I haven't driven down Blouberg Beach front in a very long time, so you can imagine my surprise when we happened upon a brand new development exploding with new restaurants, bars and night-life.

Also, there is a bizarre, abandoned and rusted ship just off the beach front:

It just sits there, waiting to be salvaged, or to become a relic in the pages of Cape Town history.

















Here's Table Mountain just before the sun sets. Isn't it lovely? How does that Counting Crows song go?
"Don't it always seem to go/ that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."


G took full advantage of the beach setting in his shorts (which have got extremely good use this holiday!) and his polarising filter for the camera. Pictures to follow.

















Sunset! That's Robben Island in the distance.






















Can you guess what this is? Lauriane was suggesting that we ought to say it is a person's leg after being attacked by some incurable leprosy variation while stuck in deepest, darkest Africa. It's actually just the side of a rusted lamp-post. Everything on the beach rusts.

















After much ambling we went to Moyo where we were due to meet up with Richard, Aaron and Villi.

Moyo has a branch in Spier, out Stellenbosch way. This branch is beach-themed:


















This is the bar area (a photo I took earlier, it's not magically midday again inside Moyo). In case you can't see it clearly, those are surfboard chairs and surfboard tables, and, when  you sit on the surfboard, you are obliged to dip your toes into Moyo's moat and sip your cocktails.






















Everything is super rustic and Kenyan-inspired. This is the front cover of the heavy steel-bound menu. Naaaaice.






















While I was admiring the very pretty table decor, a group of four talented men arrived at our table and said, "We're not here to sing to you; we're here to thank you for not cooking." And then they sang the most incredible variation of the Lion King song (the Circle of Life) but in acoustic version. Imaginationalise that! They were all playing the various parts of the acoustic orchestra, complete with percussions, those knobbly African instruments where you draw a wooden dowel across a frog's bumpy wooden back, and bird noises. Oh yes.






















Aaaaaaand then they came around and painted our faces. I'm not even joking: it was such an African Theme Park! Here's Lauriane getting very pretty flowers across her nose.

















Me, highly amused that I got floral detailing.






















... Richard's tribal detailing...






















... G was up next. The lady painting our faces was very, very nice and I think she was having a good time doing it as well :)






















Here's G's tribal detailing. It suits him, methinks.

















The "table bread" they served was a cumin, coriander and onion flat bread with lemon and olive oil. It was exceptionally tasty.






















The daquiris were good too!

















This was my steak; I'll happily hand it the "Best Steak in Cape Town" Award, hands down. Even better than Squire's! It's a flamed fillet, medium rare, with a cream and green peppercorn sauce. It's stuffed with spinach, peppadews, onion and something else I can't remember right now. Mushrooms, yes, mushrooms.

















This is Lauriane's food. It's lamb and apricot kebabs with steamed (I think) vegetables and chips.

















G's mussels.
















Did I mention that they give you blankets too? Just in case you get cold. Aaron was hiding underneath a blanket, and, just as I clicked the button on the camera that sets the flash off, he popped out from under his blanket-hood and surprised us all. I really like this picture.






















After dinner we ate dessert which was yucky (I had the orange blossom and pistachio baklava), bleh, and decided to make it all better by sitting on the beach for a while. You can't see, but in that photograph above, there's a whole lot of Blouberg beach and sea behind us.

















Here's Villi and G.






















... I thought it would be a good idea for us to all be in a photo together. Ho hum.

















We were finally photographed together (most of us, anyway) - it was freeeeeeeezing cold and windy and we all couldn't wait to get back to the cars!