A Tale of Two Chemists: Wet and Windy

Wet and Windy … Saturday 1st - Sunday 2nd June

The weekend was, as predicted, very wet and very windy. Saturday was a bit of a washout all round as Gloria woke up feeling ill from an upset stomach. We don't know if it was viral or bacterial but she spent the day in bed. Thankfully she was feeling a lot better by Sunday morning. I took the car back to Simonstown and the penguin colony on Saturday morning to get some more photos - in the rain. Then in the afternoon I returned the car and we spent the evening watching old episodes of "How I met your mother" on the computer. Sunday was a much more enjoyable day. We took a taxi down to the waterfront and wandered around for a couple of hours. This area has been extensively developed with a shopping mall that is as affluent as any that we've seen, as well as a number of craft and food markets. After a quick lunch we met up with Tasha and spent the afternoon in the "Two oceans aquarium" which was excellent. Just as a brief aside - I grew up learning that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern most point of the African continent. Not so. Cape Agulhas, about 60 miles to the South East of Cape Town is actually the southern most point and where the Indian and Atlantic oceans actually meet with their currents driving warm nutrient poor water (Agulhas current) down the east coast and cold nutrient rich water (Benguela current) up the west coast. So the waters off the southern tip of the continent are an immense mixing ground. Whilst in the aquarium we avoided a spectacular hailstorm that drove half centimeter hail onto the ground, making an incredible noise inside the building. We took a taxi back up to our accommodation and in the evening went out for an excellent steak dinner at a local restaurant called Hussars. Garden salad (Gloria), springbok carpaccio (Mike and Tash), fillet steak with mustard sauce (Gloria and Tash), rump steak with bernease sauce (Mike), potatoes and vegetable, one ice cream sundae (shared) and a wonderful atmosphere - all for the equivalent of $80 including a fine bottle of wine (Pinotage) - you can't beat that!

Mike