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On Sunday, Andrew Cosgreave, Kevin Merrigans friend picked me up around 10am to SEE Cape Town. If any of you know Kevin Merrigan, anyone of 'his' friends has got to be a hoot, or a bit of a lesbo hahha. He picked me up in a diesel construction truck and told me we were going to SEE it all. We began by driving around the front of the Waterfront to the front of the Stadium (going to be a great time) then onto the freeway past all the docks and loading areas (you have never seen more cranes in one place) past the city's business district, past the University of Cape Town (SO BEAUTIFUL) and into Newlands where he grew up. We passed what Andrew said were the 3 most important things in Cape Town; the Rugby stadium, the Cricket stadium and the brewery (SAB). Everything was super thick with what I called africa trees, which turn out to be a type of pine trees that are trimmed so that there are no branches but the ones at the top - inorder to take up less space but provide a lot of shade-- very weird. They're still africa trees to me
Rugby and Cricket Stadium
Not in the same place-- but next to each other 😊 We stopped at a Quik Shop for some quik diesel, coffee, water..etc and we were back on the road. We drove through there Newlands to Constantia Valley which is the wine/garden route. Vineyards on either side, just absolutely amazing. Driving into Constantia Valley was forest like - very very tall trees with hiking trails that led out to views looking out onto table mtn or on to the bay, wind-y mountainous roads. Once we got into the garden route it was flat with these huge houses with a big piece of land and vineyards. We passed the on land prison (not Robben Island) where Nelson Mandela was for a few years as well as the U.S. Consulate and other Consulate. We drove up to a beautiful lookout on the top of Silvermine Nature Reserve , see pictures. For there we drove to Muizenberg along the Boyes Drive- along the way I was asking about townships and Andrew decided to take me by one of the more 'famous' townships here, called Khayelitsha. The drive from Muizenberg to Khayelitsha was all along the coast with pretty beaches where you could see seal island out in the distance. Andrew told me stories
that this area was very popular to surf in but people would be eaten by great white sharks, right up where the waves would break. THe sharks didn't care how close they were to the beach just as long as they got their fill. The townships were pretty far from Muizenberg, the closest city, but once you got there, it was as far as your eye could see. So incredibly sad - 100 families to 1 watering hole. Most of the huts had metal roofs with rocks holding them in place. With the coast right in their back yard they must get really high winds when it storms, especially during the winter. It was something that I had to see, and never forget but it was really really sad.
After driving back thru Muizenberg to get on the way towards Capes Point, we stopped up the mtn. at this little covering where a woman was standing with a walkie talkie. She barely looked at us b/c she was watching the water so intently. She was the Shark Watcher. She makes sure to contact the beaches to sound an alarm or change flags when sharks were in view. Pretty nuts.
She said the last time that she saw sharks was about 3 weeks ago, but at Fish Hoek (literally the next bay over) a swimmer in training got eaten 2 weeks ago. SCARY! She also said that in the summer the water is so clear that you can see the WHOLE body of the great whites from where she stop - about 1/2 way up the mtn. NUTS! I will not be swimming with sharks 😞
After that I needed a beer. We headed around the mtn to fish hoek. Not before adoring the little towns, St. James and Kalk Bay. Fish Hoek is this cute little fisherman's town where we ate lunch at the Brass Bell. I tried my first oyster. It was weird. We also had calamari and prawns. YUM. There were 2 guys in the tunnel into the restaurant jamming out-- everywhere we go (in Cape Town) there are many people playing drums, sax's, guitars, little morocco things that look like soccer balls - I love it.
After lunch, the car wouldn't start. We tried to jump start it, but no go. So a heard of nice car attendants started pushing the car, it got
into 2nd gear and started no problem, and before you know it we were off again. Crazy but it worked. Next we headed winding around the coast heading towards Cape Point (the tip of the peninsula) we checked out all the pretty beaches and towns along the way, some looking more safe than others, making our way through to Simon's town which was a port with quite a few Naval boats, guns, bases. The town itself was very victorian english style -- very old fashioned looking and just absolute quaint. After breaking the barriers of the city we went to Boulder's Beach Penguin Colony where we got out and walked to boardwalk to see the penguins SOOOO CUTE. OMG I wanted to jump the fence and go play. Luckily we parked on a hill because the damn car wouldnt start again haha so we rolled down the hill and popped it into 2nd gear. Yikes. We drove through Smitwinkle bay where there were dozens of signs that said Babboons!!! (as in be careful there are baboons that might jump on your car or sit in the middle of the street) YEA I didn't believe Andrew either. WHAT! Monkeys in the
street?!?! What do you know we were coming upon the nature reserve at Cape Point and right in the middle of the street was a pack of monkeys, big daddys, mommies and babies! so cute. I wanted to take one with me but andrew said he'd leave me with them ahah. See pictures. At this point it was too late to go into the park (plus would have taken away from sunset on the other side of the cape) so we continued the drive onwards. At this point, my camera dies. Don't worry I used Andrews. He took me to an Ostrich farm where I got out of the car to get up close and this one dude ostrich just came right up to me and was sticking his head out all crazy eyed. Anyways that way entertaining and scary so I got back in the car. From here we did a long stretch of driving to Scarborough, Mossol Bay, Slangkop, Kommetjie and Misty Bay, which was all along the coast right in some mist with green, rocky mountains on the right with waves and water crashing up along big beautiful rocks with nice houses right on the beach. Just
extremely picture esk. Amazing. After this we were driving to Nordhek to see Chapman's Peak before it got dark and Andrew went to wash the windshield and the whole car just died. We literally had to coast to a safe spot- as andrew put it "never a dull moment". After about 20 minutes of hanging out and watching the sunset Andrew had a tow truck there (YES 20 minutes so fast) and about 30 minutes later we were being towed, (in a 2 person caddy with 4 of us in it-- the driver, his 2.5 year old baby boy, Andrew (whos not small) and I, just a little tight) and about an hour later we were in a different car heading back to Camps Bay and to Grandma's neighborhood. I didn't get to see everything that I wanted but got to see A TON in one day! AMAZING.
Now I know all the things I want to do and see again: I gotta get to Cape Point and do all the hiking, the botanical gardens, and finish the the entire peninsula drive.
Hopefully Andrew, that sarcastic, great city/suburb shower (I don't think he liked being called a tour
View from Silvermines
Down below if you look closely you can see some houses and vineyards guide) can stand to show me some more in the near future.
Enjoy the pictures.
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Roberta
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Go girl go!!!
Hey Ray Ray, So already you have taken SA by storm. You are too amazing. I love your blogs. Keep 'em coming that way I won't miss you so much! XOXOXOX, R