We travelled the 45 miles from Houw Hoek to Cape Town this morning. En route at the viewing point on top of the Sir Lowry's pass we stopped to view False Bay and Table Mountain in the distance - many photos were taken and some gifts bought from the street marketeers there. Unlike 3 years ago when Visakan was chased around the car park by a baboon there were none there today - they must have known that Visakan was not coming. Our route took us along the N2 highway through the Cape Flats where on the left the main informal settlements, Khayalisha, Crossroads and Guguletho could be seen. In these it is estimated that 7m people now live, most of whom are not South Africans but migrants from the rest of sub Saharan Africa. For the tourists it was an eye openers as they witnessed literally thousands of makeshift huts on postage stamp size plots all almost on top of one another - electricity is now supplied and basic sanitation provided but it is an enormous problem for the city of Cape Town for which there is no obvious solution. We rounded the northern end of Table Mountain to get the view of Table Bay for the first time and made our way to the hostel where we are staying. it is in a beautiful location on the side of Signal Hill right at the side of Table Mountain and close to the Cableway. The views are stunning both of the Mountain and of the bay.
The great plus today is that the wind has dropped and we have wall to wall sunshine and the weather forecast is that it is set fair for the rest of the trip which is great news.
Having settled in the coach decided that after yesterday's display an extend3ed fielding session was called for and so this was held on the hostel's rugby pitch - the temperature was approaching that of Namibia but the sea breeze was most refreshing. After lunch the team has come to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront - the heart of modern Cape Town - where they are having an extended look at the shops for souvenirs and presents and then will have their evening meal. This blog is being typed at an internet cafe on the Waterfront because, as expected, there is no internet at the hostel but there is supersport satellite TV so cricket can be watched much to the delight of Nigel Jacob as he is desperate to see his hero Sachin Tendulkar in action in the current test between SA and India being played at Centurion, Pretoria, sadly India are currently well behind in that test, much more so than England are after day two of the Perth test. Maybe England can pull another rabbit out of the hat tomorrow - let's hope so.
Tomorrow we play at the beautiful Western Province Cricket Club, and Sunday at Avendale. Let us hope that with the sun that has been forecast with temperatures hitting 30 degrees we can raise the standard of cricket. We certainly have worked at it hard enough.
Not sure when next there will be a blog.
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