Thursday 18th August 2016: we met Steve, who is our guide for the whole tour last night and this morning, on the bus for the first time we're introduced to Esack our driver and Steve Koche our local guide who promises to be entertaining, his sense of humour already showing. We travel through the city and ascend to the cable car level on Table Top Mountain. There are paths and lookouts on top, but today the city is shrouded in cloud and mist with the tops of the skyscrapers protruding through - still a pleasant outlook, but lucky we did the helicopter yesterday and were able to see it all from above. The mountain is 1067m at its highest and 3km wide at its widest and is definitely not as flat on top as it looks from below and there is some vegetation up there. 

 





 We visited the Malay Quarter, on the slopes of Signal Hill. The name coming from the language spoken by the slaves sent by the Dutch East India Company from South East Asia.
  At the end of Slavery in 1834 these peoples were moved to here into cheap rental properties. Most of these people are now Muslims and are very assimilated and progressive. As an overhang from slavery when they could only wear hessian coloured clothing, they now have a love of colour and this really shows in their housing decor. Some of the streets are still cobbled.
 
 
 
 We are dropped at the Waterfront to find our own lunch, return to the hotel for a short period and then go off in different directions for the excursions. We join Brittany, going 40km out in the country to the 'Winelands' - vineyards in other words. We visit 2 farms, the first one has some wilderbeast, zebra and springbok in the paddock. The second one also makes cheeses, chutneys, preserves etc, so this added to the wine tasting. Percy was very personable, taking us through the cellar and explaining the different processes for making reds and whites.
We experience more shanty towns on the outskirts of townships, but they do have electricity. There is 25% unemployment in South Africa and wages are very low. Food and drink is very cheap.



 Tonight we have had our welcome dinner, buffet style in the hotel restaurant. 33 people on the tour - from all over Australia.