Friday 19th August 2016: Today is a bus trip down the West coast to the Cape of Good Hope, across the bottom to Cape Point and back through the mountain pass to Cape Town. We leave at 8 and there is no fog or cloud this morning and then follow the promenade which has little beaches on the sea side - the water of the Atlantic is cold, between 6 and 20 degrees, so no one swims really, but there is still the Lycra set who frequent the Virgin Health Studios (Richard Branson) and then run the promenade and have lattes - Steve couldn't help having a dig at them. On the other side of the road are very expensive apartments by South African standards, but with the exchange rate, fairly cheap for the UK and German buyers who are making their way here. 4.5m rand for a 2 bedroom apartment - our rate is about 10 to 1. SA has the very rich and the very poor and the greatest divide between the two. There is a lot of rock and kelp in the sea - the kelp is harvested for organic fertiliser. 
 
 
The scenery becomes spectacular as we skirt around the Table Top Mountain Range going around hairpin bends on the side of the mountains - this road is now a toll road to cover the cost of the road and the safety measures to stop rock falls. The coast here is treacherous and we hear stories of ships being wrecked all along the coast. After this we enter the National Park - lots of Proteas in bud, but not flowering yet - in the National Parks they are endeavouring to get rid of the introduced eucalyptus and wattle as they take too much water from the native vegetation. We see a Brontebok, a few ostriches and an Elan.
 



 




 




 A famous cycling race is held here, 109km and has up to 55,000 entrants. 
 
We stop at the Cape of Good Hope, not much here bar the sign - the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean about here. Cape Point is a different story - it has a funicular going up the mountain and excellent paths all joined up to the WW2 lookout points to take advantage of the views down to the 'new' lighthouse, replacing the one which is high up and could not be seen for the clouds. We wind our way down the paths instead of catching the funicular - lots of people here.
Lunch is a 3 course meal at a fish restaurant - hopefully the photos will show how the main course was served.
 
From here we go to a Penguin Colony - they are cute, but I've done this enough times before.
We pass the main Naval Base - their main duties are now coast guard surveillance. As we enter the city again through the mountain pass, Steve points out the prison where Nelson Mandela was shifted to after being incarcerated on Robben Island - in all he was in prison for 27 years, being released in 1990. 
Apartheid commenced here in 1948 when the National Party came to power - during apartheid the whites, coloured, asians & blacks were all segregated. Just because the law was changed after the release of Nelson Mandela, assimilation has not taken place immediately - even today it is the white section that has merged most, with blacks etc getting some Govt jobs allowing them the lifestyle to move up to the better class of living. 
Dinner is on our own tonight with an early start tomorrow.