"City of contrasts" a Cape Town Travel Page by GillianMcLaughlin

Cape Town served as my base for a month, between trips out to KwaZulu Natal and Namibia. And what a welcoming and diverse base it proved to be!

I find it hard to think of another city that offered so much to the traveller: diverse cultures, fantastic food, modern facilities, a sense of its own past... and yet posed so many questions... quite a sense of "them and us", how to get around the town without a car...

I had the very good fortune to be welcomed by the family of my travelling companion, and through that, got a great sense of life in Cape Town - at least for the affluent.

These pages will grow as I get my photos and slides scanned and uploaded, but in the meantime I do hope that you like my sunsets (and I hope they come out!)

One evening we were gathered in the Blue Peter, a great bar just outside Cape Town proper, having a glass of red wine (at least I was... a veritable bucket of the stuff!) and generally brushing the sand off the day! There had been a major fire that day on the outskirts of Cape Town, so when I looked up over the roof of the bar and saw a red glow in the sky, I thought it was the reflection of the fire!!!

Slowly a deep blue emerged between the clouds and before we knew where we were, the sky had turned into a work of art. When I saw these photos developed I was reminded of the Dali painting, Christ St. John of the Cross! The original by the way, hangs in Glasgow... go and see it if you get the chance...

On the horizon you may note a low dark land mass... that is Robben Island - the home of Nelson Mandela for so long.