South Africa

21.05.09 We land back at Heathro, collect a hire car and drive back to Derbyshire. The house and garden look good. The end of our world tour.
20.05.09 The storeroom is packed - the space to open the door is all that is left. As usual we leave at the last minute to get to the airport.
19.05.09 New curtains made for one of the bedrooms with very high windows. Ian continues to pack furniture into the store room. A final visit to Hout Bay and a brief sojourn along Chapman's Peak Drive - we needed the light relief.
18.05.09 A visit to the Breakers developers to view some of their other projects. Barbara's new tanzanite ring is collected - looking very good. Packing continues.
17.05.09 Another visit to our house to remove more things from the store room. Hope they will fit in the other store! Lunch with Annette in her new house.
16.05.09 A day of packing as the apartment is to be let unfurnished. We are hopeful that all the furniture will go into the storeroom. Dinner at the tatty looking Olympia cafe in Kalk Bay - by far the best food we've eaten in Cape Town this visit!
15.05.09 The final maintenance day on the apartment.
14.05.09 Our statue from Franschhoek arrived at the house - installed and looking very good.
13.05.09 An apartment maintenance day.
12.05.09 A day of business admin meetings.
11.05.09 We visit Hout Bay and our new Breakers' apartments. WIP, but the location is even better than expected. Bump into lots of people we know.
10.05.09 Superb weather and a visit to the winelands for lunch. We discover that the sculptor who installed some of his work in our house died of TB a week ago. We purchase more of his work.
09.05.09 Final clean up, several fixes, and we once again have a desirable apartment. Dinner with our tenants in Hout Bay.
08.05.09 Quite a lot to do to make bring it back up to scratch. We will now let unfurnished so all furniture must relocate to the store room when we leave.
07.05.09 We attend a morning fund raising performance by Pieter-Dirk Uys, first as himself and then as his alter ego Evita se Perron/Evita Bezuidenhout. Excellent. We relocate from Annette's to the apartment.
06.05.09 Meetings in Cape Town followed by a meeting at our Berg en Dal house to review the new external wall coating. Very strange not being resident there!
05.05.09 A visit to Cape Town in sea fog to visit the apartment. Work to be done!
04.05.09 We arrive after 14 hours from Sydney to Johannesburg, 3 hour wait, 2 hour flight to Cape Town. Annette greets us at 22:30.

  • Western Cape
    Winelands
  • Cape Town
    Hout Bay
  • Cape Town
    CBD

Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch MountainsOld wine pressOld wine de-stalker


It's not high season so most wineries are closed on Sunday. We found that Louiesienhof was open for tastings as they had a restaurant - but sadly fully booked!

 

Franschhoek

Ian admiring the porcupine quill in his fishA nice fish dish in Franschhoek pinned to its potato base with a porcupine quill.

We lunched close to our favoured sculpture gallery and popped in to see what was currently available
We were really sad to find that the sculptor Pedzisai Mupinga had died suddenly of TB a week earlier.
We found a picture of the three of us in our house in Hout Bay with his Freedom of Movement statue on the wall in the gallery.
Of course we purchased another statue by Pedzisai.


 

Announcement of the death of the sculptor Pedsisai Mupinga Pedzisai with Ian and Barbara in Hout BayOur new sculpture by Pedzisai - Elephant EarsElephant ears installed in its new home


 

Breakers

View from lower floor in Breakers apartment accross to Chapmans Peak DriveView of the harbour and The Sentinel from lower floor in Breakers apartmentIan taking pictures


 

A view through the walls!Breakers is finally making progress. We were allowed to don hard hats and climb ladders to the slab of our lower floor. The views exceeded our expectations! We are now even more anxious for the completion.

We are hopeful that the apartments will be fitted before the December 2009 closedown. The apartments to the back of the complex will not be ready till spring 2010.


 

Berg-en-Dal

Flowering yucca in the rock gardenView from the pool deck towards the harbour and The SentinelIt was most was strange visiting our house as a guest! The views remain magnificent but the house is being re-painted and has scaffolding all round it. Nice to see the yuccas in flower.

Chapman's Peak Drive is currently closed beyond the Peak itself, due to rock fall. Repairs and refurbishment are much in evidence.


 

Chapman's Peak Drive

Champamn's Peak rangeRepair taking place on Champan's Peak driveThe Sentinel from Chapman's Peak Drive


 

34 St George's

View from the apartment to Table MountanSaturday singers/dancers in St George's Mall viewed from aboveDancers on St George's


 

The apartment furnishedThe apartment is now completely empty.