A little trip...

 As cub of the year for 2013, Jake won an awesome prize - an hour's flight over the Cape Peninsula!  What a treat, especially since he is an air cub!  The chairman of the cubs committee has his own plane and has been flying for about 15 years, so Jake jumped at the chance to see our city from the sky.  I was invited to join them too, although I was far more nervous about it than Jake seemed to be.  He's was super excited when Sean called to confirm that we were going!  Our flight was scheduled for departure early last last Saturday morning from the Morningstar airfield, not too far from Marius' house.  Jake was fine about the flight, until we got there and he saw that the plane is actually smaller than my car!  I can't imagine how you could possibly fit two adults into the backseat, which Jake had all to himself for the flight.  Weight-wise, it was apparently better for me to be up front with our pilot.

After we'd taken to the skies, Jake's nerves seemed to settle a bit, but he was still pretty nervous and didn't say too much throughout the trip...

 We travelled at height of 200 - 2000 foot, at around 140km per hour - so we were low enough to recognise places, yet high enough to see it all and really enjoy it...

 For those of you who know Cape Town well, Morningstar is along the N7, very near to the ostrich farm.  After taking off, we headed over the Durbanville farmlands, towards Stellenbosch...

 Despite being the height of summer for us, there's plenty of green vines growing.  Wine is on the way...

More of Stellenbosch...

 As we neared Cape Town International Airport, we had to drop our height quite a bit...

 And we eventually reached False Bay, with its long, white, sandy beaches...

 We went out a little and then flew parallel to the coast all the way up to Muizenberg...

 There's a red tide...

I did try spot sharks, but we didn't see anything besides a few seals.  Can you see our tiny shadow?

 We were very lucky to have such a calm, clear day.  The wind did blow a little, but the flight wasn't nearly as bumpy as expected...

 Looking back over Cape Town.  The pointy mountain below is Devil's Peak...

 An aerial shot of Jo and Paul's house - it's in the middle, second from the top...

 The Constantia Winelands...

 I know it's blurred, I had to zoom right out, but there's Buitenverwachting!  The four pointy roofs belong to the cellar, the next one's their exquisite restaurant, behind is the offices and the field beyond is their picnic site..

 Over Constantia Nek, there's Hout Bay...

 Looking back (into the sun) towards Table Mountain as we head on over the Twelve Apostles towards Camps Bay...

 As we went over the Twelve Apostles, the wind catches you and I'm not sure whether we dipped or rose, but I stopped taking photos for a moment...

 Table Mountain looking out over the city...

 Lion's Head, with Signal Hill further on.  We did a little turn around the top of Lion's Head - one of my scariest parts of our trip.  Lion's Head is a very popular hike...

 Sea Point - this is where my dad grew up...

 The Cape Town Stadium...

 The Waterfront and harbour...

 This is the "MSC Sinfonia", the boat my parents will be boarding to travel to Italy next month...

 Our gorgeous city bowl. I just love this mountain and this city so much, I can't imagine living anywhere else...

 Heading up the West Coast.  I have to drive past that vlei in the back ground when I travel to Marius' house, so you know where we're heading...

 This is Blaauwberg, where we spend so much time...

 And there's Marius' house... the one on the back of the block.  It's two tone at the moment, he's busy changing it from mud colour to white.  You can see the awning on the stoep, where I lie in my hammock.  And the patio where we like to braai at the back...

 Looking back over Blaauwberg, that's the little Island we like to explore as often as possible when the tide's low.  Jake loves it on the island and there are some cool pools that Marius' boys love jumping in...

 Many of my photos landed up looking like this...  There just wasn't space for me to turn around properly in my seat, so it meant balancing my camera on one hand and using the other to make exposure adjustments - it was hard, but I think I managed to get some decent snaps of our adventure...

 There, that's better...

 Very scary moments for me, were take off, but I always hate those, as well as our little loop around the top of Lion's Head.  Also, Sean showed us the difference between positive (up) gravity and negative (down) gravity - I don't like either and I screamed like a total girl.  Going in to land was pretty scary too, we came down in circles for part of the trip - I was brave enough after the pos/neg experience to take a photo for you...

This is Jake with our Pilot, Sean, and his plane...

 With our feet firmly back on the ground, I can now say that this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life!!  To see our city in such detail from above was simply amazing and it has made me realise over and over again, just how lucky we are to live in the most beautiful city on earth!

Love,

Sue xxx