hello again from capetown.

not much to report i'm afraid. we've been taking it easy as it took the past two days for our legs to recover properly after the hike. but we're fit again, and rearing to go. thursday we went, accompanied by another girl from the hostel, to Seal Island. we had to get a taxi from long street to hout bay first. the journey there itself was pretty incredible. travelling all along the coast, around the sea, just amazing. we passed by sea point, which had been our home for the first three days of our journey, it was nice to be back there, even though we were only passing through. it was still as beautiful there as it had been the day we arrived. further along the coastline, we passed camps bay. a fantastic place, white sand and clear blue water, creating a most heavenly looking beach. surrounded by massive boulders which made it look so much more interesting. its the richer part of capetown, the taxi driver told us that prices for houses around there start at between 10 and 15 million rand. i doubt i'll ever be able to afford to live there, but at least i can always say i've been there! we plan to go back there to the beach before we leave. we actually haven't been to a beach here yet, we've surprised ourselves really.
ok i got a little side-tracked there, as i was saying - we went to hout bay and from there we took the boat out to seal island. altogether the journey lasts approximately an hour. with some amazing views along the way, of the mountains, and lovely houses built over the sea, we reached Seal Island. basically it's just a group of large, dark rocks, settled together in the middle of the water. the blue waves crash up against the rocks, and on impact, like some sort of paint balls, explode into a pure white colour, spraying the seals nearby. relaxing on top of these huge boulders are hundreds, i reckon, of seals. they just sit there, ignoring all the people leaning out of the boat to look at them, and ignoring the cameras watching every move they make. they're just so used to it i guess. the livelier ones swam around in the waves, playing with each other, just like little children. not a care in the world. afterwards, when i'd found out that there are loads of great white sharks in this area, because their favourite food is seal, i wondered did those playful little creatures realise that at any moment they could be taken from their playmates and eaten. but i suppose thats the way with all creatures. after watching them for a while the boat turned around and made its way back to hout bay. the trip back was rougher as the waves seemed bigger and rocked the boat alot more than on the way out, but it wasn't too bad. we'd enjoyed it.

today we went to the botonical gardens. now i'm not exactly a garden expert, basically all i know is that my favourite flowers would be roses and lillies, but i have to say that those gardens were simply beautiful. we had a little map to use to get around, but to be honest it just made no sense to us, so to anyone who does go there i suggest you just wander around yourself, you're sure to enjoy it more anyway.
it was lovely there, located just at the foot of a mountain, it seemed as though that mountain was just a barrier, protecting the gardens from the outside world, because it was in itself, a lovely little world of its own. it was so peaceful there, so calm and so quiet. in the background you could hear the humming of the traffic, but as i walked around and spent longer in the garden that seemed to disappear. every so often, the serenity was shattered by the screaming of a group of children who would run about, chasing each other and the birds. they were just playing and didn't realise they were creating so much noise and distraction. there were some spectacular statues scattered throughout the gardens, each with a name and a meaning, some of them were just lovely. i know nothing about plants or flowers - but some of them were so attractive to the eye, and i was delighted when i saw one i recognised, a lilly. it was so nice just wandering around, quite aimlessly really, it was quite relaxing. each time i took a different path, i had no idea where i was going, but i didn't care - because the last thing i was thinking about was leaving this beautiful place. it really was fantastic. anyone who's interested in gardening, plants and flowers - like my dad and mary killeen, would have loved it there.

thats all the news from here really until next time, bye!