Cape Town, South Africa, September 2002

You gotta love Cape Town. Incredibly beautiful, with great restaurants, shopping, culture, etc. Here was our chance to reconnect with civilization.

The Dutch first set foot here in 1652. They also surely had a nice view of Table Mountain, but we doubt the shopping and eating were as good as they are now here at the V&A Waterfront.

Cape Town viewed from the other side, as we ascended Table Mountain on foot....

....after nearly 3000 feet straight up, Tim admitted to being slightly (only slightly, though) winded. Yeah, right.

On top of Table Mountain, above Cape Town, after having re-charged our batteries. Just off Paul's left shoulder is what's called Lion's Head and the small island still farther right is Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years in prison.

Lion's Head in the fog, which threatening to kill our views of the city from Table Mountain. The guys overseeing the rappeling made for other noteworthy scenery, though.

The fog cleared, thankfully, giving us this view of Cape Town, spliced together from several shots.

Just south of Cape Town, headed toward the Cape of Good Hope, is Hout Bay.

Who dat?

And farther along toward the Cape is Simonstown, a former British naval base and now home to the South African Navy.....and thousands of endangered African penguins that have taken over a stretch of the beach. If you want to lose a finger or two, it's easy to reach out and touch these little guys.

Oh, by the way, the goatee was short-lived.