Category Archives: Cape Town

Hike @ Silvermine Nature Reserve – 14 May 2016

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On Saturday, 14 May 2016, myself and another 17 members of the Gantouw Hiking Club did a 9.2km hike in the Silvermine Nature Reserve.  The reserve was closed for a long time after a devastating fire in 2015 but opened again earlier this year.  The hike is a fairly easy hike (about a 2a or 2b maybe) and below is the map of the route we did. The only part us the piece on the left which include a bit of scrambling up rocks and little bit on the edge of the cliff but nothing dangerous.

The morning started out very misty but since rhe reserve is high up on the mountaing range, we were way above the misty clouds below.  However this made for some great photographs.

With the sun above us and to out backs and the clouds and mist in front below us, I had the rare experience of seeing a Brocken Specktre … yes I had no idea what it was either but had a person in the group who explained it.  It is basically your body that throw a shadow against the cloud below and form a rainbow around your shadow.  Tried to photograph it but did not come out very clear but you should get the idea.

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We had lunch at  Noordhoek Peak bench, on the map above, the point top left.  Here we had a view of the sea below.
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Gallery of photos taken during the hike, enjoy and comments welcome.
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Virgin Kite Surfing Armada, new World Records – 415 kiters

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On 30 January 2016 an attemp was made to break the Kite Surfing world record that was held by Spain at Blouberg Beach, Cape Town.  The previous record was 353 kiters which was broken with the new record now standing at 415 kitters.

It was a perfect sunny windy day with perfect conditions for the kitters.
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At 1pm the 400 plus kitters set off from the beach in front of Dophin Beach hotel up to Doodles restuarant, a stretch of about 1km.  When all was counted and verified, 415 kitters were in the air/on the water at the same time.

Photo Gallery:

More abour the event and the world record can be read on News24 and Traveller24.

Hike: Newlands Forrest and Rhodes Memorial – 9 Jan 2016

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On the morning of 9 January 2016, a group of 16 of us from the Gantouw Hiking Club hiked from the Newlands Fire Station in the Newlands Forrest on a circular route past Rhodes Memorial that brought us back to the Fire Station.

As can be seen from the route board there is various routes one can take:
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After some deliberation, a route was picked and we set off.
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The route was about 10km which took us about 3 hours to walk.  The start was at 96m and the highest point that we reached was 470m.  The hike is mostly in the shade under the forrest trees.  It is a very gentle hike.  Here is the route from Runkeeper that we completed.
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After the hike we went to the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant for some well deserved drinks.  Photagraphs taken with my Canon Powershot SX20 IS.

Sea Point Promenade walk

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After the strenuous walk up Skeleton Gorge over the weekend, I had the give my legs a light exercise and what better walk than on the Sea Point Promenade.

Started at the famous Mouille Point lighthouse.

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Walked all the way to the other side of Sea Point and back with great views of the ocean.

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And do not forget to have a look at Lions Head. When in Cape Town then go and have a picnic right on top, best views in then whole world.

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Table Mountain, Maclear’s Beacon via Skeleton Gorge

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Hiked to Maclear’s Beacon on top of Table Mountain via Skeleton Gorge.

It was a nice sunny day when we started at the bottom at Kirstenboch Botanic Gardens but when we arrived at Maclear’s Beacon, the miss has come in and we could hardly see in front of us.  Just show how dangerous hikes up Table Mountain can be.

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Before the miss set in we had some great views from atop of the Mountain.

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Flowers on top of the mountain is always beautifull.  Unfortunately the Disa is not flowering yet and Proteas neither.  However saw some beautifull flowers.

 

 

SA Local Election – Done the deed in under 5 minutes – some observations and ID stamp picture going back to 1992.

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Must say I was impressed with the IEC at my local voting station.  I was in and out in under 5 minutes with no issues whatsoever.  The one ballot had about 50 parties on it and must say I did not had a clue or have never heard about at least 40 of those parties.  The other ballot paper had about 30 names on it and I recognised probably about 5 of those names.  I just cannot see how the majority of those on the ballots will get any meaningfull votes.

The oher thing I observed was that the DA had a table right outside the door of the voting station.  As far as I know, parties are not allowed to do any cavasing today and under the banner of checking whether your name is on the list, thay came very close to canvasing.

I have now collected a fair amount of stanps and stickes in my ID book.  Here is a picture of it
 

As you can see it goes all the way back to the Referendum we had in 1992 and variuos elections since then. Can you recognised the stamp that was used today? Yes I did remember to blank out my ID number 🙂

Have you done your deed today and what was your experience like?