A pachyderm in a pantechnicon

Some very welcome rain fell this morning. This elephant looked snug as a - well - snug as a pachyderm in a pantechnicon as it lumbered out of Cape Town on the West Coast road.

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Another view of Table Mountain!

Last night on my way home at about 7.30 pm, a northerly "cold front" was starting to build up clouds in front of Table Mountain. Cape Town gets its notorious wind from the south-east, and its welcome rain mostly from the north or north-west. The Table Mountain upper cable-car station is just visible as a dot on the tip of the western edge of the mountain (extreme right in this photo.)
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Monwabisi Strand

Monwabisi Strand is a resort on the edge of False Bay with wonderful views across False Bay from Cape Point to Hangklip. It is famous amongst surfers for its surf breaks, and amongst holidaymakers for having the largest tidal pool in the Southern Hemisphere.But is has a chequered past. Monwabisi Park is the the southernmost division of the township of Khayelitsha (home to between 500 000 and 1 000 000 residents of which about half are unemployed) about 30 km from the centre of Cape Town. The resort on the windswept coast of False Bay (look at the trees in the left of the photo to see how hard the Southeaster blows here!) was built by the apartheid regime, about thirty to forty years ago, for the black inhabitants of the informal black settlements on the Cape Flats. (The "coloured" population was awarded the windswept Strandfontein Pavilion further south and the whites got the pick of all the other beautiful beaches!) The surf here is also quite treacherous and the resort remains a rather dodgy spot - don't even try going there on your own out of season as the crime rate is HIGH.
It remains a wonderful tradition however, despite everything, that on Boxing Day everyone goes to the beach and if it is windy (which is about 300 days of the year!), there are "braai spots" in the sand dunes and amongst the invasive Port Jackson bush in which you can hunker down out of the Southeaster.
Never make the mistake of trying to drive along the coastal road on Boxing Day (or the Day of Goodwill which 26 December is now officially called) for it will take you hours and hours to get through the traffic. But go to absorb the wonderful atmosphere by all means.
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Open to the elements

Hop on and hop off Cape Town's open top City Sightseeing Bus. The sky's the limit . . .
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Grey skies

Grey birds and grey skies this morning. Hadedas in the dead branches at the very top of this ancient old pine tree on the edge of the rugby fields at Wynberg Boys High School.

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Rainbow over St James Peak

On our Wednesday walk, a cold front shambled in over the mountains bringing some misty rain, and the most spectacular rainbow over St James Peak, which is above the little seaside suburb of St James.

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Moon and sunset

Last night's moon and sunset.

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Moon over Trovato Estate

Walking the dogs in the Wynberg High School fields this morning, this was the view that confronted us. A beautiful, almost full moon was still hanging around, and Tovato House (that gives its name to the area - Trovato Estate) was lit up by the rising sun. Table Mountain in the background.
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Sunset over CapeTown

Coming down Sir Lowry's Pass last Sunday with the sun just about to set and the inevitable traffic jam (you can see the line of shiny cars stretching across from the lower left of the photo into the sun). False Bay and Table Mountain in the background.

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