Brenda Back in Australia

Brenda landed safely in Perth about 12 hours ago. 

After returning from the Inverdoorn Game Reserve we realized that the visit was coming to and end so we set some modest touring targets which we were able to meet.  They had to be realistic targets because Brenda and I were emerging from the effects of a very nasty virus infection.

View from Table Mountain

Looking at Hout Bay and Lighthouse

The Lion's Head and Cape Town

On Tuesday morning we woke to a beautiful clear day with little wind and decided to have another go at visiting Table Mountain.  It turned out to be a brilliant decision.  We arrived in the taxi at about 10 AM to find no waiting lines.  We purchased our tickets and stepped into the next cable car gondola almost immediately. We spent a splendid 2 or 3 hours walking some of the paths at our leisure and got a good measure of the area's ecology.  The views were all around were spectacular and on the way back to the marina we agreed that Table Mountain well deserves its place among the top ten tourist destinations of the world.  (Iguazu Falls is another.)

On Wednesday we went to VandA for some gift shopping.  Tagging along with Brenda gave me confidence regarding some gift shopping that I needed to do for myself.

On Thursday afternoon we made a second visit to Kirstenbosch Gardens and we managed to get an hour-long private tour of the gardens with a guide driving us in a small open shuttle.  Thanks to him we were able to visit parts of the gardens and learn things about the plants, animals, and history of the place that would not have been possible otherwise.  After our tour Brenda went off on her own with her binoculars while I contributed to the relaxed atmosphere of the gardens by dozing on one of the benches.  I am no botanist, but even I can see that Kirstenbosch is a world class botanical garden and recommend it highly to visiting lovers of nature.

Our Knowledgeable Guide at Kirstenbosch Gardens

Cecil Rhodes planted many of these trees when he owned the entire area

 With Kirstenbosch we had visited 5 of the 6 "must see" tourist  attractions of the area: Robben Island, VandA waterfront, Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch, and Cape Point.  I think that the sixth one is Groot Constantia, the oldest wine estate in South Africa.

On Thursday evening Brenda took a bad turn and vomited a couple of times but fortunately she was well enough on Friday morning to make the flight back to Australia, which went well. 

I'm not exactly 100% either and hope to improve a bit before departing Cape Town in a few days.