Advertisement
Published: September 1st 2008
Edit Blog Post
waterfront village
we face onto the marina Raindrops keep fallin’
Saturday
Table mountain had its black table cloth on this morning and the rest of the sky was pretty grey too so no visit up there for us today. As mentioned yesterday the weather was constantly changing and before we left the house we had watched a couple of rain showers out of the patio windows (we’re never going to get into our (very own) swimming pool at this rate). Waterproofs donned and we headed out through the underground garage as this was the furthest we could walk without getting wet. Once we were outside the rain had eased somewhat (although the seals were still enjoying themselves) and made our way back to the mall and the craft markets where we spent the rest of the day getting lunch, shopping and watching the new The Mummy film at the cinema (101 RAND for 2 adults and 2 children that’s around £7 - bargain). The kids also tried out rolling around in huge blow up balls on water - see photo. We bought more provisions afterwards, and went back to the apartment to prepare our first home-cooked meal of the holiday! With a round meal inside us
Inside our apartment
the living room, one of many rooms and the kids bathed we had enough lethargy on board to justify a night watching a few films before going to bed.
Sunday
Everyone slept late this morning except Annabel, who was up at sevenish and went downstairs to read. Ellie didn’t rouse until half past nine and by the time we’d had breakfast, let the cleaner in, watched TV and discussed at length the possible activities for the day it was time for lunch.
We wandered back to the V&A mall and ate our fill of American Diner food (South African thick milkshakes are literally just ice-cream, you have to leave them for half an hour to get the shake to make its way up your straw without bursting a blood vessel) before moving on to our destination - the start point for the Cape Town bus tour. This started well, since we had to race the bus to the bus stop, but once on we set off on our merry way, making up most of the passenger count (including the guide). Things already didn’t bode too well, since we could see that the side of the bus was stained with dirty streaks - apparently this was
The four nobel peace prize winners
Can you name them? (Not ellie and jack!!) the remains of sea foam that had sprayed onto the bus from the beachside portion of the previous tour. Anyhow, we were taken around the city centre to start with and the narrative was mainly concerned with land reclamation from the sea, apartheid histories, initial colonisation and Table Mountain (who was elusive today due to a looming curtain of grey cloud). We took note to visit some of the more interesting museums, but it must be said (even considering the weather) that Cape Town isn’t the most picturesque of cities - plenty of memorials, some greenery , marine industry and the odd park or two - but what really sets it apart is the location rather than anything else. You can see why the sweep from Table Mountain down to the bay was identified as a nice spot for a refreshment station by the Dutch East India Company.
Our bus wheezed its way up the hill to the lower Table Mountain cable car station (closed today to the weather as it was too windy), for an intermittently stunning view of the city and sea between sheets of rain. It did seem to briefly settle though, and the tour descended
Big balls
Rolling around on water to the other side of the mountain to a suburb on Camp Bay, which seemed to be really taking a thrashing from the sea. At the seafront we were diverted since the road was blocked by the police. A look further along showed why - the road was awash with sea foam. We had time to marvel briefly at the waves, the road, and the prospective fate of some of the houses before heading back up the hill to return to our point of origin. This route took us past the building works for the new Soccer World Cup 2010 stadium.
Have we mentioned anything about FIFA ’10 yet? The whole country is obsessed by it, and huge amounts of new infrastructure are being implemented everywhere to support it. Even the cottage airport at Nelspruit had posters that counted down to the big event. In Jo’burg a new stretch of underground metro was being put in to cope with the increase in visitors. Everyone is very excited.
Back to our diversion - we continued until we reached another part of town and were progressing towards the seafront again when we came to another road block, this time
Table Mountain
With its black tablecloth on obviously more dramatic. In front of us (at a junction or roundabout, you couldn’t tell), the road was awash with even more foam, and a fair amount of sea to keep it company. In the middle of it was a solitary police car, trying to look authoritative rather than just stranded with the other two cars next to it. In the background the sea wall was being pounded by gigantic waves that shot over, topping up the overflow and making pedestrians run about like John Cleese. This was the best entertainment we’d had all day. Finally the bus wove its way through traffic back to our original stop where we dismounted, still regaling the spectacle. We went back to the mall to collect some provisions (pausing briefly for Jack to ride a small electric tractor - he was kicked off and we were refunded because he was too heavy) from the Pick ‘n’ Pay market (and the Thai takeaway), and braved the elements once more to get back to our apartment, where tea and TV warmed our bones.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 7; qc: 40; dbt: 0.0788s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb