Halling Holidays: Kirstenbosch

We had a two day stop in Cape Town and opted to have a day doing our own thing and one doing a trip to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens and wine ‘farm’. (I find South Africa’s term a little less than romantic.)

The gardens comprise one fabulous view after another. They are large so we decided to focus on height and get to the tree canopy walk. The path up was enchanting.

And the tree canopy walkway opened up the views with castle rock in the background. The birdsong was a really varied although it did need to compete with loudhailers from the annual marathon that ran adjacent to the gardens and caused quite a bit of a challenge in getting our coach in and out.

The blues and greens of a perfect day with manicured lawns and rugged mountains - how would you define idyllic?

The bird life was plentiful although quite hard to spot. This honeyeater really blended well with its surroundings.

There was a Jurassic area where a variety of skeletons had been found. There was also one Cycad. This rare tree was found and cloned by John Medley Wood during the turn of the (18^th) century. The bark used to be harvested for medicinal purposes. There are now some 500 trees in various parts of the world but all have been cultivated from this tree. It is male and not viable as there are no known female Cycads. This one has a cage, sensors and cameras to thwart miscreants.

All of which was too much information and walking for some of our team – where once more coffee became the focus.

Suitably refreshed our next stop continued the spectacular views. Kirstenbosch wine farm also benefitted from green lawns, blue sky, rugged mountains with the addition of Autumnal rustic vines.

The farm buildings were beautiful Dutch inspired architecture with white walls, thatched roofs and a duck pond to add to the calm scene. That was until there was a lively fracas between two ducks nipping and chasing one another which caused great amusement to onlookers including shrieks from some excited children.

Inside, the visit returned to calm where wine barrels in a beautifully lit cellar were the penultimate stop to some tasting.

Our arrival in Cape Town overlapped with Queen Victoria. The plan was to move onto her berth when she departed however, the wind running down the harbour really picked up and her departure was delayed some 12 hours.

The upside was that it was not at night but sunrise when she departed making for interesting manouvres.

There is no mistaking where we are when you see this shot taken from the waterfront.

The V&A waterfront has expanded since our last visit and is even more lively than before. However, seals showing off seems to have been handed down over the years.

We walked the 1km or so from the ship to V&A on a few occasions. There were several groups who took the opportunity to perform their uniquely South African songs and dances.