"Where Eagles Dare"

-Movie Title (Clint Eastwood), Where Eagles Dare (1968)

          We awoke to clear blue skies Thursday morning, but we were weighed down by the huge amounts of food and wine we had consumed the previous day. We swore to each other that we would barely eat or look at food today, in order to recover from the shock we had sent our system the day before. So, we spent the morning relaxing, writing postcards, reading, doing homework or relaxing by the pool until 11:00 or 11:30 at which point we headed into Cape Town and to the Waterfront for take two on our helicopter tour down the peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope.

Pilot circling around Cape Town

               We were convinced we would not be denied the sights that we hoped to show grandma today, it was as perfect of a day as you could ever ask for. Not a cloud in the sky, perfect visibility and not much wind. It would be a smooth flight with plenty of incredible views to in every direction. We would be up in the sky "Where Eagle Dare," a Clint Eastwood movie that Sally commonly mentions and describes as uncle Mark's favorite. 

View of Table Mountain over the city from above

Cape Town Stadium & Metropolitan Golf Course on the Waterfront

             We took off around One O'Clock and instantly could see far better than we could on Tuesday, during our failed attempt. Table Mountain overlooking the city and all of the sights we'd seen around the town were in perfect view. We saw everything from our house in Camp's Bay to the Mt. Nelson to Cape Town Stadium to UCT. It was the perfect way to see the natural beauty of Cape Town and the man made beauty of Cape Town all at once without an exhausting drive to the end of the peninsula where Grandma would not be able to climb to the top. We headed down the Atlantic side of the peninsula on the way down passing Sea Point, Clifton, Camp's Bay and Long Beach.

Camp's Bay Beach on the bottom left and the Twelve Apostle Mountain Range heading down the coast

Sally enjoying the sights all around Cape Town

          The water was an amazing blue in every direction, I happened to be sitting in the cockpit with the pilot and had a glass floor beneath my feet which gave a whole new perspective on the land and ocean than I'd ever seen. We all wore headsets so that we could clearly talk to each other while drowning out the noise of the helicopter blades swinging around above our heads. Our pilot was formerly in the South African Air Force and was very knowledgeable on every sight we saw, explaining to us all the places we passed.

Glass floor up front in the helicopter

The Cape of Good Hope as Grandma put it, "The view most only see in postcards." Spoken by someone with more knowledge of postcards than most 

            Finally, we made it down the Atlantic coast and reached the Cape of Good Hope. Somewhere between Cape Point (the very tip of the Cape of Good Hope) and Cape Agulhas the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet to create a mixture of warm and cold water currents. This makes False Bay (the bay between Cape Point and Cape Agulhas on the non-Atlantic coast of the peninsula) significantly warmer than the water on the Atlantic Coast. For this reason, we often go to the beach to swim or surf at Muizenberg which is on False Bay where the water is warmer. We admired the remarkable sight around the cape, a sight that aunt Teresa had told Sally was a must see and we were successful in having Grnadma see it.

UCT Campus from above, Rugby field where I play as well across the middle/bottom

            We came back up the False Bay Coast to Cape Town passing Scarborough, Simon's Town, Muizenberg, Constantia, Kristenbosch and my home suburb Rondebosch. We flew by Seal Island, which my cousin Emma had told Grandma she had to see and flew over the wine lands and gardens of Constantia and Kristenbosch. We saw umpteenth golf courses and our pilot pointed out extravagant homes that belonged to the likes of Meryl Streep & British Royalty. We flew over my flat and school, with magnificent view of where I go to class each day and where I get knocked around on the rugby field each day.

Back on Stable Ground

            In what seemed like just a few moments we were back on the ground having seen the whole area from far above, "Where Eagles Dare." We were back on solid ground, happy that we saw so many incredible sights and still recovering from our day of gluttony the previous day. We decided that we would checkout Green Market Square on our way home and then pickup a few easy things for a light supper at home to help us feel better about the amount we had eaten the day before. Green Market Square finally delivered us good quality South African flags, which are surprisingly difficult to track down around Cape Town. In most cities they plague every street corner, but here we spent a few days searching for a decent sized flag. I then showed Sally, Peter and Sarah Woolworth's, which is the closest thing South Africa has to Whole Foods. So we picked up a few things for supper and headed back to the villa to enjoy the cloudless blue sky.

Lion's Head Peak in the background while sunshine is enjoyed, truly on Holiday

            The view from the ground was just as magnificent as the view from above and we sat out on our lovely pool deck, got some sun and heated up until we were so hot we needed to jump into the pool. Grandma always liked to end the day by sitting by the pool ro going for a quick swim, whether here in Bay Head or in Italy, and we had managed to see many things and still make time for a late afternoon pool session. It helps that the sun here stays out until 7:30 to 8:00 giving us a few more hours of sunlight.

A welcome sight in the first week of March 

             We enjoyed our leisurely evening and I decided to take the reigns on the evenings meal, to show the expertise I had acquire in my month cooking for myself in Cape Town. It certainly did not have the refined quality of the Mt. Nelson Chef's Table, but it was a nice light meal which Guacamole to start and then chicken and vegetables in a Per Peri sauce. It was a nice leisurely day where we saw incredible sights and enjoyed some vacation time by the pool, we needed a day of recovery in between busy days and we went to bed early knowing that the Friday morning would come early as our adventures continued.   

"Where Eagles Dare"