New Year's Day Leg Stretch - Cape Town

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 1 Jan 2020 23:57
New Year's Day Leg Stretch - Cape Town
 
 
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Many folk in the early hours said they would be up for a bimble at midday. Allen, Patricia and the two of us were the only ones...... We left the V+A Marina and crossed the bascule bridge heading toward the malls to check out some computer repairs, get a feel for the place and enjoy a long, slow lunch.
 
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We watched the outer bridge open to let several pleasure craft going out for the day.
 
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A shy little one was hoisted up onto one of the colourful Waterfront residents. Then we headed for The Big Wheel.
 
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After an hour bimbling around on of the malls we did indeed enjoy a very long, slow, tasty lunch and then went in search of the Hop On Hop Off office to see about some trips. We spotted this great sign outside an eatery and Bear posed. An absolute classic. Just then Kevin and Irma found us and Irma took over as director of operations.
 
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I stopped at an information board. My how The Waterfront has grown since we were here in 2003.
 
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Indigenous Khoi watch the Dutch settlement in Table Bay.
 
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The Chavonnes Battery, one of the Dutch fortifications on the Waterfront.
 
Here people have arrived, met, lived, loved and laboured for generations. For the Dutch it was a military outpost and a refreshment station. Table Bay is the key to the history of Cape Town – the reason for its existence and the source of its prosperity. .
 
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The wreck of the convict ship ‘Waterloo’ on the 28th of August 1842.
 
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The problems of disembarking and offloading ships before the docks were built at the Cape.
 
Cape Town became part of Britain’s global Empire after it was formally annexed in 1814. The first aim of the British was to construct a harbour of refuge because the north-westerly gales were so bad that Lloyds of London refused to insure winter shipping in Table Bay. But times were changing. Cape Town lay at the crossroads of the expanding Empire. In 1857, when the first mailship arrived in Cape Town, there were sixty ships in Table Bay bound for India with troops to put down the mutiny against British rule.
 
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The latest technology, such as this crane in the 1930s, was used to build and work the docks. Time for me to catch up to the gang.
 
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The Boatshed Indoor Market. This was to be a used as a shortcut through to the Hop On Hop Off office but Patricia and I found it far too distracting. The colours, diversity of crafts and clothes had us promising to spend a whole day in here bimbling about.
 
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A shop where everything is made from recycled teabags. Loved the Mrs. Roosevelt comment by the door. Then we oooo’d and arrrrr’d at some wonderful wildlife paintings and were easily distracted at the ostrich egg stall. Lamps......
 
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.......Hand painted.......covered in ostrich skin.....
 
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........Colourful, featuring maps and the Big Five.......
 
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........back to the lamps. Irma came to scoop us up at this point.
 
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I caught up with Bear at the far door to the indoor market, he posed next to this chap and had to duck to do ‘the trigger finger’. Bear loved the name Beezy. HOHO office for information, then someone suggested an ice cream from Häagen-Dazs which meant traipsing all the way back to the food mall, then all the way back and beyond to have a drink where Irma led......
 
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We bimbled around the edge of the marina to the farthest corner from where our respective girls are currently enjoying a rest passing platforms set out for sea lions to sleep. The smell was ripe to say the very least.
 
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Settled on the upper patio of the One and Only Hotel we had a marvelous view of Table Mountain.
 
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Our Cape of Storms cocktails – seemed appropriate given the last four hours of our journey here. I videoed as the waiter poured water on the dry ice in the bottom to make them smoke but of course the others never stopped yapping throughout........growling.
 
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A model doing her stuff, didn’t like the shoes.
 
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En route for a ‘ladies together’ bathroom visit, we passed the hotel shop. Along the wall were some incredible heads. I zoned in on the zebra. The chap in the middle is just shy of full size and up close he is made of thousands of tiny beads (a local craft). Price tag two hundred and fifty pounds.
 
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Looking down on one of the dining rooms and we were suitably impressed with the wash basins.
 
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A little look in the shop but I was very taken with these chaps. Buffalo complete with pecking friends, gazelle and lion.
 
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It took quite a bit of disciplined persuasion to get Patricia and Irma to pose by this magnificent elephant head – didn’t look at the price.
 
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Hotel water feature, man-made canal system and after much effort......Under Irma’s guidance HOHO bus tickets were bought online for tomorrow (wine tour) and then it was down to bill sorting for our drinks......
 
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Posing outside The One and Only Hotel. By the end of our prolonged bimble, I felt (and indeed seemed to be dressed) like a matron trying to keep her psychiatric-patient-charges together and accounted for.....We got back to Beez Neez at eight thirty........
 
 
ALL IN ALL QUITE A FUN ROUTE MARCH
                     A NICE, LONG BIMBLE