DJR

.........the police is looking for a gang of petrolheads with great taste but no common sense.........

The next bus driver should learn from this ...... do NOT leave the bus unattended and idling while chasing the thief on foot ....... chase him with the bus and have a little slip of the brake pedal ........ where is that lovely Comic Sans button when I need it?

Very good post Mamil. Sadly, I agree. My own conclusion, after way too many close encounters, daily seeing the crazy dangerous driver behaviour and one very-near-to-final crash, is that the risks of road cycling in and around the City of Cape Town, now outweighs the benefits for me personally. The volume of traffic and the general level of skill as well as the extremely aggressive attitude, does not favour cyclists. If it sounds like I have lost my nerve, then maybe that is, at least partly, true. I should really sell my road bikes and ride off into the sunset on a mountain bike.

Just for accuracy - several of the attached photographs are of dead trees much higher up the mountain and far above Deer Park. Much of the dead gumtree plantations pictured were killed by the great fires of a few years ago and has zero to do with Sugarbird or ringbarking.

Rule number one is always STAY ALIVE!

I recall someone posting about a trucking (or was it a bus?) company in the UK (I think) who forced their drivers to ride a bicycle to work from time to time and that the increased awareness, of how vulnerable cyclists are, dramatically reduced the number of cyclist related accidents involving company vehicles. Perhaps it is time to do that here also? I know that after some complaints years ago, the big tour bus companies in the Cape promised to include cycle awareness and safety in their inhouse training programme for drivers. I hope they still do. Lastly, I think that there are many roads (like the Clifton part) where large trucks and busus should be restricted. The construction companies should simply use smaller trucks or be forced to get special permission to use it at night. Buses should be restricted to medium sized ones or forced to use another route.

Trouble for me is that selling a Colnago is nearly like giving your kids up for adoption ..........

Me too ...... I no longer consider Sea Point to Bakoven as a reasonably safe route. Too narrow with too many crazy, homicidal, idiotic, impatient, drunk, drugged, unlicenced, racing, reckless drivers of anything from a Smartcar to an articulated 18 wheeler truck. No longer a place I want to put my frail bag of bones and flesh through. Sadly.

Ha ha, they say the most unkind thing you can do to a man, is not to show him a picture of what he looked like years ago, but to play back the words he said then! Everyone expects you to look older, but at the same time expect your words to still be right and relevant! Methinks, it will be true for all of us.

Chappies is a special place when you are on a bicycle! In my fathers' 80th year, I rode his last CTCT with him. Picture us slowly grinding up Chappies at near-track-stand pace. He called it slow-and-steady. Half way up we noticed an old cycling buddy / adversary of his, also in the same age group, sitting on the stone wall taking a break ......... I asked "Dad, do you want to pull over and say hi?" Meaning to make a safe way for him through the crowds, good domestique that I was on the day. "Hell NO" was his somewhat breathless reply. "This is my chance to put some time on him!" And we did!

I disagree. Everyone is welcome here, beginners, professionals, even over the hill old guys (me?). Everyone should have a safe place here to voice their opinions, but always with a good measure of respect. Just like everyone should have the freedom to disagree, sometimes strongly, and still be welcome.

Yes, it can be seen clearly on the front of Table Mountain also, especially on the lower slopes above Vredehoek and around to the Blockhouse side.

I do not think that the nearest two cyclists are riding side by side. Look carefully, the one is clearly in front of the other and they are not riding the same line. The right one is turning in after overtaking the left one. (A feasible explanation methinks.) The driver is overtaking across a solid line and dangerously close to both the cyclist and the runners. So, the one undeniable illegal action, is by the driver.

Grassland conservation and restoration is urgently needed. Sadly, people mostly undervalue grasslands in terms of biodiversity and for how much it contributes to the ecology and balance of ecosystems.

Kirstenbosch only planted and maintain plant species indigenous to South Africa. The only trees from elsewhere were planted long before it became a botanical garden. There are now very few of those left. The big oak near the "otter pool" is one of the last examples of this. But Kirstenbosch have many many plants that are from other parts of the country and that do not occur naturally on Table Mountain. These are exotic to the mountain. They even have a small baobab from the Limpopo area in their greenhouse as well as succulents from the Karoo. Is this right? Strictly from a conservation point of view, it can be argued that it is not. But then, the botanical garden has other functions, like education, and for that it makes sense. I agree, there is no one right and one wrong. (I also like shade and forests.) Good discussion!