Simon's Town

And so for a couple of three months, they put you through basic training.

And then we went to marine school out in Simonstown in the Cape and they carried on our training.

And then we end off with a thing called fuss bait, which means to kind of hold on.

And they put you through those mountains.

You know, speaking of Dr.

Van Heerden, when he discussed Brazil, you know, last week or week and a half ago, there was a joint naval operation at Simonstown between the navies of India, Brazil, and South Africa.

And no press covered that.

I don't know why the press never covered that, you

Yeah, we did.

You might not have heard that conversation, but we had that conversation.

And I suppose it is worth having a conversation about the Simonstown military exercises, yeah, which took place.

I see that a publication called the Cape Town, et cetera, the...

It was not until late in June that they at last got away on convoying duty to the Cape of Good Hope.

The account of Simon's Bay in the notebook of Francis Austin is interesting when compared with the state of things now existing at the Cape.

After sundry very instructive but entirely nautical directions for sailing in and out and anchoring, he goes on to make a few remarks respectively on wooding and watering, fortifications and landing places, trade and shipping and inhabitants, from each of which we give extracts.

Wood is not to be had here except by purchase and is extravagantly dear, nor is there any sort of fuel to be procured.

Mary's visit in the island is probably shortened by this event.

Make our kind love and congratulations to her.

While on these last voyages, Captain Austen made two charts, one of Simon's Bay and one of the northwest side of the island from St. Helena, which are still in use at the Admiralty.

An interesting point in the correspondence of the captain of the St. Albans at this time relates to the conduct of the masters of various vessels belonging to the convoy.

And, of course, a lot of the fruit these days goes out in containers.

But perhaps the big talking point, particularly on the False Bay coastline, have been the naval exercises out of Simonstown.

where the South African Navy, the Brazilian Navy, and the Indian Navy have been exercising together, and five South African warships were involved.

I can't remember when last five South African warships were at sea, but this time they are at sea.

I just wonder, though, the cost of the fuel of those ships, but also what's happened to the essential patrolling for various kinds of smuggling, including the drug smuggling that does happen off the coast and even possible insurgency and so on.

And it does raise the question also as to what's going to happen to Simonstown in the long run.

And at the moment, of course, it's used almost exclusively by the South African Navy.

And I just wondered whether it couldn't be opened to another Navy.

2026 is a trilateral maritime exercise held from the 8th of October to the 21st of October.

And it's in Simonstown.

And, yes, there were grip-ins.

flying from the false bay area across cape town which is what people were hearing and questioning on social media and saying what were these noisy planes this was we're going to play the sound of this was just an ordinary cape town resident there were many who managed to record it somehow and film it and this is what one of them sounded like Yeah.

and there can be little doubt but that this extension of British cables, if not along the exact line above specified, yet with slight variations, will be an accomplishment of the near future.

With this extension of imperial cable added to her already extensive state-owned landline system, England will have the most complete telegraphic system in existence, placing the following fortified and garrisoned coaling stations in direct connection each with any other, viz., Hong Kong, Singapore, Trincomalee, Colombo, Aden, Cape Town, Simons Bay, St. Helena, Ascension, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Bermuda, Halifax, Eskimo, King George's Sound, and Thursday Island.

The following defended ports would likewise be connected, viz.

Durban, Karachi, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Rangoon, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Townsville, Auckland, Wellington, Littleton, and Dunedin.

And we can play a positive role to our own benefit.

But the last thing that the United States would like to see is that Simon's Town becomes a base for China.

Hmm.

So in a way, if you look at the broad sweeps of history, we could start aligning with South America and to South Africa's benefit.

So, and I've lived in South Africa for many, many years, so that, that's the sort of environment I was writing in.

So I had a sense of somewhere like Fish Hoek, Kalk Bay, Simonstown, this sort of neck of the deep southwards.

And then I needed a harbor that was relatively close to the, to where this house would be, and a bit closer to, to the, uh, the mountains, which I needed to use.

So I sort of squished all of those together and created a, a town called Harberton, where things happened and where, where Bird's family, uh, lived in this house with, with this horrible, horrible grandmother.

You can tell by the appearance.

So when I was nine months old, my parents, my dad actually, entered me in a baby competition, Cape Town to Simon's Town, and I won the baby competition.

So Dad was always boasting about his beautiful girl.

But I have five...