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| << December06, 2004 - Turtle Essays ezine no 114 dated 6th December 2004 |
December21, 2004 - Turtle Essays edition no 116 dated 20th December 2004 >> |
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Turtle Essays edition no 115 dated 13th December 2004 ** Love to Travel? Find out how to make your money go further! Get your copy of ???The Travel Secrets Guide??? and start saving today! http://hop.clickbank.net/?Brerrabbit/infodawg ** Looking for cheap airtickets to all destinations. Try us! http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=26917872&siteid=41315606&bfpage=homepage" ** Get Instant Access to Hundreds of Work-at-Home Jobs Want exclusive access to the hottest freelance jobs online today? Signing up for trial membership of Freelance Work Exchange gives you access to cool projects like these. Write Articles for a Web Site Translate a Book Manage a Newsletter Mail Out Fire your boss and set your work-at-home career off to a cracking start today http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-1599689-10301357 ** In this edition Editor's Blurb Holiday Season in Cape Town. Air Show ** Editor's Blurb. Hi there folks! Welcome once again to Turtle Essays and especially to Cape Town. This week I have highlighted some more of the popular attractions in and around Cape Town as well as including an article on an air show that was presented at Ysterplaat Air Force Base last weekend. I hope that you enjoy them. If you intend visiting Cape Town and are using our roads please drive safely. There have been some ghastly accidents. One where seven people were killed a short way from where I live and which orphaned a three year old boy. A newspaper headline reading ??? Who will be my mommy now???? and the accompanying article spells out the tragedy that happens when some idiot does his own thing. The west coast road north of Cape Town is another road where many accidents occur. After driving along it last week I can see why. Some people have absolutely no respect for other road users and will overtake on a blind corner forcing oncoming traffic off the road into the yellow lines. Where are the traffic authorities when this happens? Let me tell you where they are. Hiding behind some bush with a camera trying to catch people who are speeding instead of being visible and stopping the carnage on the roads. This freaks me out as the people who should be hauled off the roads are getting away with murder while soft targets who happen to overstep the speedlimit on the odd occasion get caught. Enough raving from me for this week. See you all next week with the last edition for 2004. Geoff Fairman ** Holiday Season in Cape Town. It's school holidays in Cape Town and we have many visitors from all over the country visiting us at the moment. Why do all these people visit us year after year? I'll let you into the secret! It's summer and the beaches are the main attraction for people from inland areas. Beaches such as Muizenberg, Gordons Bay and the Strand are very popular but unfortunately with the howling south east wind that blows at this time of the year it can get very unpleasant when the wind gets up. When the swimmers leave the beaches at the end of the day the fishermen arrive to get after the Kob that normally bite in the evenings. The best timefor fishing in False bay is after a big blow as the sea bed gets stirred up by the wind and waves and the kob come in to feed. Some love the wind and others don't. For those who love windsurfing and kite boarding the wind is a must. The most popular spots for windsurfers is Big Bay Bloubergstrand and the Table View coastline. Kite boarders seem to need more space on the water than the windsurfers do and have spread themselves out along the full length of the Table Bay coastline these days. Sun lovers look for beaches out of the wind and they will find them on the Atlantic coastine in places like Sea Point and Clifton. Camps Bay is a beautiful beach but is often blown out by the south east gales, but when the wind drops it's beautiful. Tired of the beaches and the wind , shopping is your next bet. Ladies we have some of the best malls in the world. I will list a few of them for you. The most well known is the V & A Waterfront which is very pleasant and safe for visitors. There are hundreds of shops, restaurants, a craft market and for those who love boat rides, a large choice as well. Robben Island is twenty minutes away by ferry for those who want to visit President Mandela's old cell and hear the history of the island. The biggest centre in the northern peninsula is Canal Walk which forms part of the Century City project. Here there are kilometres of passageways all filled with shops, restaurants and movie houses.. For the kids there is the MTN Science centre and a skate board park although with the latest craze to hit Cape Town the kids roller skate in the malls on their wheely shoes. In the parking area there are Go Karts for the not so young. A pleasant boatride on a canal and a walk around Intaka Island to see the birds is something for the oldies who want to get away from the drudgery of shopping. Intaka Island is unique in that it has a natural water filtration system that recycles seweridge water and keeps the water in the canals clean. This is something you won't see very often. Century City used to be a wetland and many of the wild birds that used to live in the Blouvlei area during summer have now taken up residence at Intaka Island and on the canals. For those who love nightlife ??? Dockside??? is something you won't find everywhere. In Claremont there are two shopping malls ??? Cavendish??? and ???The Atrium???. They are small compared to Canal Walk. In Tokai there is the Blue Route Centre which is a largish shopping mall and services the area in the centre of the peninsula. Further south is the Long Beach Mall which is utilised by residents from Fish Hoek, Kommetjie and the surrounding areas. Moving east along the False Bay coastline we find a large shopping mall in Mitchells Plain. Somerset Mall is situated just off the N2 near Somerset West and is the largest mall before leaving the Cape area. Most of the centres feature the same shops and restaurants so no matter where you go you will not miss out on shopping at your favourite supermarket or clothing store. For those who love outdoor activities other than the beaches, there are plenty of hikes, trails and nature reserves in and around Cape Town. Table Mountain has many trails to the top of it, just do not walk alone as there have been reports of muggers of late. Places such as Kirstenbosch are lovely to relax in and if you need a mixture of relaxing and something to do visit the Gardens in the centre of town. There you can visit the Museum, the Planetarium and feed the squirrels. The Art Gallery is closeby for those who love the arts. Cape Town has so much to offer and it is difficult to include it all in one article. If you want to know more about this fantastic holiday destination visit my website and read the many articles that are all packed with information about Cape Town. Capetonians are friendly people and would love you to visit them. When doing so we have one request! Please drive safely as we would not like to learn of your visit through the obituaries. See you all here soon! ** Air Show Air shows are always a big attraction especially here in Cape Town. Last weekend there was an ???Air Extravaganza ??? held at the Ysterplaat Air Force Base in Brooklyn a suburb of Cape Town. Ysterplaat opened its gates at 7.00 am and when I arrived at 8.30 am the airfield was already full, and the flying programme well underway. The first event of the day was a parachute jump by 30 free fallers who all bailed out of a perfectly good aircraft at 12000 feet. They formed a star and at 2000 feet shot off in all directons to open their parachures before landing. An airshow in South Africa cannot compare to one such as Farnborough in the UK as our aircraft were all built before Noah built his ark. The oldest flying aircraft on the show was the Shackleton. It's in great shape and wowed the crowds with its low level flypast with its bomb doors open. South Africa has the only flying Shackleton in the world. There was another one but it crashed in the desert on the west coast of North Africa while flying to the UK for an air show a couple of years ago. During the 1960's the Shackleton's flew patrols along the sea board of SA to look for fishing vessels illegally fishing in our territorial waters. The sight of a Shackleton circling over a ship caught fishing illegally must have scared many a seaman over the years. There were a number of jet aircraft on show and amongst them there was a??? Lightning??? which has been rebuilt by the company ???Thunder City???. It has a number of old jets which it utilises to train pilots from all over the world and its stable includes Buccaneers, Hawker Hunters and Lightnings to name a few. At the show was a Japanese TV crew who were in SA to film the aura that comes off the??? Lightnings??? when they go through the sound barrier. Unfortunately their trip was in vain as the jet was not allowed to break the sound barrier in a built up area. This year Ysterplaat went out of its way to entertain the crowds with its flying displays. An unplanned emergency landing occurred when a paraglider who had a motor attached to his back had his propeller snap. He was forced to land downwind and did so succesfully. The stars of the show were however the SA Airforce's fighters. Three Cheetahs enacted a dogfight in the skies above the base and the lone Mirage painted in the colours of the SA flag enthralled the crowds as it climbed 15000 feet straight up into the sky and then came straight back down again. There were two aerobatic teams, the Siver Falcons in their Pilatus Astras and the Sasol Tigers who undertook some precision flying, Two aircraft that impressed were the C47TP, a re engineered Dakota with engines so quiet that it could sneak up on a mouse and the workhorse of the SA Airways fleet, the Hercules. It's amazing dive, down to the runway ,and its short take off and versatility were quite astounding. South Africa's airforce has been left behind over the years due to sanctions by the world. We might not have the best aircraft but we have some really good pilots who can do amzing things with the equipment we have. Who will forget the role played by the Oryx helicopters at the sinking of the Seafarer off Green point a number of years ago when the pilots rescued passengers and crew in terrible conditions. Ysterplaat airforce base won a number of awards for their flying skills that year. In the new year a number of the SAAF squadrons will be celebrating birthdays and it appears that another show will be held at Ysterplaat to commemorate them. Rumour has it that the show will be more commercial and will have modern aircraft from other countries on show. That will boost the interest of the public who only see other country's airdraft when they go abroad. If you love aviation, why not visit Cape Town in May to see the show. See you here soon! ** Turtle Travels new blog is online now. Topic : Red tide hits the beaches of Ysterfontein See the photos of the tide which looks like an oil slick http://turtleessays.blogspot.com If you have not visited this blog before, do so as there are some unique photos on site. Your comments will be appreciated. ** Like to have your own rose garden. Find out how to do it from an expert. Here is his link: http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/mcplants ** Lotto Loser? Change your luck today Give yourself a winning chance http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/shaneomac2 ** Please read the disclaimer at http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html See you all soon Geoff Fairman ** |
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| << December06, 2004 - Turtle Essays ezine no 114 dated 6th December 2004 |
December21, 2004 - Turtle Essays edition no 116 dated 20th December 2004 >> |
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