12-12 My Birthday

It's become my tradition to take stock of things and have some battery-recharging alone time on Table Mountain to celebrate my birthday.  Yesterday the cable car was not operating due to strong South Easterly winds, this morning dawned still blowing, but I packed my 2 litres of water and drove up to the Cable Way.  I was elated to see it was running and joined the queue.  By 8:40am I was 1067m above sea level. Not a cloud in the sky!

I began my walk to the hightest point on the mountain, Maclear's Beacon right across the 'tabletop' on the other end.  I used the 'recommended route' for the way up and the 'alternative route' for the return.

It is indeed flat on top of the table :-)  Yellow painted footprints mark the path to follow so as not to disturb the nature reserve.

 One can see the pyramidical stone beacon from a long way off

Once arrived at Maclear's Beacon I found my shady little cave and sat down to enjoy my Grobeleberwurststulle ... much more delicious than it sounds :-)

 My little spot of shade (there really wasn't much shade up there!!)

A sundial and looking out across False Bay

Some beautiful sunbirds came to entertain me in the bush very close to me 

There is an array of beautiful flowers all along the way

The danger warning made me reminisce about the two school friends who lost their lives in separate climbing incidents on Table Mountain.  Its treacherous nature is not to be under-estimated.

Robben Island visible in Table Bay

It's always fun spotting your house from above

 India Venster... not an easy route

 Green headed koggelmander

Coming up the mountain early is wonderful; I savoured the solitude and one-ness with Nature.  As the day progressed, hordes of people came up with the cable car.  A few observations:

Favourite T-shirt I spotted:  graphic of man on toilet with the logo   * iPOOD* - priceless :-) I lolled.

To the people who litter - it was heavier uneaten and undrunken. Take empties back and bin them!

*  To the people who don't return greetings

*  To the people who need to be LOUD and shout all over the mountain

*  To the man in the tight lycra shorts

*  To the ladies in their strappy sandals

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

I purposedly left my camera gear at home - all images displayed here are SnapBerries (BlackBerry snaps).

Significantly I passed a group of Japanese tourists all with Nikons round their necks.  Just saying ;-/ 

Thank you to Tully for the BlackBerry contract.  I love my shiny new 9800 Torch.

Thank you to Christy my son for selecting cool new Oakley sunglasses for me.  

And especially thank you Christy for baking me a super chocolate cake that I looked forward to enjoying on my return, with cold champagne.

We have a new KITTEH

Just when we thought we'd reached Caturation with a total of seven cats, we rescued a teeny squeaking scared kitten from a drain two days ago.  Needless to say, it was instant LOVE and we seem incapable of rehoming this cute little boy.  He's been named JASPER (or Jas-purr, since he's really a little purr machine).

After a quick vet visit to ascertain a few basics, we found out that he's probably no more than 4 weeks old and were advised to bath him... yeah right, what a GOOD idea ;-//  He was remarkably good getting suddsed up in the kitchen sink and we've since given him a mini de-worming tablet.  There are still an army of fleas marching all over him... but we have Frontline Spray to apply to him when I feel brave enough!

After sitting outside in the sun to dry him in a pile of towels, he because quite fluffy and contentedly sleepy

Meanwhile, in the course of one day, he's turned into a regular guzzling machine and devours the mushed up kibbles and kitty-milk-mix we put in front of him!  He loves snuggling on our chests when he's tired of climbing and playing.

ALL PHOTOS BY MY SON CHRISTY

Loony