What happened in and around Cape Town...

It’s only a couple of hours to fly from Durban to Cape Town which was great short flight.  You hear of various places/areas to stay so we went and stayed at Green Point which was not far from the V&A Waterfront area.

The V&A Waterfront is a very nice place and is a real tourist trap.  You see many middle age holiday makers here.  But really it’s all a bit fluffy and Disney and about as South African as being in Portsmouth quayside.  We saw even more Germans here, as we’ve seen lots of German people of all age groups all over SA on our travels.

After a quick look around in the sunshine we planned what we wanted to do while here.  We woke the next day to a cloudless sunny day so we did the hop on, hop off city tour onboard an open top double decker bus.  A great safe way to see the city.  We got off at the Table Mountain stop and joined the queues of people all waiting to take the cable car up to the top.  We queued in the sunshine to buy the tickets and waited a while for the cable car to come down.  The cable car spins around 360 degrees as you go up so no matter how full the gondola gets you get to see all the views.  Clear blue skies meant great views across the city and surrounding areas.  It was even quite chilly up on the top, so plenty of walking about to take in the views stopped us from getting to cold.

Back on the bus to stop at Camps Bay.  We had heard it was a lovely beach and you could see it was from the top of the mountain.  It’s one of the rich suburbs of Cape Town full of expensive sea view apartments and little cafes and restaurants.  We had some lunch sat on the grass in the sunshine but there sure was a strong breeze coming across from the Atlantic Sea.  This also keeps the sea really cold by all accounts but we weren’t about to find out!  We got back on the bus to take in the rest of the coastal road back to the waterfront where we got on.  More food shopping and a late run in the cooler sunshine finished off the day…

South Africa is known for some great wines so we got ourselves on a great day trip to the famous Stellenbosch wine region with a really good guide.  We visited 5 wineries with one known for great cheeses, had a really good lunch and got to see some more great countryside and little towns, like Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.  The guide added some great little touches in-between wineries.  One being a bottle of bubbly to drink in the mini-van and then a big box of fresh strawberries from one of the local farms, which both tasted great in the lovely sunshine!  The wines tasted great too…

After a few nights in Cape Town we then took to the road and hired a car to get out of the city.  We drove via the coastal route to Simon’s Town taking in the views and dropped off our bags at a hostel in the town.  We then went to Boulders Beach nearby.  This place is famous for it African penguins.  It’s all quite bizarre seeing penguins in the hot sun on the beach and not in the sea.  I even think the sea is too damn cold for them as well!

From there we headed down the road as far as you can go to Cape Point.  After a brief walk up to the lighthouse you get to the most southerly tip of Africa…  This is where people believe that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet (although the real meeting point is 300 km away!) and many a ship has been lost at sea due to the treacherous seas.  Absolutely great views with very strong sea breezes! 

On our way out of the National Park we were flagged down by woman.  We stopped only to find out that her family had stopped just over the way to take a photo or two and had left the car doors open, only to come back to see a large baboon sat in the back seat and was not budging.  We did our good deed for the day and drove back along the road towards the lighthouse to where the rangers were and got one of them to follow us back to the woman!  Luckily the baboon had left in the meantime so all was well…

We then drove a short distance to the Cape of Good Hope which is the most southerly western tip of Africa…  Here you are down at sea level and can really see the sea crashing against the rocks.  From there we headed back to Simons town for the night.

Next day we headed off down the Garden Route so see that link!

Back from the Garden Route we had planned to spend our last week or so in one place away from the UK cold weather and that was Stellenbosch in the wine region.  After visiting the area from the wine tasting we did, it seemed a very relaxed town.  We got ourselves a deal for a very nice room at a new hostel/lodge not long opened.  We hadn’t seen the place as we had to drop off our bags quickly as parking for a car wasn’t good.  So when we got back we were glad it was a nice place.  It was basically a one bedroom flat with a balcony and a roof terrace that had great mountain views all around. 

We went on another wine tasting trip to visit different vineyards from the last trip and saw a great way to take the cork out of a champagne bottle.  The guy used a sword and sliced the top straight off.  All to do with the pressure in a champagne bottle as to why it doesn’t shatter from the impact apparently!  What a party trick!  So amongst spending lots of time putting the final touches to our website we ate out lots in the sunshine on the balcony, drank plenty of wine, celebrated Rachel’s birthday with a big chocolate cake and a great meal out, went for lots of runs in the sun and topped up the tan.  All the time psyching ourselves up for going home to the cold of the UK and all that lies ahead for us to do when we step off the plane.

All we can say though is “What a great trip!”