Hout Bay

Hout Bay (Afrikaans: Houtbaai, from the Dutch for "Wood Bay") is the name of a coastal suburb of Cape Town. We visited the local museum where you can find out all about the development of Hout Bay as an area which was rich in woodland.

Hout Bay Harbour – always an interesting place with plenty going on.

    

Not being a fisherman I found it interesting watching this chap gut and clean this ‘snoek’, a fish common around South African shores. I could have bought one, but it was rather large for the BBQ. There are many seals in the harbour this one is a lot larger than the photo suggests.

         

Something a seal eats a lot of – on the number plate of a car at the harbour fisheries.

One evening we went to Clifton to visit our friends Ellen and Tony who spend about 3 months in South Africa. When you see the beach below their balcony you can understand why. Below is Clifton Beach  by day and night.

        

Although we have been to Hout Bay a few times we have never been to the World of Birds. It is the largest bird park in Africa and one of the few large bird parks in the World with over 3000 birds (and small animals) of 400 different species.

Here are just two the Knysna Loerie and Crowned Crane

     

This shot of me and the squirrel monkey was taken by another visitor. Sue had done a runner out of the ‘hands on’ area. It’s hands on for the monkeys not the visitors!

Right - Relaxing after a hard morning – it’s mango juice in the glass not a very cloudy beer.

 

Another evening we were kindly invited to Julie and Brian’s for a meal. Julie shows cats, this is one of them. The following day we went to the beach, but a sea fret cut down the visibility, but it made an interesting photo – not sure about the subject though.

        

We stayed at the Harbourmaster, which Julie found for us. We wanted somewhere within walking distance of the harbour and town. This a photo from our deck as the sun goes down. We didn’t spend too much time up here as the last couple of days were very windy.

Tony finding the geocache above the East Fort, Hout Bay. What you can’t see is the wind. We were really having to be careful so we weren’t blown over. We found another cache in a boat and to Ellen’s dismay she couldn’t find the one in the tractor, at the museum, despite trying to dismantle it.

Tony and I took a wander along the beach, it was still windy and one gust nearly had Tony in the sea! The ladies waving on our return.

            

Our last meal in South Africa. We were going from here to the airport. Our trip back was uneventful unlike the last time.