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Published: April 30th 2015
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Jet leg is a funny thing. The amount of wine consumption and beer still did not knock us out for the night. No espresso and still no sleep. 😞 Today is our last day in Simon's Town before moving onto the Winelands.
We woke up rather late and decided to take our time. It was raining (McMillan luck) anyway. The drive along the western coast and the botanical gardens still did not interest us, so we decided to head into downtown Cape Town and hit up the VA Waterfront area. First we had to get gas! Getting gas in Africa is old school, its all full service. So do you tip or do you not tip? We ended up tipping because is approximately $1.25 a gallon. Everything is so reasonably priced here, you almost feel like you are robbing them. I've never been to Mexico but this must be what it feels like, high rolling! To fill up our gas tank cost $30 dollars, and after five days this is pretty reasonable considering how much we have been driving.
We have decided that Cape Town is much like California, amazing views and beautiful drives everywhere. Once we entered into
downtown we got a little bit lost. We noticed you really have to be careful if you are driving. The amount of J-walking is out of control and if you are speeding there is no telling if you are going to hit someone or not. People were jumping out from cars, sidewalks, and even in the middle of the street. If you do decide to drive in Cape Town, go slow and watch for pedestrians. Holy Hell it was intense!
We arrived at the VA Waterfront which is advertised as amazing shopping and amazing restaurants. I was expecting a bunch of tiny market tents set up with tons of trinkets and gifts, but I as wrong. It was your mall of America type joint. This mall was huge, so many stores and wings, we got turned around several times. We were able to rack up more gifts and then decided it was time for some lunch. We found a restaurant inside the mall, although it looked like an outside cafe. It was called Willoughby & Co, and was known for the seafood and sushi. Both the fish and sushi were very fresh and I would highly recommend this stop.
Once we were done with lunch, we headed back to our car to continue our tour of the Western Cape. Our goal was to find the place we will be staying at in Camps Bay in the next couple of days. Only one problem, we forgot were we parked the car. The parking area was so big, there is no telling how we got in and where we came out. Clearly we were not paying attention. After 15 mins of roaming around the area we thought we left the car, we found it. Our light blue Hyundai was waiting for us in all its glory.
We somehow missed Camps Bay due to construction but were now on our favorite motorway, Chapman's Peak. During our horseback riding tour, our guide told us about Cape Point Vineyards and how they have a Market night. She only said that there was wine and cake and never fully explained what this meant. So we were going to go and get some wine and cake and then head off to dinner. Pulling up to the Vineyards was like something out of California. Looked like Napa Valley but with a backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean.
We walked in and noticed that this was a food market. In the US this would be comparable to a taste of Greensboro. There were multiple food stands set up with all sorts of food from all over the world. We were in heaven. We found our horseback riding guide who was selling the cake and bought a variety of small deserts. Next to her booth was a Biltong selection. Biltong is spicy strips of dried salted and spiced raw beef or game meet. Its almost like eating beef jerky, which I have never had. After learning what Biltong exactly was I had had my fill. It is bull tongue! Yep if you know me that did me in as the world's pickiest eater. Yes it was good, and Jared likes it, but its just not my thing. After getting a pound of it, we were off to scope out the dinner scene. We were absolutely blown away by the options. Here we are at a Vineyard thinking we were having cake and wine, and we stumble onto a food market, with the backdrop of a winery. This is where all the locals come every Thursday to have a simple
dinner and drinks, while the children can play on the countless playgrounds. The backdrop was of course the vast Noordhoek Beach. Jared and I decided to try the Falafel as a starter and then get our own individual dinners. The presentation and quality of the food was really amazing, and it was all around $4 dollars. After our small plate of Falafel, we decided on dinner. I had the Veggie Burger with sprouts and all sorts of goodness and Jared went for the Spanish Paella. My Veg bunless burger was delicious. All naturally grown salad and sprouts with quinoa, sunflower seeds, snoots and macadamia nut dressing. I wanted to box up the cook and take him home with me. He could make a killing in the states! Jared's Paella consisted of curry infused rice, with muscles, shrimp, calamari with a white cucumber sauce. He thoroughly enjoyed it, and yes I tried a bite. Needless to say this was the best find of the evening and we were glad we made the stop for cake and wine. It was a really cool atmosphere and even though we are from Murica we felt like we were part of the local scene.
Tomorrow we head to the Franschhoek, which is part of the winelands of South Africa. We are staying at a place called Mont Rochelle and is one of Richard Bronson's hotels.
Still no baboon sightings. 😞
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