NOT HOUT BAY March 10 2012

Another glorious day when I peeked through the curtains at about 06h00 as Rab stirred and started to wake. March is usually the best month to be in Cape Town. It is usually warm without being too hot and although there is always a bit of wind about it is more likely to be a breeze than the rip-snorting gales of January and February. The rain usually holds off until mid-April.

Looking back towards Muizenberg

Fynbos bloom

Off I went to get to the trail at 07h00 – an agreed time if Steve or Pad were walking with me. I wasn’t too sure that I’d see them on the mountain, although they might be down at the pool. Friday nights by long tradition tend to be long ones with friends, a feed and a bottle or two of wine – sometimes a little more, which makes waking and walking early a less attractive option than on other mornings. I was walking and pacing myself better than I have been so I made it to the corner of the path above our old house. The last 500 or so metres to get there is fairly flat and then the trail rises again, so I was happy to call it a day for the moment and head back downhill.  I was about half way back when a voice behind me called out “What are you doing here?” and there was brother Steve,

Steve on his way

in a bit of a lather having hiked up the steep steps from above his house to what would be the end of the track if I had kept on. He declined my offer of a lift on the grounds that he needed the exercise but said we’d meet down at the pool. He was soon lost to sight as he strode on at a pace I could not keep up.

As I drove up to the pool I saw a distinctive silhouette of a man standing on the pool wall and recognised brother Pad. Sure enough he was there, as was Judy, Steve’s wife and one of her pals I hadn’t seen for a while. Steve turned up in due course and we had a wonderful swim in water that was just above 20°C according to Steve’s thermometer. He takes the temperature every day! It was this kind of serendipitous meeting that I had enjoyed so much when we lived here and made a wonderful start to the day.

Kornspitz roll and fruit

As I drove back to the cottage for breakfast I thought it would be a nice day to get across to Hout Bay, perhaps via Chapman’s Peak, a most spectacular drive, especially on a good day. But it was not to be: Man proposes, the wife disposes and, it became apparent that there were shops to visit.

First stop was to pick up Lorna and head off to what used to be Fruit and Vegetable City, but which has expanded considerably now. There was masses of good looking fruit and an enormous delicatessen section with many local delicacies and some imported ones – the  cheeses were particularly impressive. And of course the Biltong section occupied a good deal of the available space. We had an excellent ice cream and Lorna completed her purchases for the dinner tonight, to which we have been invited.

Nothing like a bit of biltong (jerky to US folk)

Could we head off to Hout Bay now? Well, no. Rab had run out of reading material and Lorna knew where there was a cheap book outlet. Just what we need – more books. Mind you this isn’t the first time this has happened. We try to bring books that we probably will not read a second time so we can abandon them along the way – or release Them To The Wild as one website has it. But…we sometimes find the books are worth keeping after all, sometimes they are replaced by local books. Whatever happens we usually take back more than we brought. It was a terrific place I must say, with an incredible selection of very cheap books. I declined to even look at them as I have four in hand and about twenty to read at home – and I am chief baggage handler, so every book bought would add to my load. Rab got four or five, but looking at them they don’t seem too promising, so hopefully they will be abandoned.

So! Off to Hout Bay now? Well no exactly, the thought of buying a Weber Kettle here and taking it back to Australia had taken root in Rab’s mind overnight and we were now on a Hunt. These Hunts are a feature of our travels. They usually relate to items that are unlikely to be found in any shop in the country in which we are at the time, but they are a fine reason for visiting every shop in the country for some mammoth shopping. By now it was heating up – over 30°C (85°F) and over my comfort limit. But that was no excuse and off I went at the first available hardware shop. They did have Weber Kettles and with weight of 14 kilos we might just be able to take it within our baggage allowance. BUT…..was it possible to find a cheaper Weber? And what would a Weber cost in Australia? To cut a long story short, we DID find a cheaper Weber, after several visits to several shops over the next few days and we DID Google Webers in Australia and (no surprise to me) they were cheaper in Australia. Thank goodness for that says the Baggage Master.

Even my two passengers agreed that it was so hot that they were thirsty, so off to Constantia Centre and the Mugg and Bean for their excellent iced coffee so we could pick up the angels and reindeer from Terence. Alas! Terence was puzzled – he’d never heard of the order. What about Bright – his brother – where was he? Well, the term ‘brother’ has many meanings in the African society and extends way beyond the sibling relationship we normally think of. Clearly Bright might have been a brother but he wasn’t a sibling. Terence said his phone was out of funds, could he borrow mine? A long talk in Chishona, Terence’s language, followed at the end of which Terence apologised and said it would all be ready tomorrow.

Too late now for  a trip to Hout Bay we went back to the cottage and I collapsed on the bed  for a good snooze. That heat was getting to me.

We had been invited to Lorna’s daughter Kim’s house for a meal in the evening with her and her husband Johann. There was a certain vagueness about the time since times of three, four and five had been mentioned. We chose four o’clock as the mid point and went over there. Only to find that Lorna’s granddaughter Dominique had put her hand through a pane of glass gashing her hand badly. Her father didn’t seem too concerned as he watered the garden. We sat in what little shade there was while the dogs came to investigate us. The family have recently acquired two bitsers that would do pretty well in any ugly dog competition. It was really quite a weird afternoon and evening in many ways – some might call it surreal in the current vogue for inappropriate words.

After finishing the watering Johann went inside to join another guest, who we had not met watch a game of rugby on television. Some time later Lorna’s ex-husband appeared from the house asking why we hadn’t greeted him (Answer: Because we didn’t know you were there!) Johann’s friend came out at half time and introduced himself to us, chatted briefly and then disappeared inside for more rugby. The family duly returned, Dominique with eighteen stitches and the evening got under way.

The new pups at Kim's House

The meal consisted of mussel soup and two prawn dishes based on Thai recipes. I found the soup a little strong in flavour, but the prawns were excellent. There is a bit of a fuss in Australia at present about prawns being imported from Eastern countries – mainly Vietnam and China – because of the suspicion that their  standards of cleanliness might be somewhat different from those set out in our regulations. No such concerns here in SAfrica, where the fish are grown in India – an even more suspect site than Vietnam. None of us came to any harm however.

It was hot in the house and we made our exit soon after the meal and headed for a cooling swim and bed.