Cape Town

The weather is changing here and for the last few nights I’ve had to pull the cotton blanket over us in the night.  Not sure I didn’t prefer the excessive heat of the last two months!  Today we met old hiking buddies out near Durbanville and had a picnic on top of the Tygerberg Hills Nature Reserve.  The wind howled and we had to anchor everything down on the picnic table – including the lettuce!  It was a “No Alcohol” place but that didn’t stop the guys as Kuan makes his own beer and had brought along two bottles of his stout which apparently tastes remarkably like Guiness.  OAP took a half bottle of white and a bottle of red so they did a veritable wine and beer tasting and I was amazed they were able to walk back to the cars afterwards!  This reserve is a favourite with locals and you have to sign in and pay or (like our friends) be a Friend of Tygerberg - FOTs. We, on the other hand are FOPs – Friends of Pilanesberg!   We found it a bit barren spreading over 2 hills, the tops of which are crowned with Telkom and Cell Phone masts.  Bontebok were grazing on the lower slopes and we saw an enormous leopard tortoise on the crest of one of the hills while we were watching Black Eagles and Jackal Buzzards soaring and circling.  Amazing how they seem happy on just these small hills – we’re used to them in the craggy kranzes of the Magaliesberg, but I suppose wherever there is food so you’ll find something that eats it.  Speaking of which we had a quarter of a water melon over which we gave to the penned in tortoises near the entrance gate – they loved it!  We asked the ranger’s permission and he happily gave it then came to see if they would eat it.  They did!  He told us that before their last “burn” they employed 40 beaters to walk ahead of the flames and pick up the tortoises so they wouldn’t die.  Then they separated out the Leopard ones and penned them up and are giving them away as apparently they don’t really belong in this area.  Only Angulate and Beaked are naturally occurring there.  Who knew?!  OK, and probably you are asking “Who cares?” but I really wanted to take home a tiny one the size of a R5 coin!!  I may still go and get it when we leave here on our way home, as they naturally occur in the Magaliesberg and so I can reintroduce it.  You are not supposed to transport wild animals across the province borders in SA but the ranger will give me a transportation certificate.  But I did disillusion him by reminding him that the huge Leopard tortoise we saw on the hill has probably mated with every female around and so there are bound to be many, many R5 coin sized tortoises wandering the hills!  They had one poor tortoise that had actually been caught in the fire and rescued and he is SO ugly that no-one wants to adopt him!  His shell is sort of half melted and his skin on his head and neck is sort of yellow and patchy – a real burns victim poor thing.

Yesterday we went to OAPs cousin in Noordhoek where we had a slap-up lunch and exchanged family news, showed them our wedding album and they showed us their daughters’.  OAP’s aunt is 89 and is remarkably bright and witty, though looking a wee bit frail.  She had us roaring with laughter at her high jinks with a new zimmer frame with wheels!  I think most oldies use them on flat ground but not Val!  The estate where they live is all ups or downs so it’s hard work either pushing it uphill or hanging on on the downward slope!  She even tried walking the dog by tying the lead to it but ended up like Ben Hur with his chariot!  Sisters mine – does that bring to mind anyone we knew when we lived in Parkwood in the 60s!!!!!!