Yesterday brought a traditional cold front to Cape Town, with heavy rain falling over an extended period, particularly in the catchment areas, where reports of 170mm have come in. Exciting stuff! Not wanting to be wimps and stay indoors for a few drops of rain, we bravely set off in blustery conditions from Kalk Bay harbour along the seafront path to Muizenberg. Behind us, heavy rain and a bright rainbow completely obscured Simon's Town from view, while ahead lay sunshine and shiny rocks freshly washed clean by a recent shower. The Hottentots Holland mountains on the other side of False Bay were also missing, and a visitor would have been forgiven for thinking he was looking out across an endless ocean. It meant that the rain was still falling from heavy cloud cover in all the right places, although we were caught out a few times and needed the rain gear! No shelter along the shore.
The constantly changing light as clouds passed and blue sky came and went made for picture postcard scenery and I think we were all guilty of taking a shot of the colourful bathing boxes at St James!
Sad to see was the state of the old signal box at Muizenberg station, and the obvious neglect of the fine old station building - regretfully endemic in this country as bureaucracy fails us. On the other side of the road, private commerce is flourishing and old buildings have been upgraded and refurbished in a rejuvenation of a once fashionable seaside resort.
On the return trip, we stopped at the Posthuys, the second oldest building in South Africa, and were given a very articulate and entertaining history of the building, history of the area and the Battle of Muizenberg. Very interesting and well worth a visit. While we were inside, the rain came down in buckets - so quite fortuitous!
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