Take me to the mountain

6th February en route Durban

6th February

Lionhead cloud

Sunday 6 Feb am

Nice welcome

Waterfront & stadium

Sorry about the floodlight!

Chapman's Peak & Nord Huit

Fine bay

Red Duster

No gin - honest!

Cape Town Scots bagpipe band

Escorted out

Jetkis or Somali pirates?

Bye, Bye au revoir

Nine Apostles

National Park

Lionhead

Clouds

Spot the cablecar

Sunset

Fluffy clouds

Say no more

Novel use safety helmets

Up and away

A bit of Cape Town

Don't look backwards!

We're just there!

Hampshire House

La Colombe

There's a cricket here somewhere

Perfect guests

Eagle's Nest winery

Like so!

Steenbeck

Catharina's

Lunch at Catharina's

Catharina's

Six days at sea makes one pleased to see land and what a landfall! Perfect day, with hardly a cloud in the blue sky and Table Mountain dominating this wonderful harbour and Robben Island low on the horizon off to port. Nice to be back in familiar buoyage too! Our escorting tug started up its water jet as we did a sharp turn to port to come alongside.

Once we had found our driver it was off to the cablecar up Table Mountain with hardly a queue – we even missed the Cunard tours. Marvellous ascent with the car rotating, so we all got the best of the view on the way up. It’s hard to describe the scenery and majesty of this place, a fantastic National Park, older than the Himalayas with amazing features eroded into the ancient sandstone. Didn’t see any Dassies though! The clouds came and went, funnelling through the gaps in the mountains, sometime enveloping Lionhead and Signal Hill in a skirt of fluffy cloud, then suddenly clearing back to perfection.

A scenic drive up to Constantia and to our B&B at Hampshire House, run by a lovely couple from Bournemouth, so there was plenty to talk about there! A quick dip in the chilly, salty pool and then it was off to dinner at La Colombe, a fantastic restaurant on the Constantia Uitsig wine estate – the first time we have tasted Springbok (which Richard says should be served cold and well-hung on the Rugby field). Simply magical evening eating in the balmy open air, serenaded by the crickets in the trees. Even managed a South African wine!

Saturday – another beautiful day and – after a breakfast almost as good as Gladwins’ – off to the Eagle’s Nest winery for a personalised look round the small estate off-road in their Land Rover and a tasting with their winemaker. Richard keenly interested. Very professional set-up with brand-new equipment and pretty good wine too! The vineyard is set in a very steep gully tight against the National Park and we just had time to drop into the Uitsig winery for a bottle of their Muscat, which had made a bit of an impression the night before.

Lunch had been arranged at Catharina’s, the restaurant and small hotel attached to the Steenbeck winery down the valley, but only after more tasting overlooking the mountains and vines. The return to the ship went over Chapman’s Peak along the coast, an incredible drive under overhanging cliffs and past gorgeous sandy beaches with views seawards virtually all the way.

QM2 had embarked about 1500 Australians on outrageously cheap deals for the trip to Freemantle & Sydney, so it was ‘all aboard, mate’ as we turned 270 to leave the port against the backdrop of a sunset on Table Mountain. The clouds were rolling in again and the changing, sunset-lit formations over the 9 Apostles and the coast in general were spectacular all the way until it got dark. We even had a pleasure boat escort out of the harbour.

You couldn’t have improved the day - although there is a cricket stowed away on our deck somewhere!

As you might imagine, Pauline has now enforced a reduced-alcohol regime for the foreseeable future and it’s Atlantic Mists for us whenever possible.

We’re booked onto a short game drive in Durban tomorrow and it looks like we should be able to meet up with David Norval in Mauritius, which would be brilliant

Sorry the photos are in a funny order, it's the way the website loads them!