Sunday was another full day. Early in the morning we had literally thousands of walkers passing in front of the flat along the beachfront. It was an annual walk for charity with multiple distances available depending on capabilities of participants, with different distances starting at different places. The 10K, which seemed to be the most popular, started at Mouille Point, less than 1K from the flat. There were 25,000 registered walkers. Fortunately it was a lovely day for walking. By the time we were ready to 
leave the apartment, the road had re-opened to traffic and we made our way to Hout Bay to meet up with Austin & Pat Lewis’ two “little girls”, Alison and Helen, who are now 43 and 40 respectively. We have not seen them for over 25 years. They are both married with children and we had a braai at Helen’s home 
where we met husbands & children. We received a warm welcome. Alison and Helen remember very well our home at 9 Maureen Circle and the wonderful weekend braais and parties that we used to have there. We had a lovely time but had to leave by 5.PM because we were expected at David & Tish’s home once more for yet another braai. David’s son Brenton was in
town from PE and David’s daughter Michelle came over with her husband A??? In addition, Rob & Jen 
McWilliams’ daughter Kate (who is my goddaughter) also joined us for the braai. Kate is at the University of Cape Town and in her final year of studying for masters degrees in both Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, and hopes to pursue a career in robotics. It was another great evening.
Monday lunchtime we reunited with another old friend that we had lost touch with over the 
years – Don Wilson. Don is an Australian who has lived in SA for many years and I met him through marathon training and running in the mid 70s. We spent many hours together pounding the roads and quaffing a few beers afterwards. Don moved from PE to Cape Town, where he became a personal trainer at a gym and we lost touch. Vic Wolff also shared many miles and beers with Don and we decided that we would try to track him down and we ultimately obtained a cell phone number and got connected. He was really pleased to hear from us. Don returned to Australia for a couple of years, went back to varsity and got a degree in environmental science before returning to SA. He is now a consultant for Vodacom on the environmental issues related to cell phone towers and he also consults for De Beers on meeting the government environmental regulations for mine closures. Despite a hip replacement, he still keeps himself in shape. It was great to see him and know that he is doing well.We had a quick nap in the afternoon and then Belinda Murphy came to the apartment for sundowners and then we went out to dinner. Unfortunately her boyfriend Mark had had a bad day snoek fishing and was not up to joining us. Belinda lives in Cape Town but of course we had seen her the weekend of her brother Shaun’s wedding in East London (see blog for Sept. 8th) but we wanted a second visit while we were in CT. By coincidence, we picked a restaurant within walking distance of the flat, that Belinda said she would have suggested if we had asked. I remember having a Thai red curry which was perfect!
On Tuesday we went to see Rose Betheldo who lives in Grotto Bay in a region that is known as the “West Coast” about 40 miles north of Cape Town. This may sound a little convoluted, but Rose was David’s wife when we left South Africa in 1985 and of course David is now married to Tish. Fortunately, Tish was not even in the picture when David & Rose separated and Tish & David were very pleased to know we were going to see Rose as they are all 
good friends. On the way, we stopped at the beach at Bloubergstrand and took a picture of Table Mountain across the bay – a favorite post card picture of the mountain, although this day was a lot duller than the days when postcard pictures are taken. The term “West Coast” may stir up thoughts of the glamour and excitement of California for those of you in the USA, but I can assure you that this “West 
Coast” is entirely different. We had thought that Grotto Bay was the name of a little town or village but in fact it turned out to be the name of a private nature reserve and gated community “in the middle of nowhere”. There are no shops, gas stations, restaurants, etc. within miles, so we knew we would not be taking Rose out to dinner that evening! It is the perfect place for solitude and “getting away from it all”. By decree, all the houses are built “cottage style” and they are surrounded by bush and gorse teeming with bird life which makes for a very picturesque place. 
After a couple of hours catching up on respective families and news, we went for a long walk along the coastline and got an idea of the beauty and wildness of the area. Rose had made a nice dinner and we ate, drank wine, talked until we were rudely interrupted by the lady who lived next door who came to
complain about the music because we happened to play one track of a CD a little too loud! (classical violinist Lucia Micarelli, “Music from a Farther Room, track 12 – Nocturne/Bohemian Rhapsody – brilliant – listen to it!). We got to bed late!
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