Cape Town

A garden party

Published February 16, 2012

There is a band that to the best of my knowledge perform only once a year. They are called Fully Covered, and every February they play a gig at somebody’s house in Bergvliet. Hence the name of the gig “Fully Covered Garden Party”. The garden is large enough for about 400 people to spread themselves and their picnics around the lawn, and to spend a few hours listening to some great music. This is precisely what we did on Saturday evening.

This is the second time that I have gone to the Garden Party (thanks Sarah), and both times have been so much fun. I was enjoying the music (and my glass of bubbly) far too much to take many photos, but I did manage to snap off a few; strangely enough mostly of the drummer.

Posted in Bands, Cape Town, Daily Photo |

Tagged band, Cape Town, Music, party |

2 Comments

Classic car

Published January 22, 2012

This lovely old car was shot at the classic car expo yesterday. I took tons of photos, so watch the blog for more to follow.

Posted in Cape Town, Daily Photo, HDR, Transport |

Tagged Cape Town, cars, classic, HDR |

3 Comments

Kitesurfing in Muizenberg

Published January 9, 2012

On the same day that I took the windsurfing shots, I went down to the beach to watch the kite surfers. Now if you think that the windsurfers go fast, they are like a child with training wheels on a new bicycle compared to the crazy kite surfers.

If you put skydiving, water skiing, windsurfing and surfing into a giant bowl and mixed, you would get something resembling kite surfing. This is the only water-sport I know where wearing a helmet is (or at least should be) considered good form.

I don’t know how high they jump, but it looks like it can easily be over 5 meters. Sometimes you can see the beginners practise on Zandvlei (where the wind surfers usually are), and it takes a lot of practise and skill to get as good as this guy.

Buy wow, it looks like fun, maybe I will try it someday.

Posted in Cape Town, Daily Photo, Muizenberg, Sport |

Tagged Cape Town, kite surfing, Muizenberg, wind |

3 Comments

Cycling to Cape Point

Published December 26, 2011

After all the wonderful meals I ate yesterday, some exercise was much needed, so I took the opportunity of a relatively cool and wind-free day to go for a morning cycle.

I went from home to the entrance of the Cape Point Nature Reserve, and the roads were surprisingly quiet. This was not the case on the return cycle; by then Cape Town was awake and about a million people were headed off to the beaches along my route.

Anyway, I cycled for 56km so I am ready for tonight’s dinner out :-)

Posted in Cape Town, Daily Photo, Phone pics, Places, Scenery, Sport |

Tagged Cape Town, cycling |

2 Comments

On fire

Published December 21, 2011

We have mountain fires in Cape Town every summer. Usually they happen when it is hot and windy, and mostly they are started by cigarette butts being thrown out of car windows.

This year is no exception. On Saturday the mountain just above Boyes Drive was on fire, and the fire-crews were using two helicopters to dump water onto the fire. Because it was so close to my house and I live right next to the vlei, I watched the choppers collecting the water out of the lake before dumping it onto the fire.

It was pretty amazing watching the choppers, incredible skill in dropping down to grab the water, and then dumping it right on the hot-spots. This is in the cross-winds and flying through all the smoke. These are amazing pilots.

Thankfully, they managed to put this one out quite quickly, and there didn’t seem to be any major damage. We have had some pretty major fires in the past.