alistair.pott » cape-town

Himalayan Tahrs on Table Mountain again

alistair — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:43:12 +0000

During the 1930s some Himalayan Tahrs escaped from the Groote Schuur zoo near UCT. They bolted onto the mountain and lived happily up there for the next 70 years.

In 2004 SANParks controversially decided to cull them because they are an alien species and were causing damage to the indigenous species. I agreed with that decision.

But, I can tell you for a fact that they didn’t get all of them.

Yesterday afternoon I saw three tahrs grazing right next to the path on Platteklip Gorge. They were right above the site where I saw someone jump to his death exactly 2 weeks ago.

I was able to walk really close to them and they just looked at me. They’ve obviously forgotten about the culling almost 6 years ago!

LNG tankers off Cape Town

alistair — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:52:23 +0000

We often have ships like the one picture above (source) berthed off Cape Town. Because of their conspicuous appearances they generate a lot of interest.

The Cape Ports website has some information:

The tankers are transporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
This natural gas is transported in liquid form to save space
It is maintained at -60 Celsius
Because of the prevailing south-easter (offshore) they are quite safe to us (leaks)
According to Cape Ports most are empty anyway - they berth here waiting for orders to pick up gas from Nigeria
They have very high safety standards
- There has never been an accident involving a LNG tanker (since they began operation in 1964)
- There have only been 3 accidents in history involving LNG plants

Madame Zingara’s and Carlucci’s going under

alistair — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:01:05 +0000

I just read that both Madame Zingara’s and Carlucci’s are going under. This is highly unfortunate because both are great restaurants.

Summary:

Zingara’s owes more than R1 million in unpaid rent
The owners say this is only a cash flow crisis and that their UK tour will bring in the necessary cash

Carlucci’s has debts of about R3 million
The two existing branches were bought in 2005 and the new owner started an expansion campaign, opening several new branches
It seems the cost of this expansion has put them into serious difficulty

Hopefully buyers step in or the owners can escape bankruptcy.

Get more information here.

Venus, Jupiter and the moon over Lions Head

alistair — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:16:56 +0000

Venus, Jupiter and the moon had a little party last night – it was a pretty cool site. The clouds were moving in rapidly but I managed to snap a few photos of the unusual arrangement over Cape Town.

Photos of the progress on Green Point Stadium

alistair — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:38:24 +0000

The other day I was driving past the 2010 stadium being built in Green Point and I was amazed by how far it seems to have come. I still worry that they aren’t going to be ready in time, but it does look pretty impressive.

Here is a site that posts photos of the progress as it moves along. The ones below are from 21 April 2008. Long way to go….

Do Stuff in Cape Town – my new project

alistair — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:30:36 +0000

If things have been a little slow on this blog lately it’s because I have been working on something new. It’s a site called Do Stuff in Cape Town and I have described it as an encyclopedia of activities in and around Cape Town.

The cool thing about it is that it works like a Wiki so anyone can contribute to it. I have developed it so that anyone visiting the site can easily:

Create new activities – there is a simple form for adding new activities
Update existing activities – say there is some detail or tip that you would like to add to an existing activity
Rate activities – it’s as simple as clicking on the star rating you want
Browse/search activities – I have put quite a lot of thought into making this as simple as possible
Subscribe to new activities – Get updates when new activities are added to the site

I have tried to make everything as simple as possible, but please give it a try and let me know what you think. Add an activity, or browse through those that are already there. I think that the site is almost ready, but I would really appreciate feedback!

Some of the activities that have already been loaded:

Pipe track photos

alistair — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:09:17 +0000

Jules and I went for a quick walk on the Pipe Track last night to have a little wine and watch the sun go down on a fun weekend.

We got a couple of nice photos too. This is Table Mountain viewed from the side – the Pipe Track passes above the Camps Bay area so you get interesting angles on Table Mountain.