What has Cape Town got that the rest of us don’t ?

Table mountain….. and I must admit it is a magnificent mountain…. it claims a few things few other places can claim, if any…

This area forms part of the Cape Floristic Region and as such supports a high diversity of flora, much of which is rare and endemic. Protea, erica, restio and Asteraceae species, as well as geophytes, are all found in abundance. The main indigenous vegetation types are Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos and Cape Granite Fynbos, both of which are endangered and endemic to Cape Town – occurring nowhere else in the world.

Now all I needed was a visit from Jan and Stephen Roberts from New Zealand to have made this trip perfect…. I might not like the rugby team they support (although we beat them last weekend) but I do so admire Stephens landscape photography… CLICK HERE TO SEE THEIR BLOG …

Jan and Stephen ride their bicycles all over the place normally with their two dogs in tow… Jan loves a certain bakery in their area and seems unable to miss stopping there, although she never shares photos of their wares… (selfish I’d say)…

But I’m getting off the point… I needed Stephen’s eye and photos to do justice to a beautiful area…  here are a few I took, and I apologise for the “stuff up”… birds are more my scene…

and a close up..

Jan and Stephen please come and visit…. Cape Town needs you…

I take bird photos and here is one I took whilst there….

Hartlaub’s Gull… great pilots…

On our recent visit to Cape Town, one of my favourite places is Houtbay… There is the greatest little food spot called “Fish on the Rocks” with the British flag flying where ever you look… we won’t hold that against them, as their calamari is to die for….

But Houtbay has a lot of seagulls associated with the area, as it is a big fishing industry harbour… (more photos of that to follow)

Cape Town is well known for its wind… it can blow so hard that a rectum reaction is often felt. These gulls however hover in that wind, not a flapping of the wings, like the experienced pilots they are. They can hang there and take a chip or calamari ring from your hand so gently that you feel you could share the whole packet with them.

Some people do, not I, if they think I fly down from Gauteng to share such tasty calamari with them, they must think again… Go catch your own… This girl fed all hers to them while the boyfriend took photos…

I like to call these next photos – Hovering gulls…

But this photo you just have to love… go on say differently….

Sea Lion… wet and dry…

Now here I’m a bit out of my depth. This is not the lion I know that roams the bush in search of an antelope to make a meal of. This one swims in the sea, basks in the sun at the Cape Town Water Front and STINKS….

I realise they are not only at the Water Front in Cape Town, but these are the only ones I’ve seen in their natural habitat, if basking on the concrete is their natural habitat.

One that had obviously been basking a while was nice and dry. The other made its appearance and seemed to be able to jump up onto the concrete without much effort, even though it seemed FAT… (is one allowed to use that word? Or is it now deemed bad, unconstitutional or demeaning? Maybe it is weight impaired? My blog so we stick to FAT.)

Here’s a few photos….

Certainly are different things to photograph in the Cape….