Lion's Head hike

Today, my wife and I took 1 hour 10 minutes to walk up to the top of Lion's Head, the mountain located
on the uphill side of Sea Point in Cape Town. Our guides were Birgit Andrich and her friend Inga. We also drove to the top
of the adjacent mountain, the Signal Hill.

When we were walking down the Lion's Head we met two guys who thought that we were tourists maybe because we
were a group of a Black couple and two White ladies who look German. So these guys greeted us with a funny accent,
"Welcome to Cape Town". I always knew that I like the extreme. We opted for the chains route on our way down.
We used the chains to mount down for about 7m distance.

Green Market Square's Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2007

Yesternight, I had a great time attending a musical concert at the Cape Town's Green Market Square. This is the second musical concert I have attended in Cape Town after the Kanye West one. (Last year, I won a ticket to watch the live Kanye West concert at Bellville Velodram). Yesternight, we enjoy both the local and international performance of jazz, pop and hip hop music. My highlight was Hip Hop Pantsu, HHP, one of the top South African hip hop stars. I also enjoyed CODA, Siphokazi, and Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band.

This was just a foretaste of what will be enjoyed at the 2007
Cape Town International Jazz Festival which will be held at the CT-ICC.

My wife and I's photo was taken by Thunda.com.

A visit to the South African Navy Festival

My family and I spent our time at the Navy Base today in Simon's Town, which is located about 30km south of Cape Town, South Africa. It was amazing to can view the SA Navy vessels ranging from the smallest boat known as the Lima boat, to the second largest ships, the Valour Class Corvettes. Unfortunately their largest ship, the SAS DRAKENSBERG, did not be participate at this year's Navy Festival. During the event she was escorting their first Type 209 submarine.

To my disappointment I did not see any submarine. And that's what I wanted to aboard on and to be submerged into the depth of the sea.

Yes, we saw many navy sailors in their all-white uniforms. When we arrived they had just finished marching on the Entry Parade.

As we approached the Navy Base, we saw families from many places around Cape Town rushing towards the main entrance. One thing I like about Cape Town is that it is a family oriented city. People here have good family values. Most of them take vacation leave during School holidays in order to take they children around the beatiful Western Cape province. If it's not nature and hiking and camping, they usually go out to see the special events such as this one.

From the distance we saw the huge military ships with many people on board. My son and his friend Axel Boltney could not wait to get to the Navy Base...




We aboard an "Environmental Protection" vessel (ship), the Sarah Baartman, that is used by DEAT (the National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism), the Marine and Coastal Management branch. We took a photo (above) inside the DEAT's Sarah Baartman, which is also displayed on the poster. They use the vessel when doing their research and also during monitoring, control and surveillance of human activities in the South African seas. South Africa is collaborating with other nations to patrol our waters to enforce environmental laws and policies that poachers and illegal fishers don't respect.

a military helicopter landed on the ship...


I (holding my son, Buhle) was the captain for the moment...

...and my wife as the Madam Captain

More pics...


another navy ship, the Valour Class Corvettes


Gun runs and dog shows were demonstrated during the day. My wife took a picture after one gun run was done from one of the navy ships...

My wife and kids on the lower deck

Preparations for a conference presentation

Today, I will be submitting my PowerPoint presentation for a National GIS Conference that I will be speaking at on the 4th April 2007. I will be presenting a CASE STUDY on the "Sustainability Atlas of the Western Cape 2006" that we developed last year. I was the project leader for this product that display the set of thematic maps that spatially represent the local municipalities of the Western Cape in terms of the Sustainable Development categories.

See the Sustainability Atlas cover

The conference "GIS for Environmental and Land Use Management", which is organised by TCI, will be hosted in Cape Town on the 3rd and 4th of April 2007. About 200 delegates from around the country will be attending. I will be sharing the stage with some of the top GIS experts in the country.

I Have just snail-mailed a letter to Tata

Today, I have just snail-mailed (or mail posted) a letter and my book's manuscript to Tata (my father). I feel so good to be sending my manuscript to him before sending it off for publishing. I need to get his views and recommendations on the book.

Actually the main reason for sending him the book is that the book is about him - how he has influenced my life in many ways - positively and negatively. My father was very harsh in the way he brought us up.

I want to give him an opportunity to comment. I think this will challenge him to see the need to have a closer relationship with his children. To be honest with you, I do not know how he will take it, but I know it will turn out to be good at the end of it all. We all need to reconcile and redress the deeds of the past.

My book - eBook publishing or traditional publishing

I have been waiting for a positive response from publishers but until now have not got any positive response. We are very fortunate these days because of technology. I am now already thinking of taking option 2: online publishing (as an eBook).

You may advise me if you have any experience in bookwriting and publishing.

See the book cover for my draft book...

Nature, Work, and Pleasure!

On Monday and Tuesday (5th and 6th March 2007), I went out with my colleagues to an Operational Planning and Team Building session at Club Mykonos in Langebaan, West Coast Region of the Western Cape, South Africa.

We really had fun! We arrived at the Club Mykonos at about 9AM on Monday at the Conference centre.


We visited the nature reserve to watch the birds or rather disturb the birds as some of us were making a lot of noise.

All of us standing on top of a huge bolder or rock. We saw the beautiful views of the lagoon facing the beaches around Langebaan, and further on we could see Saldanha from afar.




Back at the Mykonos, it was fun time. Know your team members' strengths as well as their shortcomings. Maximise on their strengths... team building exercises along the beach.







My team's name was Mellow Yellow. You can see it from my face painting...


The waterfront scenery from the Conference centre. I also want to be rich and own one of these yachts...










In the evening we lodged in one of these superb hotel rooms.


Day 2: I woke up very late because I did not set my alarm. But that was not a big issue as we all went there to relax, have fun and do a little bit of work. I made brilliant presentation on my Division's project targets for the coming financial year. I was so relaxed and in control as I shared some few jokes with the group. (No photos taken for that).

Beating the drums! Just before lunch time we had an hour-long session drumming. This was my 2nd time involved with Drumming. Tim is the gentleman who instructed or coached us as we all played songs that originated from West Africa. We were told that some time in the past, Africans used to play drums to communicate with one another. Each drum song had a specific meaning.

I am playing the Lead Bit Drum...


[Photos: Courtesy of Lehan Fouche, Jeffrey Williams and Andre van der Merwe]