Blouberg, South Africa

One of my favorite spots near Cape Town happens to be outside the city.  It's Blouberg, a small town right by the sea.  The view of Cape Town is spectacular.

The lure of viewing the city's skyline, complete with its majestic Table Mountain is too much for me.  That's why I keep on returning to Blouberg over the years and keep on snapping shots after shots of the city, day and night..

It helps too that an excellent restaurant serving Cape Malay dishes and local favorites is nearby.

Cape Malay seafood curry served with rice

Me having a creme brulee at On The Rocks

There's an accommodation  next door to On The Rocks.  You can see it on the left side of this photo.  I think it's called Pinard Boutique hotel.  View from there is fantastic!

Went to Mt. Etna before the eruption

Jack and I had the wonderful chance to visit Mt Etna the day before Christmas.  December 24, 2011 was crisp with hardly a cloud in the sky.

This is Etna as viewed from Palazzo Giovanni, our B&B in Stazzo.  It's about a 45 minute drive from here to Rifugio Sapienza.

Our drive to Etna started from Stazzo, where we based ourselves for a couple of days.  We passed the towns of Santa Venerina and Zafferina Etna.  After the latter, the road gets windy. Soon, a sign saying we were entering into Mt.Etna park came into view.

A bit of Etna in the background

The incline got steeper, the air cooler, the landscape more barren as we neared our destination - Rifugio Alpini Sapienza.

Etna is still smoking!

At this point, we were above the snow line.

The road turned white about 6kms from our stop.  We parked our rental on the slope of the mountain, and went on foot for another 1 km or so toward the Rifugio.A few other holidaymakers got the same idea as we had, and in a short while, a few cars were parked near ours and the other people too walked under the sunny late morning rays over Sicily.  We all breathed the fresh mountain air, took in the sprawling view of mountain, land and sea.

Jack and I had fun - snowball fights and photo taking for the next hour - before heading to our next stop - Taormina.