Clifton beach

Friday saw us go down to the beach. There are two main beach areas, Camps Bay which is the most popular, and Clifton just north of there. It has four beaches (named First - Fourth), the first two are apparently too secluded, third is the unofficial gay beach and fourth is the nicest. We got the minibus taxi down as far as Sea Point which is still a fair way away from where we wanted to be. These minibuses are reminiscent of the tube in that they lurch around alarmingly and are excessively crammed, although they differ in that you can't stand up but are at least guaranteed part of a seat and are a quarter of the price. We then walked round the coastal road and were pretty stunned by what we saw. This area is the answer to the Cote d'Azur (or perhaps Sandbanks) except it is clean, has stunning scenery and every house is also a fortress.

I'm sure I've seen this company ADT at work in Britain. At home I don't think they do armed response though.

This beach was quite different from any I've been on before. All along this stretch of coastline the houses/castles reach right down to the seafront, indeed in some places they are built into cliffs and the waves crash onto rocks below ground/-6th floor balconies. On the road level these houses (blocks of flats really) are simply a door into a lift and a ramp into a larger lift for the cars, preserving the view for the other side of the road. Incredible. On beachy stretches, footpaths snake down between the mansions to the beach level, on which there are no facilities like cafes, restaurants, chipshops, car parks, contraceptive outreach centres etc like in most of the UK except for a very clean and well-maintained toilet block with everything signed by the "Clifton Villagers' Association" and some guys on the beach selling ice creams from cool boxes and renting out umbrellas (pictured) at R25 for the day which we thought was a decent deal given the total lack of shade and my total lack of melanin.

The beach itself was beautiful. Clean smooth white sand, not busy, very peaceful, azure sea, even a few palm trees for effect. Sandra got quite agitated by the bearded man who left his headscarfed wife in a coat and trousers under a brolly while he went swimming, but aside from them... well, see her so-called revision photo above.

And I remembered sun cream! Unlike the previous day but I have forgiven myself as we didn't have summer at home this year and I couldn't remember the last time I'd used it.