Advertisement
Published: February 9th 2010
Edit Blog Post
So having spent a peaceful night in Stellenbosch it was time to set off for the Cape of Good Hope and Paula and I's last full day together in the car. Breakfast turned into a disaster as the night before I had picked up some bread in the supermarket and that morning we soon learned why it was the only bread left on the shelves as it was as solid and heavy as a rock and after one slice it was settled in the stomach like a layer of cement. Needless to say it was decided that the rest of the loaf could be donated to any other travel who dared eat it!
With a rough idea of which way we were heading (which involved driving through the centre of Cape Town we set off). The “motorway” into the centre of Cape Town is the busiest road I have encountered since having to tackle the road in and out of Auckland, New Zealand in August so I actually found myself driving with more caution than I would normally!
Having navigated our way to the waterfront in Cape Town we followed the main road along to Camps Bay where the
main road and side streets were heaving with the beautiful and rich heading to the beach for the day as it was Sunday and proving to being a scorcher!! We slowly found our way to Chapmans Peak which is a scenic drive that takes you around to Houts Bay. Needless to say Paula and I found it necessary to stop a number of times and take the usual scenic pictures.
From Chapmans Peak we headed to the Cape of Good Hope National Park. Windows down and enjoying the sun we cruised down through the park to the end. The Cape was busy and it took awhile for me to park (despite trying to unsuccessfully persuade a parking attendant to let me park in a spot reserved for tourist minibuses). Parked up and we picked up a a couple of sandwiches for lunch in the cafe however this proved as successful as breakfast with the bread dry and curling at the edges! Having eaten lunch we decided to walk up to the southern most point of the Cape (however not the southern most point of Africa as one of the signs tried to mislead you into believing much to my
Long Beach
Not sure why it earned this name! vocal disapproval and Paula trying to usher me along and shut me up!!).
So having wandered upto the Southern most point and duly had our photos taken we wandered back to the main centre wheer we decided it was time for an ice-cream. The ice-creams were unbelieveably huge. Anyway ice-creams in hand we decided it was necessary to take a photo so I duly took hold of Paulas camera, she smiled and I handed the camera back to her. In the process of handing the camera back Paula wasn't concentrating and decided to tip her ice-cream backwards meaning it fell all over her chest and top.....! After rescuing the ice-cream and cleaning herself up courtesy of some help from the shop assistants we sat and chilled in the sunshine and then jumped back into the car heading for the Cape of Good Hope (we weer too lazy to walk the two/three hour round trip).
The photos around the sign at the Cape of Good Hope took a lot of engineering as it was obviously a popular place. Having taken a photo of Paula the sign got over taken by a load of Japanese business men so the rest
of us had to stand aside and watch - although one girl decided to take the mikey and jumped into the shot with them so we were all laughing and the Japanese men just looked bemused. Photos taken and a quick scout around and we umped back into the car although we soon came to standstill as the road was overtaken by Chacma baboons who are alleged to be endangered. We were fortunate enough to have a mother and baby get up close and personal to us however Paula and I decided to stay a safe distance and sit watching them in the car. It was sad to see however some peopel decideing to feed some ofthe baboons crisps despite the pletniful warnings around the Park not to feed them!
On leaving the park we headed straight to Simons Town and the hostel there was to be our bed for the night. Having checked in we had a wander around the town and local area. Later that evening we went in hunt of dinner and settled on a local restaurant overlooking the harbour. Having seen on various menus on my travels I decided that I had to give calamari
steak a try. I established with the waiter that it was squid but I was still bemused as to how they could call it a steak. Anyway the dish came and I was still confused as it had the consistency of squid however it was approximately 2cm thick so didn't look like squid.... anyway a mouthful later and i was duly able to claim that it was squid and tasted very nice. So I will happily recommend anyone to try squid steaks in South Africa!
Monday morning and the weather was slightly overcast. Paula and I had orginally planned to spend the day on a beach just chilling however the weather didn't conspire with us. In the end we ended up wandering around Simons Town and walked down to Boulders beach however this wasn't as good as Betty's Bay and due to either the tide or time of day there were only two penguins to be seen.
Having unpacked and repacked her bags Paula was ready to head off to Cape Town for her last few days. So we went down to the car to find that someone had tried to break into the boot at some point
and so it was now locked shut. So the bags were thrown onto the back seat and we headed off maps in hand. Thankfully we were able to navigate our way to the hostel with relative ease and parked up we checked Paula in. I got a brief tour of the hostel and it was then time to say goodbye to Paula untill Wednesday morning when I would roll up and spend my last few days in Cape Town itself.
Once I was back in Simons Town it was time to jump on to the internet and see what I needed to report in relation to the damage on the vehicle. thankfully it was an easy enough job so the evening was then spent chilling around the hostel and have a couple of drinks with the staff and another lodger.
Tuesday morning and the sun was up and baking and so I decided it was time for me to head to the beach and spend the day relaxing and topping up the tan. I drove onto the other side of the penninsular and went into a recreation park area where they have braai areas set out, two salt
water pools and all the facilities you could want in order to relax and enjoy your day. So I duly settled myself down book and ipod and spent the day relaxing and just generally enjoying myself. That afternoon I sorted out my bags ready for my final move and once again the night was spent chilling in the hostel with the staff whilst enjoying a drink or two.
Wednesday morning and having said goodbye to the staff I left and retraced my steps back into Cape Town and met up with Paula and checked into my final hostel of the trip......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.187s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1206s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb