It seems we got nearly three quarters of the way through our appointed time in South Africa, before we visited the tourist meccas of the Cape.  Our chance came with the visit of Ruthann's cousin, Linda Barstow, and family (Dave, and kids Geoff and Suzie) from Austin, Texas.  They like to go where there are total solar eclipses.  There's one up around the Zambesi River this June.  We met them in Cape Town for a few days of touring, and they spent a couple of days with us and off on safari to Hluhluwe.  Then they took off to Zimbabwe and Zambia for more animals and the eclipse.  It was fun to have them here, and a good excuse to get to see the Cape Town area.
     We saw Table Mountain; the Kirstenbosch Gardens; the Cape Peninsula; Robben Island (a 'dumping ground' for undesirables pretty much from the beginning of the Cape Colony, and after WWII a political prison which housed, most famously, Nelson Mandela); and the wine country around Franschoek and Stellenbosch.  And we ate very, very well in and around the Victoria and Alfred [sic] Waterfront.

Some of the intrepid travelers -- Suzie, Linda, Geoff and Ruthann.

When we first go to Table Mountain, the cable car is stuck, here.  The Barstows tried again, another day; we walked about and found a Cape Sugarbird.

The view of Cape Town from the bottom of the cable car line up to Table Mountain.

Ditto, to the right of the former picture.

A flower in the fynbos family, at the Kirstenbosch Gardens on the back side of Table Mountain.

Table Mountain, behind the Waterfront.

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