The Residency

Simon's Town is just a few miles along the coast from us, but is a very different place. Most visitors/tours drive through Fish Hoek; they always stop at Simon's Town, for its architecture, its museums and cafés and the harbour. 

Simon's Town started out as a safe winter anchorage for the Dutch East India Company, in fact it was Simon van der Stel who in 1687 first carried out a survey of the bay and gave the settlement its name. During the British Occupation the Royal Navy was moved from Cape Town to Simon's Town. Then the town prospered and many of the buildings date from this time. The Royal Navy were there until 1957, then the South African Navy took over and is still there now. 

This building is 'The Residency' and was built in 1771 as a winter residence for the Governor of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape. Over the years it has served many purposes, but now houses the Simon's Town Museum which we visited. They have a vast collection of items and pictures relating to the cultural history of Simon's Town. Fascinating. 

We had a lovely bright morning but, by the time I took this photo, clouds had rolled in and we even had a bit of drizzle. You can see the mist over the hills. The museum was closed by then 'Due to Loadshedding'. We find it quite difficult planning around these power outages, I don't know how businesses cope. 

Gordon really enjoyed the cricket yesterday, despite the result.