Mid Winter stint to the Cape

Morning of... late morning of

Waking up at 3.50am for a flight is something that I try to look on the bright side of, even in the absence of regular sunlight.
However, midwinter flights do come with challenges, even in the Southern Hemisphere. Believe it or not we have winter too. Not really tho, cause its not like its the winter we have to 'cater towards', but it is still that winter where 'things occasionally happen'; such as the flight surfaces on the plane being iced. We don't cater to it remember...

Casual 2 hourish delay.
Good times spent with a friend. Would have sucked to be alone. Never have I played arcades (yes they had one, a Soul Calibre esque fighter) or UNO so early in the morning. No photos really, didnt really feel like anything had started yet...

Finally airbourne for a quick flight :)
The Highveld from the air

The Cape from the air

Cloud wrapped city
A short flight later, we approached the city of cape town, what a site to occasionally behold, I was pleasantly surprised to see some cloud cover between us and a supposed landing. Breaking below these clouds revealed how high, and thin they were, but far below, literally blanketed in clouds was the city itself.

The Drive
The day seemed to burn off much of the clouds, however, the drive itself, some 2 hours plus (length of the flight and the delay -____-) out of the city saw the day brighten considerably, when we finally arrived well outside of civilization, it was around 4pm and still a fantastically sunny and warm winters day, barest chill in the air.

Exploration
We were pretty tired early mornings all considered and such, and didn't do too much after 4.30pm, other than lots of catching up and braaing.
The next morning the day dawned thick with a sodden mist. A persistent sodden mist. And rain, it started in the night, and carried on throughout the whole day.
We caught a bit of a break mid afternoon, and hit the hills.

The next day dawned much brighter and we were able to see the rain water that had collected, rushing down a mountainside, seasonal, river. Unfortunately these pictures did not come out too well, and the view is scenery is better consumed via some drone footage, which I hope to acquire soon.

All in all a very lovely time in a most beautiful place.

The drive out held yet another surprise for us as it would appear that the 'bowl' mountains were were in had held the clouds back for a day, they were on the other side, completely blanketing a wide valley...

As ever thank you to the Cape and its people for their hospitality and for sharing their beautiful corner of the country side with us!