to the restaurant, and so we

Rosebank

Page 6

Kirsten not being too sure about this lady

Breakfast

Family

reverted to Plan A again. Unfortunately, Plan A was aborted after we

walked around the corner and met a couple who said that the bridge
to the restaurant was broken. Plan C was that Taryn went home to
fetch the car and drove us to the restaurant.

and his family. So we missed Yolande (who is auditing in Zimbabwe)

and Margaux. We had a fun day together with a William roast chicken
done in the Weber together with the nice salad that Taryn had made.
We had a bit of an early Christmas with presents all round.

The restaurant, the Delta Caf, gave us a good breakfast. I had

a Greek breakfast of bacon and scrambled egg and fried tomato it
was made Greek because it included some fried haloumi. Back to the
house and a quick expedition to the local Spar for lunch necessities
and then we waited for Kirsten to have her morning sleep. I decided
that if my granddaughter could have a morning
nap, I could too and also had a nice lie down.

Back to Pete and Taryn's house at about 14h30. Kirsten did her
cute and that kept us busy until we had a boiled egg for supper and
off to bed.

Then we all went off to William and

Yolande's new house. It is a nice house smaller
than their last multi-roomed mansion but quite
big enough for a slowly shrinking family. The
house needs quite a lot doing to it, but is quite
liveable as it stands.
There were lots of family there: William,
his two sons and one daughter, John and Pete

Thursday 17th December 2015

Everybody was up at 06h00 it being a work day for Pete and
Taryn and a bye bye day for us. They all had breakfast, Stefina arrived
and we said hello and goodbye to her, and off we all went.
Pete parked in the Sasol parking garage and pointed us on our
way to Fourno's as a good place for breakfast. He went off to do his
productive work for the country and Jill and I abandoned our luggage
and went to get something to eat.
Fourno's is a chain larnie bakery with an eatery restaurant and
coffee shop attached. We had a light breakfast there of bacon, egg,

Kirsten and her best

Xmas present

Page 7

tomato with fancy toast and I would not like to have

to attempt their full breakfast. I enjoyed the food
and the atmosphere and spent some time longingly
looking at their range of bread.
Breakfast took more than an hour with lots
of fascinating people to watch. There was a couple
of muslim women dressed very soberly in black but
with brightly coloured scarves there was a priest
(probably Catholic) in full uniform who spent his
time drinking coffee, talking on his cell phone and
doing the crossword lots of people who dropped in
to buy a slice of custard or a bagel some rather
bored looking women who came and looked but
bought nothing.
We went on to the Rosebank Mall where we
window shopped and looked at Exclusive Books
(buying nothing) and at Incredible Connection
(buying more nothing). Eventually it was time to go
back to Sasol to meet Pete who dropped us off at
the Rosebank Gautrain station. By now we had
learned to find a lift and not lug our luggage up and
down flights of stairs. We found the right platform
and waited a few minutes for a train to come. We
used our time to advantage by chatting to a young
Zimbabwean who had done aeronautical
engineering at Wits and was now designing planes in
Centurion.
On to the train and what seemed a very quick
trip to Park Station (Johannesburg Station). In the
very old days I had driven that route many times at
rush hour and it could take an hour or more. Now
the train did it in about 15 minutes.

Clockwise from top left: Inside Forno's, Forno's from the

outside. the compartment, Jill making a toast, the dining car,
Park Station,

There were no signs to anywhere useful at Park

Station but we assumed that the signs to Metro Rail
would be showing us the right direction and it turned
out that they did. We found an Enquiries and were
told to go down one level and then turn back there
and round there and back there. We did all that and
found that we had done the Great Circle route. It
turned out that we ignored the instruction to Go
down the escalator in favour of using the lift. If we
had followed directions we would have been exactly
where we needed to be. Either way we had found the
Shosholoza Lounge where we checked in and drank a
cup of tea.
It was about 11h45 when we arrived so we were
early for the train which was only due to depart at
15h00. However, we had a pleasant place to wait with
a comfortable lounge, a TV broadcasting the news, tea
and biscuits and later fruit and sandwiches and even
cake. I did go for a stroll in the station outside and
bought Patrick a lovely book, Where's Zuma? being
a local political take-off of Where's Wally?
Eventually the train manager came and talked to
us and we boarded our train by going down yet one
more level. We had a very comfortable compartment
with our two beds already made up. There was an
electric power outlet for us and that was a bit of a
relief because we were not sure of how we would
keep our phones and tablets charged. The
compartment was very similar to the first class
compartments of old except that there were only the
two beds instead of the bunk beds that the
compartments used to have. I suspect that the whole
carriage is actually just a reconditioned compartment
of old.
Clockwise from top left: the train before leaving, paperwork
in the dining car, the corridor outside our compartment,
Krugersdorp Station, an old building

Page 9

Going Past Laingsberg

First Sight of the Karoo

Beaufort West Station

Karoo Flowers
Laingsberg

Ostriches

Page 10

Karoo Koppie

The End of the Karoo

A Glimpse of
Matjiesfontein

Solar Power
First Vineyards

Taken from the train

Before we even left we were chivvied off to tea

and given our instructions on tea times and so on. Back
to our compartment and we watched the West Rand as it
went past us. After a bit it started raining and then
storming outside and soon the train soon ran into
problems as the lightning knocked out the signal system
and we had to stop at every signal point and wait for
telephonic permission before carrying on. So we lost an
hour on the way to Klerksdorp and only arrived there
when we were already having dinner.
Dinner was a bit over the top with soup (which
we passed), chicken salad, roast beef, tiramisu and ice
cream (which I also passed). Coffee, and finally cheese
and biscuits which I also passed in favour of some nice
grapes .
We were in bed about 21h00 and went off to
sleep at about 22h30. I did not go to sleep quickly and
lay for a long time listening to the train. It does not go
clickety-click like trains used to go but grunts and groans
instead. It is not an unpleasant noise but certainly not as
soporific as the old clickety-click.

Friday 18th December 2015

I woke up feeling that the train was definitely the
way to travel. If we had been driving, I would have
woken up in a B&B somewhere with the horrible
thought of a heavy day's driving ahead. As it was, I woke
up to the lovely thought that I had to do nothing until
someone had delivered us to Cape Town.

In we went to breakfast of bacon, eggs and mince

(with an offer of porridge that we declined). While we
were sipping our fruit juice I got a phone call from
Schalk and had a nice chat with him, but I could not
help wondering why he was calling. It was only when he
wished me a Happy Birthday that I realised that today
was the 18th of December and that I was now another
year older.
We stopped at Beaufort West long enough to get
off the train and have a leg stretch and admire a White
karee growing there. The last time we were in Beaufort
West we still had another three days driving (OK they
were short drives each day) before we got home. The
train seemed to take a long time to leave Beaufort West.
Firstly, I think that we stopped there longer than the
advertised 15 minutes, but even after the guard (actually
our friend the train manager) had blown his All aboard
whistle and we had climbed on we still sat there before
moving very slowly a couple of kilometres out of town
and then sat waiting for something to happen for about
half an hour. We had a good view of the Karoo
National Park from where we were sitting although we
could not see the entrance gate, we told each other that
we knew where it was. Eventually a train came past from
the other way and we were able to carry on to Cape
Town, but all the time that we had made up overnight
was now lost again.
A shower and a shave and then I spent the
morning mostly sitting and watching the Karoo slip past.
We had good views of the mountains and we admired
the flowers (yellow shrubs and yellow Acacia karoos)

Page 12

Wind Farm

that gave the semi-desert a lot of colour. One

of the joys of the train trip to the Cape is
that, through the Karoo, the railway line runs
next to the N1. As one sits in the comfort of
the compartment, one can see the big trucks
hurtling along the main road with the strings of cars stuck behind
them trying to pass. One gets a curious, sadistic, satisfaction from
seeing the discomfort of others. (Schadenfreude also known as
epicaricacy is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This
word is taken from German and literally means "harm-joy". It is the
feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail or suffer
misfortune. It is also borrowed by some other languages. ) [From
Wikipedia ref Schadenfreude]
We had a nice lunch: a Fish salad, which was a piece of
battered fish, Chicken Cordon Bleu with mashed potatoes and veggies,
strawberry cheesecake. Good grub. I should probably not have eaten
the cheese cake, but did. I had a little nap in the afternoon and missed
Worchester completely, but I had seen Matjiesfontein zoom past and
saw the beginning of the change in the country from Karoo to
Overberg. We admired the rich vineyards and fruit trees and imposing
mountains. I checked on my GPS to see where we were and at first did
not believe it: I had not realised that the train suddenly veers off north
to get around the mountains. The road, of course, takes a short cut
through the Huguenot Tunnel to go from Paarl to Worchester
whereas the train has to go the long way round through Wolseley.

We were right at the end of the train and had to drag our
luggage all the way to the Cape Town Shosholoza lounge (well I
suppose that we could have waited for a porter to do it for us) and
made enquiries about where the pick-up point was and set off there
only to be met by Patrick who told us that we were off to the wrong
pick-up point and that he and Grace were parked in the other
direction.
We eventually all got together, said a belated Hello to Patrick
and later to Grace, and off we set. It was good to see Patrick and
Grace looking good and cheerful. We stopped on the way to buy some
coke and then on to their new house in Edgemead where we met the
dogs, Ernie and Lexie. Ernie (the slow one) remembered us
immediately but Lexie had to have a good bark at us before
remembering that we were part of the pack.
Lots of talking and chatting and a nice Moroccan lamb with
Arabian roast vegetables. Quite early to bed and a complete collapse.
Anybody would think that we had being doing the work rather than
the train driver.

We passed Wellington and Paarl and the train eventually

dawdled its way into Cape Town giving us good views of the
countryside as we went past. It was a good thing that we were in no
hurry. We arrived at the Esplanade station and sat there for a bit
before we finally drew into Cape Town station.

A First View of The Mountain together with a

less Luxurious Train

The Witberge

Rail, Road and River: Pass through the

Mountains

Page 14

In Cape Town

Saturday 19th December 2015

In the morning we went to watch Patrick play a
competition bowls match against his friend Dave in the handicap
singles at the Edgemead Bowls Club. Jill and Grace went off to a
Christmas Morning Market but I stuck to my responsibilities as a
true fan and watched the whole game. It is a very smart club
with three good greens and a nice club house. The game was
over quickly with Patrick winning 21-3, but it was closer than the
score suggests with Dave playing well against Patrick playing
very well.

Above: Pat
playing bowls
Right: the game
with the
Edgemead
Clubhouse
behind

Back home and there was a real invasion in the afternoon

with the arrival of Chris and Ciska Thurman with their children
Hanna and Jesse. Then came the Barnados - Claude and Grace's
sister Claire together with young Claudie and with them came
Diana, another of Grace's sisters, who had to rush off almost
immediately to catch a plane back to Joeys. We had a fun
afternoon which ended with Patrick reading Winnie the Pooh to
the children and Chris, Ciska and Hanna listening.

Left: Patrick
reading "Eeyore's
Birthday" Right:
the audience
Jesse, Ciska,
Hanna, Caudie with
Chris behind

Page 16

Brennan House
Tower UP ... Tower Down

Sunday 20th December 2015

Grace and Jill went off to the airport to fetch Pete and Kirsten
(Taryn still has to work and will be down later). Patrick and I drove
directly to Table View to Mike and Lynn Brennan's house (Lynn being
Jill's niece and thus Pete and Patrick's cousin). Lynn's sister Annie was
staying there together with her husband Martin McLeman and their
children Abigail and Alexis. Mike and Lynn's kids Lily and Jack were
there of course and so, once you have added in Pete and Kirsten, you
have a real Chaos of a Collection of Cousins.
We had a braai there for lunch with meat everyone had
provided. It was a fun party all in all.

Mike and Martin

Above: Lynn and Kirsten
Below: Pete and Girls: Abigail, Alexis and
Kirsten

Lynn and Grace

Annie

At the dam

Monday 21st December 2015

Wednesday 23rd December 2015

After the excitement and constant partying of the

last couple of days it was good to do virtually nothing.
Of course, having Kirsten around means that there was
constant activity.

Off I went with Patrick to play bowls.

Wednesdays are a special day at Edgemead bowling club:
casual dress, tabs in, mostly geriatric bowlers. They
run themselves as a sort of club within a club and raise
money for special teas and lunches today was
pancakes with tea. I played pairs with Micky, who is OC
Wednesdays and another couple and we had a fun game.
I played with Patricks new Professional bowls and
enjoyed them, but I doubt that he will let me keep them.
We dutifully had our tea and pancakes and had a good
chat with some of the members.

Tuesday 22nd December 2015

We celebrated the summer solstice (or was that
yesterday?) by having another very peaceful day.
In the morning, before breakfast, we took the
dogs and went off to a lovely park in Durbanville or
Tygerberg or somewhere. We had a great time walking
through the trees and past the dam. The dogs had a
wonderful time and we managed to see quite a few good
birds.

View of the gardens

The only remaining activity of any consequence

was going off to Makro to buy Bubbly for Christmas.
They were having a special on Pongracz and we stocked
up with a few bottles of that together with a couple of
other bottles for comparison purposes.

In the evening Patrick's friends from Orapa,

Kitso and Chaks Robert, came to dinner. I played with
Kitso and Chaks and Patrick in that tournament in
Mafikeng some years ago. It was good to see them again
and to chat about the old times in Orapa.

Claire and Claudie came around for a swim and a

visit. We had a braai for supper including some
roosterkoek using a dough that I had made. In the
evening Pete introduced us to a game that he said was
called Oh Hell! (and so it is, although it seems that it
is more politely known as Oh Heck!) a good game that
can be played with any number of players from 3 to
perhaps 7.

Chaks, Kitso, Grace, Patrick, Jill, Bill

Page 18
Kirsten and Guinea fowl

Patrick, Lexi and

Ernie

Top: the Christmas Party Jill, Claire,

Claude, Roger, Grace, Patrick, Pippa.
Starters
Pud
Below: the Mains

Thursday 24th December 2015

A day of preparation for this evening and for tomorrow. There was shopping to be done,
ham and chicken and stuffing and ... to be cooked.
The party started arriving at 17h30 or so. There was Claude and Claire and Claudie and then
Roger Griffith (Grace's uncle) and his wife Pippa. A great meal: Pippa brought a salmon mousse
and then the chicken, ham, stuffing, roast potato An excellent hot Christmas dinner. Why anyone
wants a hot Christmas dinner I am not sure, but if you are going to do it, do it in style like this. Oh,
then there was ice cream and meringues. [It was actually a Pavlova that Claire concocted - Jill.] We
drank three bottles of champaign or Methode de Champagne bubbly anyway first Simonsig and
two Pongracz. The Pongracz wins that competition.
We played Oh Hell! again after supper. A fun evening.
After we went to bed I managed to kick the stool at the foot of the bed and managed to cut
my shin. Patrick and Grace had gone off to midnight mass and so I just had to bleed.

I gave Patrick a copy

of my bread book for
Christrmas

Page 19

Crib Scene

St Michael and All Angels, Edgemead

Friday 25th December 2015

Christmas Day.
My shin was a bit sore but not sore enough to
stop us walking to St Michael and All Angels, the
local Anglican Church, for the Christmas service. Jill
and I agreed that it was wonderful to attend a proper
Anglican service in English for a change. In fact, I
can't remember when I last had one of those!
The service was led by Anthony Gregorowski
whom I met many years ago at one (or perhaps
more) of the synods I attended. He obviously did
not remember me.
We were home about 10h00 and had some
Eggs Benedict for a late breakfast (we had survived
this far on a bowl of cereal). Patrick had invited
Doug Taylor, one of the old chaps from the bowls
club, to lunch and we had left over chicken and ham
and a new bottle of Krug sparkling wine that was
not as good as the Pongracz either.

evening nd there were more Christmas presents.

We had boiled eggs for supper and watched
Shrek the Halls which is a pretty good short Shrek
movie. It did not make much sense, but then you
wouldn't expect it to.

Saturday 26th December 2015

Boxing day.
We needed a quiet day and managed a quiet
morning with French toast for breakfast and some
cricket on TV (most of which was watching it rain
at Kingsmead).
Pete, Taryn, Kirsten and Wendy came for
lunch which was a braai using meat that Pete
brought. It was another fun meal with good
company, but I feel that I am getting a bit overpartied.

After lunch, which went on for some time, we

played some Boulle on the parking lot of the
Methodist Church over the road.
Claire and the Clauds came around in the

Wendy, Taryn, Kirsten

and Ernie
Kirsten and Pooh

Chef Pete

Sunday 27th December 2015

Patrick went off to join Kitso for a game of bowls while Jill
and I went off to church again. This time the service was taken by
Allan Marshall, a self-supporting assistant priest.
Patrick and Grace went to a wedding in the afternoon but Jill
and I chilled at home watching cricket (not going well for South
Africa) and catching up with diaries and photographs.

Monday 28th December 2015

We were up quite early so that we could go off with Patrick
who was playing a Five-a-side soccer game along with Claude and
Claude's (other) brother-in-law. They went on to do their thing at
Canal Walk but dropped us off first at Intaka Island.
This was our second time at Intaka Island. The last time we
were here we spent a lot of the time dodging waves of school kids
who had come here to be educated about sewage disposal and green
belts and bird sanctuaries and so on. This time we almost had the
place to ourselves and could enjoy the birds in a bit more peace.

Intaka Island. Top: Table Mountain, Canal Walk and one of the Lakes.
Above: Coots, Ibis, Yellowbilled ducks
Left: One of the nesting platforms with Ibis and Cormorants

So we spent a happy few hours wandering around looking at the

nesting cormorants and ibises and all the other birds there.
Patrick and co picked us up again after their soccer which
sounded as if it had been quite fun.

Lunch at D'Aria: Jill, Patrick, Grace, Andre, LeeAnne

Below A Classic Tablecloth over the Mountain

About 12h30 the four of us went off to D'Aria, a local vineyard

with a restaurant, to meet Andre and Lee-Anne Kunz for lunch. Andre
is an old school friend of Patrick from Lyttleton Manor days and was
down on holiday in Cape Town. He is now a DJ on a radio station. It
was good company and it was nice to see Andre again and nice to meet
Lee-Anne. Unfortunately the food and service at the restaurant did not
match the company! We started off with an excellent Bread Platter
which had good fresh bread with some pate. We should have stopped
there. Grace had a paella which was inedible Jill had a pulled pork
hamburger which was dry and disgusting I had a tuna steak which was
way overcooked So it went on. There was only one waitress trying
to service about 10 tables and she was inexperienced on top of
everything. It took about 45 minutes for her to bring me a glass of
wine.
We were late home. There was talk of going to a movie but
sleep prevailed.

Tuesday 29th December 2015

The cricket was not going well for South Africa.
Patrick and Gace went off to go canoeing on the ocean with
Pete and Taryn and we went along to be spectators. The canoeists met
at Three Anchor Bay, were lectured by the guides, put their canoes into
the water, and set off up the coast and around Moulle Point towards

Page 22

the harbour. Jill and I wandered along

the coast on foot and met up with
Wendy and Kirsten. We had a nice
breakfast (I had fried eggs and trout)
while waiting for the intrepid seafarers
to return.
The kayak trip seemed fun. I
suppose that they were out for a bit
more than an hour and they saw
dolphins, seals and a brief glimpse of a
whale. I would have loved to have
done it, but my experience with the
mokoro in Botswana has proved that
there is no way that I could sit for that
long in that position without any back
support. We walked back to welcome
the sailors and then took them for
breakfast and Kirsten for a play at the
playground. Goodbye to Pete and his
side of the family.
The rest of us went on to the V
and A Waterfront and visited an
exhibition of Wildlife Photography
there. It was good arty-farty
photography so that , while admiring
the skills of the photographers, I felt
that they had perhaps missed the point
about this being an exhibition of
Wildlife photography. The exhibition

The canoeists out at sea and, below, coming back to harbour

Page 23

Top: Ready to go
Middle: Pat and Grace
Bottom: Pete and Taryn

Seapoint

Grannies, Taryn and Kirsten

Let's do cute!

shared premises with a museum of the

archaeological dig of the battery that
guarded the harbour in the Dutch East
India and early British colonial days.
Patrick had cleverly avoided the
crowded parking lots of the Waterfront and
had used a parking lot close to the
exhibition. It was easy getting into this
parking lot but almost impossible to get out.
There were lots of cars driving around and
around with desperate looking tourists
trying to find the way out. The secret,
Patrick discovered, was to ignore the arrows
that pointed to Exit (they merely took
one to a No-entry sign), but to drive in
the opposite direction. It was also important
to have paid for ones parking on the P2
level before trying to escape. Why the only
payment machines should be on the P2
level was difficult to understand (we were
parked on the P3 level, the pedestrian exit
was one level above the P1 level).
We managed to get out and home
without major mishap. In the evening we
went to the movies at Canal Walk and saw
Spectre, the latest James Bond movie. It was
quite fun as long as one did not expect a
coherent plot. We stopped for supper at the
Cape Fish Market and I had some excellent
sushi.

The Lighthouse

Page 24

Wednesday 30th December

2015

Wildlife Photography

It was very hot. Apparently it is just

as hot, if not hotter, up there in Limpopo.
But I bet that there is not a high humidity
to go along with it.
Patrick and I went off after breakfast
to play bowls. Patrick played in the Club
Championship Singles and lost. He said that
he was doing well and only 13-15 down
when he knocked the jack into the middle
of his opponent's woods and suddenly was
13-19 down. He then did virtually the same
thing on the next end and lost the game 2113,
Meanwhile I played trips with about
as unfriendly a crowd as I have ever met on
a bowling green. Not only was the company
not stimulating, but our skips decided that
we were going to play 18 ends and 18 ends
we played despite the fact the all the other
bowlers quit after 14 or 16 ends and were
long gone into the pub by the time we
finished in the heat. Patrick had been
waiting for me for nearly an hour by the
time we finished.

Battery

Back from bowls and time for a

quick (and very welcome) shower before we
went off to Claremont to an Halaal
Gunnery Equipment

restaurant, Caf on the Deck to which Patrick and Grace

had won a free lunch voucher. We shared bowls of curry:
prawn, chicken korma, butter chicken and very good they
were too. The only problem that I had with the meal was
that it was still a very hot day.
The Spice Route clockwise from
top left: lunch, old buildings,
vineyards, beer tasting, chocolate
tour, hops

31st December 2015

The last of the year and a busy day. After breakfast we went off
to visit The Spice Route which used to be I suppose it still is the
Siederberg Wine estate. Many years ago we went there with Erina Brunt
for lunch, but it has certainly changed vastly since then.
The Spice Route is a pleasant tourist trap with three (?)
restaurants, craft brewery, wine tasting, distillery, coffee, chocolate
factory, art gallery, glass blowing and probably other things. We had a
good wander around and tasted beer (Patrick, Grace, me), tasted
chocolate (Grace and Jill), drank coffee (all of us and I had the best
espresso that I have ever drunk), had an excellent lunch of mostly
antipasto and so on. We had a look at the glass factory (where Erina's
Nik used to work) and saw the very expensive glassware that they were
selling some of which was quite attractive although I am not sure who
would want to buy it.

Bill, Grace, Patrick, Jill, Claire, Claudes

We were home again about 15h00

and had a lie down until it was time to go
off to a New Year's Eve party with Claire
and the Claudes. We had some lovely
sushi for supper (Grace and Claire like
sushi almost as much as I do) and drank
some more bubbly. We played a game
that was a sort of cross between charades
and 20 questions and that was fun.
Jill and I managed to escape from
there at about 20h30 and went home to
sleep. Patrick and Grace came back some
time next year, but Jill and I had proved
yet again that the New Year does not
need our help to come in.

New Year Sushi

Spread

Grace and Claudie

Page 26

Friday 1st 2016

We were up at 06h30 which was a
bit silly after last night, but we had
agreed to go to the Newland's Forest. So
Jill, Patrick and I set off and met Pete,
Taryn and Kirsten there and went for a
pleasant walk. The Newland's Forest is a
large park on the side of Table
Mountain and there is a lot of natural
bush amongst the alien pines and gums
which are being slowly eradicated. We
saw some good birds including a Lemon
dove which I cannot remember seeing
before.
We had a peaceful rest of the day.
hamburgers for supper and a game of
Oh Hell! before going early to bed.

Clockwisw from Top Left:

Walking up the road,
Lemon Dove, Map of
Newland's Forest, "What
bird was that?", "Hello
Grandpa!"

Saturday 2nd January 2016

Pete turned up in time to have a nice breakfast of sausages and
then off we set to the Newland's Cricket Ground to see the first day
of the Second Cricket Test against England. We arrived there in time
to hear the national anthems from outside the ground and arrived
inside in time to see the first ball being bowled. England had won the
toss and were batting.
The day was another stinker and our seats were good for
watching cricket but were out in the open in the full sun and the sun
was hot and it was not pleasant. The cricket was very dour and tight
and I enjoyed it and would have enjoyed it more had I been in the

Page 28

shade. The crowd was probably more than half English and so the
atmosphere was good. I am glad that I went but I don't think that I
could have taken another day.
Patrick and Grace went off to dinner with some of Grace's old
University friends and Jill and I chilled quietly at home.

Sunday 3rd January 2016

We had kippers for breakfast and then Jill and I went to off to
church at St Michael's again. By now a lot of people knew who we
were and we felt very welcome. Anthony invited Jill to come up to the
altar and concelebrate and we thought that was a lovely gesture.

were comfortably (if slowly) at 130 for 2

at the close of play.

Jill concelebrating at St Michael's and All Angels

Back home again and Pete arrived with Taryn

and Kirsten on their way back to Joeys. We said
goodbye to them and Grace took them off to the
airport.
I spent most of the day watching cricket in the
comfort of the lounge rather than in the burning sun.
South Africa struggled in the morning with Stokes
scoring a magnificent 258 off 198 balls and helping get
England a first innings score of over 600. But then, to
show how easy the pitch was, South Africa went in and

Grace and Claire went off to

church and, when they came back, we
took the dogs to Dolphin Beach near
Table View. The dogs had a great time
running up and down and paddling (well,
Lexie paddled but Ernie doesn't) in the
sea. The conditions must have been nearly
ideal for kite surfers with the wind
running parallel to the beach and we
enjoyed watching them. Perhaps if I were
only 20 years younger? Unfortunately,
ideal kite surfing conditions are not ideal
beach conditions and the wind and
blowing sand made it a bit unpleasant for
people. So we did not stay there long but
went on into town to get some spring
rolls from a Chinese / Thai shop and
some curry from an Indian shop. Home
for a nice supper.

Monday 4th January 2016

Our last day in Cape Town just as well as
Patrick had to start working again and was hunched
over his computer from early in the morning.
Fortunately he was able to spend the rest of the day
with us.
After breakfast we all went off to the Waterfront
again. This time our destination was the Titanic
Artefacts Exhibition which mostly consisted of stuff
that had actually been brought up from the wreck of

Page 29

Scenes at Dolphin Beach, kite surfers and

the family

Left: Market

the Titanic. It was a very good exhibition I thought

and they managed to make the whole tragedy very
real. There were a lot of old photographs of the
construction of the Titanic and then there were a
lot of details about the accommodation absolute
luxury in 1st Class, pretty basic in 3rd and the
engineering of the ship.
I was struck by a couple of things. The
Titanic was very big even by today's standards then
the Titanic was surprisingly modern in terms of
what are often considered new technologies: she
was fully electrified, in full (if only Morse) radio
contact with the shore and other ships, had full
refrigeration, gym and swimming pool (1st Class
only!). The Titanic was a very safe ship and only
sank through a combination of bad luck and some
very poor decision making.

belonged to a South African passenger and which

had been returned to his daughter. When the
daughter died, the watch was donated to the Titanic
museum.
We had lunch at the Food Market near the
exhibition. I had an excellent Indian vegetarian tala
with a nice craft beer.
Back home and South Africa was doing well
at the cricket with Amla batting like the champion
he is. Grace and I had sent-out-for sushi for supper
while the non-sushi Jill and Patrick had the rest of
the left-over curry.

It was poignant to see things that had been

personal possession of travellers who had died,
which had sat for 70 years at the bottom of the sea
and were then salvaged. There was a watch that had

Top: Mountain from the V&A, Craft

Beer, Craft Cheese

Page 30

... and home we went.

Tuesday 5th January 2016
I suspected it before, but this trip has now proved to
me without question: train travel is far better than air
travel. It is more comfortable, less stressful, more
interesting and perhaps, most important, less tiring. There
is only one advantage in train travel and that is that it is
quicker. If it were possible to travel from Johannesburg to
England by train, it would take weeks whereas one can get
over the agony in a few hours in an aeroplane. (I don't
know if it is possible and it is an interesting question, but I
suspect that there is a large hunk of Africa between
Nairobi and Addis Ababa where one might have to resort
to buses. And I am not sure if the famous Cairo to
Jerusalem train still runs. And does the railway go further
north than Jerusalem?) (Not long after writing that
sentence, I watched a TV program about the trains in
Tanzania and Kenya. No, it is not even possible to travel
through Tanzania and Kenya by train let alone further
north).
But whether or not the plane is faster than the train,
it still takes a day to get from Cape Town to Johannesburg
by air. The day is made up of: breakfast, packing, sitting
around waiting for something to happen, driving to the
airport, checking in, sitting around waiting for something
to happen, boarding the bus, sitting around waiting for
something to happen, driving to the plane, boarding,
finding one's seat, sitting down waiting for something to
happen, taking off, sitting down waiting for something to
happen, landing, sitting down waiting for something to

happen, getting off the plane and onto the bus, standing
waiting for something to happen, driving to the terminal,
walking to the baggage collection point, standing around
waiting for something to happen, collecting baggage,
walking to the Gautrain station, standing around waiting
for something to happen, boarding the train, sitting around
waiting for something to happen, travelling to Sandton
(sitting down waiting for something to happen),
disembarking and waiting for something to happen
And that was the story of our trip from Patrick's
house to the Sandton Gautrain station. Patrick and Grace
kindly took s to the Cape Town airport and even went
inside with us to show us where to go. Jill wanted her bag
wrapped up in plastic and she took it off to the chap who
whirrs the bag round and round while the plastic sticks to
it and then he cuts holes in the plastic so the wheels still
work and the handle is accessible. The queues to check in
and to go through security were long and that meant that
we did not have to sit hardly at all before waiting to get
onto the bus to wait to go to the plane. It was a Mango
airlines flight which means that we had to pay an excessive
amount for a vegetarian sandwich (they did not have
chicken or beef) and a cool drink. In Joeys the plane parked
about as far as it is possible to get from the arrivals
terminal and that must have added a half hour to our trip
to the baggage pick-up. That didn't mean that we had to
wait any less time as we still had to wait there because,
presumably, our baggage took the same half an hour to get
from the plane to the round-and-round baggage thingee.

Waiting: to get checked in, waiting for

baggage, waiting for the train to go ...

Page 31

The Fish Market

perhaps the only reason
to live in Johannesburg

Have I given the impression that I don't enjoy flying very much?
Pete very kindly picked us up at the Sandton Gautrain station.
(There was some confusion there because he waited to pick us up from
the first parking garage and we waited to be picked up from the first
parking garage and there were two parking garages that could be regarded
as being the first. Fortunately cell phones help solve that sort of problem
quite quickly in the old day we would probably have spent an hour
looking for each other). We stopped at a wonderful fish shop to get some
fish for a supper braai and then we stopped at Spar to buy some groceries
for when we got back to Kokanje. On to Pete's house and hello to Taryn
(who was home from work already) and Kirsten who seemed quite glad to
see us.
We had the excellent fish braai for supper and went early to bed.

Wednesday 6th January 2016

The excellent chauffeur service provided by Pete drove us all the
way from Johannesburg to Modimolle in great comfort. Kirsten slept
some of the way and was excellent most of the time.
It is always nice to be on holiday and always nice to be home.
[Pete and Kirsten spent the night before returning to Joeys, and
spent most of the time in Kokanje in the pool because it was so hot - Jill]
Waiting at the Gautrain Station
Stefina

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