Road Trip. Day64? Cape Town Suburbia.

Our journey from Montagu went faster than I thought it would. We passed beautiful mountain

scenery

...and travelled through the Huguenot Tunnel.

The fluffy lion cub is our mascot, Cubby. He travels everywhere with us.

We are staying at a suburban caravan park in Bellville called Hardekraaltjie. Some history.....the site of the park formed part of one of the oldest outspans in South Africa, dating from the 17th century. For about two centuries this outcrop was the only suitable outspan near Cape Town, located along the highway across the sand dunes of the Cape Flats to the interior. It lost its importance only after 1849 when a hard-surface road was constructed.
The park is very reasonably priced for pensioners. I think there are a number of permanents here and we have everything we need. Across the road are two superettes and two ATM's. Half a block away is a public swimming pool although it is closed because of the drought. Next door is the Stormers High Performance Centre.
We chose this caravan park because we have family and friends in this area. Last night we visited Brian's brother, Mike, and sister-in-law, Louria, for supper. This afternoon they took us to a lovely nursery, Cape Gardens Centre. I was struck by the sculptures made of artificial grass at the entrance,

besides a wide variety of plants, beautifully displayed,

This hibiscus looks like it's made of wax

mini succulents artistically arranged

There are also garden ornaments,

art works,

and a lovely restaurant where we had some cappuccino and a bite.

This morning we also went out for tea - with Mike and Elma Nunns, good friends we've known since before we got married. It was such fun to catch up. They also have children and grandchildren in other countries like probably most South Africans our age. We went to a lovely coffee shop called Cherry on the Top where we had the most delicious savoury muffins. I didn't think to take photos though.

The drought in Cape Town is really serious. There seems to be no bottled water for sale in containers larger than 500 ml. People have been stockpiling and as fast as stocks of five litre bottles come into the supermarkets, they get grabbed up. At Tygerberg Centre, where we bought some groceries, the taps in the bathrooms are switched off.  Instead of washing hands, one uses hand sanitiser. There are articles in the newspapers about getting ready for Day Zero when the taps will be switched off eg https://www.thesouthafrican.com/day-zero-shopping-guide/  . As a Christian who has prayed for rain, it is hard to decide whether to make contingency plans. Most do.

We are trying to use as little of Cape Town's water as we can.  We've bought a basin and a bucket. Every second day we shower. The bucket is for collecting the cold water that runs before the water gets warm. This goes into Cubby's water tank. We stand in the basin and wet ourselves then switch off while we soap ourselves, then switch on again to rinse. The water collected is used to flush the toilet. This is more or less standard for Capetonians. Toilets are only flushed when really necessary and then usually with grey water. Boreholes have to be registered and monitored. A record is kept of how much borehole water one uses and a limit is set on how much can be used.

Our motor home has a 40 litre water tank and  a gas geyser. Water from dish-washing, hand-washing etc is collected in a container at the outlet pipe and is also used for occasional flushing in the ablutions, putting out braai fires and so on. We also have a cassette toilet which only needs one flush when it is emptied every four or five days and only uses 2 litres, with chemicals for each new start-up. We are probably luckier than most local home owners.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do some nearby exploring by bike. The pavements are wide and we should be able to stay off the busy roads. On Monday we are relocating to Fish Hoek and the sound of the sea again.