Exploring The Cape

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10 - 12 - 08

Arrived at the airport in Cape Town and queued to get though immigration, approached the desk and I was greeted by a very friendly fellow; we exchanged niceties and then he issued me with the temporary visa and stamped my passport. I’m actually a bit of a passport whore; I love getting my passport stamped and getting visas put in it! I was exiticed; I had always wanted to come to Africa, ever since I met a Chinese couple in Naples and Cape Town seemed liked the safest place on Africa

I thought for a while that my luggage hadn’t made it to Cape Town; just because of the time it took my luggage to make it to the carouse! I got talking to this girl who also waiting for her back; she was telling me about her nightmare journey. Anyway after watching this one suitcase go around and around; probably bout 15 times my bag turned up. I walked outside and jumped into the cab and was on my way to the hostel. The journey took about 30 minutes and again the driver was nice enough as we drove down the motorway you could see the slums on both sides and Table Mountain looming over Cape Town. We also had a conversation about the upcoming World Cup and how they’ve built the stadium in an up market district of Cape Town, he was telling me how it has ruined the area

The taxi driver turned up onto Long Street and as he had no idea where my hostel was on the street; he dropped me off at the Tourist Information. The first thing I noticed as I walked up and down Long Street was that all the shop and hostels had some kind of railings over the doors and windows which made me feel a bit uneasy and secondly, nothing was open; not even the tourist information; actually nothing opened until 9am which was helpful! I struggled to find the hostel and this little kid came up to me and said that he knew where it was, I only had to give him 5 rand … I walked now ignoring the kid but 5 minutes later when I still couldn’t find the hostel I gave in; he took me to a door I had walked past like 6 or 7 times!!

Got let in and spoke to the guy and he said that I would have to sit here for 15 minutes, as the office opened at 9am, the guy put a huge book in front of me and told me to fill it in as he disappeared into the office which was now open. He gave me my key and showed me my room; there was a sign on it saying, among other things “Throughout South Africa there are unannounced electrical blackouts” and “For this area, the one that could most affect us is the 8pm to 10.30pm period” I just thought I don’t mind as long as I can get a bottle of something to drink! I came back down stairs and the boss told me bout the different tours I could book and then he asked me what I wanted to do; I said I wanted to go and climb Table Mountain, he suggested that I go and do it now and said there was another guy called Chris from Nottingham that wanted to do it as well. We jumped into pre arranged taxi and the driver; Jeff drove up to the start of a trail slightly higher then the cable car. He was telling us all the way up to be careful of getting taxi’s in Cape Town and so on.

We got out of the taxi and started on the trail, we absolutely pelted it up to start with, only stopping to admire the breath taking views looking over Cape Town. About half way up it hit us; the pace became extremely slow. Eventually, we got to the top and well the views were amazing! We wondered into the café at the top and recovered with a couple of cans of Castle Lager, the local brew. Chris wanted to trek down, which would have been knackering and the would have let us continued to soak up the view on the other side of Table Mountain but I just simply wanted to take the easy way down, to take the cable car, we called Jeff when the top and told him that we would be getting the cable car down; he told us to wait by the exit of the cable car and he would only be 15 minutes, 25 minutes later I got a text saying “Stuck in traffic, get another taxi, life’s a journey, enjoy the ride!” So much for be careful bout getting taxis in Cape Town!

I got into the taxi with Chris; who was going to the beach, I was going back to the hostel for a second as I had got just about enough money to pay for the taxi, Chris jumped out of the taxi and we agreed to meet at 7 inside the hostel to go for dinner. I was the last one out and the taxi dropped me off on Long Street and I walked up to the hostel, grabbed some money and then I was back out beating the streets. I wondered down to the waterfront; the waterfront was a nice enough area with a shopping centre, pubs, restaurants and a little fairground. I walked over to Nelson Mandela Gate, where the tours departed for Ellis Island and enquired about the availability of tickets, they told me they were sold out for the next couple of days. I was mightily disappointed as only having two days here I would have to miss it! I consoled myself by going over to the Paulaner Brauhaus bar and have a couple of German beers. Having spent a couple of hours drinking German beers in the sun, I was wondering what I should do next. Was just wondering around Cape Town up and down the busy streets filled with shops and shoppers, being harassed to by stuff of market stands I eventually found the Castle Of Good Hope. I love proper castles; you know ones with drawbridges, moats and ramparts, you know the ones used back in Medieval days, I know some people will say one castle is just like another but hey its just me. I wondered around to the entrance and pushed the door open. I was greeted by a big army guy who turned and looked at me and told me in no uncertain terms that the castle was shut; he pointed to a board that only reinforced this.

I arrived back at the hostel knackered; I lay down on my bed and fell asleep. I woke up about 6.30 and went downstairs to the small bar area and had a couple of beers. I had arranged with Chris to meet up and go for something to eat, Chris soon appeared and informed that we were waiting for a couple of girls who had been out diving with sharks. The girls arrived back, had a quick shower and then we were off to eat in Mama Africa, across the road from the hotel. I can’t remember what I had to eat; all I know was that it was not found in the UK. The meal cost nothing and most of the conversation was about what the girls were going after they had finished in Cape Town, they told me that they were getting a flight off to Lusaka in Zambia, I was so jealous. We wondered around that night drinking, talking and generally having a good night in a couple of bars along Long Street, just a stone throw away from the hostel.

11 - 12 - 08

I got up early and waited in the lobby for the tour bus that I would be on for the next 7 or 8 hours. I had decided to leave the bungee jumping and the shark diving until my next visit to Cape Town preferring to do a tour of the Cape, this included a photo by the Cape of Good Hope sign. The bus rolled up and I was the last person on the pickup route. I made myself comfortable whilst the lady collected the fee. The first stop we made was to Holt Bay, where if we wanted could pay to jump into a little boat and go and see some seals. The water was very choppy as we set off from the bay, the boat took 10 minutes to get to the island where what seems like millions of seals were on this island, everybody clambered to the front of the boat to take photos as the seals slipped of the rock into the sea. When I got my photos I sat down and listened to my iPod; when we arrived back onto the land a band greeted us buskin for change. We climbed back onto the bus and set off to our next destination; at about midday we stop in Muizenburg on a road that looked down onto the beach to have lunch this took the form of biscuits and orange squash. Back onboard the bus the music was playing between stops and I got my book out and just read, before I knew it we stopped again this time in Boulders Bay to go to a penguin sanctuary. We had an hour to wander around. Penguins are one of my favorite animals, I love watching them. Again I took some photos and went to feed one when I got shouted at by a park warden and warned that the little fellows bite.

The last thing we did was go to the Cape Of Good Hope Nature reserve; this is where we were spending the majority of our time. Firstly, we stopped as we were doing a 6km bike ride though the reserve. We all got out and got helmets and were warned not to stray into the bush as there were all kinds of snakes out there. Anyways, I love hitting the open highways and I overtook people and just loved the feel of the wind rushing past. We got to the stop point where we sat down for a late lunch; the organizer had brought along in the minibus bread, chesse, ham, salami, salad, biscuits, fruit and orange juice. After everybody was fed and watered we pilled back into the minibus and were taken to Cape Point. We got to Cape Point and were told some stuff about it, which, I can’t actually remember. We had two choices; we could either take the cable car up or walk up the path. I decided to walk up and by the time I got up to the top was a) knackered b) and drenched in sweat but the view was outstanding and well worth it. I slowly wandered back down to the meeting point when we were told that we would be walking to the Cape of Good Hope, the most south westerly point of Africa, after an hour and a half of walking, taking in the view and talking to the other people. The tour leader grouped as all together as we were spread out, we set down over the edge watching the waves crash against the side of the cliff as she spoke. After she had finished we walked down the cliff face on the other side where we could see the car park and the sign. It was such a touristy thing to be done but when you are in Rome do like the Romans and I had my picture taken.

We were advised that baboons are nasty pieces of work and if they grabbed anything to let go of what ever we were holding; I was sitting at the side of the road eating a pack of biscuits, which I left unguarded for 2 seconds and when I turned around was gone and all I could see was a baboon far in the distance with a pack of custard creams. We reboarded the coach as it started it journey back to the various hostels and hotels that everybody was staying at. At one point we were waiting for some time as a pair of baboons had decided to set up shop in the middle of the road. The rest of the day was largely uneventful; I crashed out fairly early as i had to leave the hostel at like 5am to get to the airport for my flight home

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Photos

The most SW point of Africa
Cape Of Good Hope