bruff on the brunt_antarctica: Return trip to Halley 2011, Antarctica via Capetown

Another to trip to the cold, dry continent known as Antarctica. This time only for 4 months and part of my time will be to help out with the meteorology and once the ship arrives to set up the CASlab (clean air sector laboratory) and get the instruments up and running for the coming season. To get to Antarctica i had to take a flight to Cape town and then the russian plane to Novo (russian antarctic station) was delayed for a few days so we had to suffer the food and atmosphere of cape town for a few more days. Lots of steaks, seafood, wine, coastal walks and city tours; really not that bad.

A quick dip or rather a little paddle in the absolutely freezing waters of Cape town (camps bay). At least there were no sharks in the shallows but i do think my hair fits in with the blue skies, thanks nic ;-)

The pinnacles of table mountain from the coastal path walk to camps bay from cape town (2 hours). The scenery was amazing as you can see and i heard that the walk across the pinnacle range is amazing too...another day perhaps.

The view from city centre is just this. Do i need to say anymore. Breathtaking. No other city like it.

A grand city hall.

An organized safari on a nature reserve, not sure what these long necked creatures are ;-) but they sure are elegant and graceful.

A few elands and the like to keep the grass short.

Some water buffalo and a few zebras to help with the grass

Now this is an amazing sight. Four cheetahs inside a pen. None of them tamed but used to men entering the cage to feed them and not so used to tourists being in there as well to watch them being fed. Amazing feeling to get so close to them but kind of scary as well. We hunched down to get a better shot wand were told to stand else they might think we were prey. They hissed a couple of times.They were beautiful and frightening. Once the food ran out it was time to leave but no running......