Vacation Part 2 - Cape Town

Again, I must reiterate how much I appreciate that my friends are scattered around the world! My friend Katie from U of O is currently doing a CIDA IYIP internship in Cape Town and she graciously offered a roof over my head. The last time Katie and I saw each other was when we travelled to the East Coast a few summers back so upon my arrival in Cape Town on Saturday August 13th, we spent the afternoon catching up then went into town for an amazing sushi dinner and cocktails. Even though it was a Saturday night and people were in party mode, I just couldn't get it together! I was so tired from the lack of sleep the night before and the full day of travelling. We called it an early night on Saturday, especially since we planned to wake up early on Sunday and hike up Table Mountain.

Sunday August 14th


Table Mountain:
The plan was always to hike up the mountain but then take the cable car down, however the gale force winds that day put a damper on the cable car as it was closed. The hike up was fine, a little tougher than I had imagined as it was pretty steep and the step between rocks is very big which makes it even harder for someone with short legs! After 2.5hrs we made it to the top, the view was spectacular but it was so cold that we couldn't stay for that long. We walked around to see the different views and stopped for a quick snack then headed back down. Although the hike down was quicker, I think it was far more painful not to mention the much needed concentration to not slip on a rock and injure myself! Needless to say, 3 days later my legs are still in rough shape.

City Tour Bus:
After table mountain I met Sabrina in town and we hopped on the "Hop on Bus" which is a big red double decker sightseeing bus. The bus went all around the city including Sea Point and Camps Bay areas which are really posh neighbourhoods with amazing condos. I am wondering how one affords to purchase a condo in this area and how I can be one of these people!

This bus tour took up the remainder of the day and I returned to Katie's house around 6pm and stumbled in the house, took a nice hot shower and then we ordered delivery Thai food for dinner -- who knew this service existed in Africa!

Monday August 15th


Robben Island:
I took the morning ferry to Robben Island which I found to be a very interesting tour. The island itself is fairly large so when you first arrive you are told to get onto a bus which turned out to be incredibly full. The tour guide was awesome though and very knowledgeable about the island. So the bus takes you around the island four about 1 hr and the guide tells you about who has live on the island during different periods of time ie: pre prison days, prison days and post prison days. He tells you about escapee's and those who attempted to escape but were unsuccessful. The bus tour ends and you are then given a jail tour by a previous inmate of Robben Island who was held on the island for 5 years between 1985 to 1990. He took showed us Nelson Mandela's prison cell and the court yard where Mandela had his "leisure" time. The tour finishes by walking down the same road from the prison cells to the harbour that all the inmates took when they were released or when the prison closed in 1991. This walk is infamously known as "The Long Walk to Freedom" which is the title to Mandela's autobiography (which I highly recommend reading!)

Peninsula Bus Tour/Wine Tasting:
After the ferry returned to the waterfront I caught the second route of the big red sightseeing tour. This time the tour was going around the peninsula and to a vineyard called Groot Constantia. I ended up arriving at the vineyard around 2:15pm and the next tour of the cellar didn't start until 3:00pm, because I wanted to attempt to catch the 3:30pm bus back to town the fabulous staff at Groot Constantia arranged for me to do the wine tasting portion of the tour first so that I could join the tour then sneak off to catch the bus around 3:20. Normally on the tour the guest only get to try 3 selected wines and when you just do the wine tasting itself you get to personally select 5 wines from the list of 12 to taste. However, because I was the only person in the wine tasting area at the time, the lady let me try all 12 wines! There were 5 white wines and 6 red plus a port dessert wine that was fermented with brandy and so sweet. My favourite was the Merlot but they were all delicious. So I tasted a decent portion of each 12 wines from 2:30 to 3:00 then went on the cellar tour. Needless to say I was kind of tipsy by this point! The cellar tour was interesting, so interesting in fact that I didn't want to sneak off early to catch the 3:30 bus so I finished the tour which ended around 3:40, drank some more Merlot on the terrace and caught the 4:20 bus back to town...in a very happy state! What an amazing way to spend an afternoon! Highly recommend.

Tuesday August 16th


Simon's Town and African Penguins:
Simon's Town is about an hour south of Cape Town on the train, a very beautiful train ride along the coast. The main reason for going to Simon's Town was to see the African Penguins at Boulder's Beach! Seeing penguins has always been on my bucket list of things to do before I die! The African Penguin is much smaller than the Antarctic Penguin that most people picture when you talk about penguins. Around this time of year it is nesting season so there weren't so many penguins on the beach, they were mostly in the forest covered area nesting their eggs. Nevertheless, they were still so cute! There is a boardwalk through the forest which I walked along and saw many of the penguins lying down on their egg. Apparently the mother and father take turns nesting while the other one goes to eat then switch. I did see a baby penguin, you can tell because it is all furry and cuddly looking. I got a good video shot of a few penguins waddling on the beach which I will post later.

Since Simon's Town is a big fishing community, I treated myself to a nice plate of fish and chips then wandered around the shops in town for a little while then caught the 3:20pm train to head back to the city.

Wednesday August 17th


High Tea at the Mount Nelson:
This was such a relaxing experience! I arrived at this very posh and expensive hotel for my reservation at 10:30am and ended up staying until 1pm. I had a nice table on the terrace and just stat and read my book, ate a lot of food and drank a lot of tea! The first pot I had was an Earl Gray Blue tea and the second pot I had was a mix of berries, both were so delicious. I would highly recommend experiencing high tea at the Mount Nelson, it is a beautiful place and if you have a few hours to kill, it is a great place to take time for yourself and just relax.

Green Point Stadium:
In the evening I met up with Katie, Kelly and Emily and we went for nachos and beer near the Green Point Soccer Stadium (one of the many sites of the 2010 Fifa World Cup). I was definitely craving nachos because that's definitely something that I cannot get in Zanzibar! After we ate we headed over to the stadium to catch the soccer game. The stadium is amazing, both inside and out and although it wasn't overly crowded for the game we saw, I could still picture the masses of people flooding into the gates last year for world cup games. For the small amount of people that were there when I went, there was a lot of noise being made and I can't even imagine how loud the soccer fans made Cape Town just one year ago...wish I was there. But, I was happy to see the stadium and watch a game there.

Thursday August 18th


Today I plan on doing my own walking tour of the city plus some shopping at the Mr. Price so I can get some new (cheap) clothes to take back to Zanzibar! We have a nice dinner planned for this evening then it is time to say goodbye as I will be leaving Friday morning for my 30 hr bus ride to Namibia! Sand dunes here I come!