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Published: October 20th 2006
My day at the beach
Camps Bay - Ah the sun feels good!Ok, we'll start with the English version first. Trying to keep it equal here.
It's about 4 pm on Friday October 20th and I will be heading to the airport in a couple hours. I am flying to Johannesburg (a short 2 hour flight) to meet up with my first safari group. We will be starting bright and early on Saturday morning and I think we will reach Mozambique Tuesday next week. I am looking forward to meeting my travel mates and hope this will be a fun group. I have enjoyed my time by myself so far and it will be nice to have some company for the next two weeks.
I really enjoyed my 4 days in Cape Town. On Tuesday I booked a day trip that took me to the top of Table Mountain, The Cape of Good Hope, the coastal road and the botanical gardens. It was a lot of fun and the scenery was stunning. Our guide was a 70 yr old + South African, very sweet and funny, he kept singing (so that he would not fall asleep he said) and was quite opinionated about the race situation in South Africa.
The
The beach were I rode the horse
I did not lie about the white sand! wind was incredibly strong but it was sunny and the air was incredibly clean and the colors very sharp! Cape of Good Hope is the southermost point of Africa and it's just stunning. The coast is extremely wild, great cliffs, crystal clear waters, native plants and colorful flowers, whales frolicking along the shore, ostriches, baboons (on the road!), etc...We walked up to a lighthouse and from up there it was so windy I had to hold myself to the ramp. No kidding! I spent a little while observing a group of birds that had made their home in one of the cliffs below and kept coming up and down propelled by the wind like little rockets, they looked like they were having a blast!
Of course I had my picture taken in front of the wood sign that says "Cape of Good Hope" - which was first called Cape Storm by Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese sailor. I guess someone more optimistic or peotic came along and renamed it Cape of Good Hope.
We visited the penguins colony on the coast, the spot was quite touristy and these little penguins (no more than 20 inches tall) were not
Windy day at the Cape of Good Hope
Eating my hair and trying to stay on the ground! looking so good, they were all at different stages of shedding their coats and I had to keep my mouth closed so that not to swallow any feathers flying around!
The botanical gardens were amazing, I always love visiting them when I travel to a new place. There were 3,000 variety of plants and flowers and the whole place is nestled at the foot of Table Mountain which offers a dramatic backdrop. It was really neat seeing plants and trees that are typically found in Africa...a reminder...I am in Africa!!
Yesterday the weather was gorgeous, 75 degrees and finally no more wind! I wanted to tour Robben Island, which is the South African answer to Alcatraz. Nelson Mandela spent about 19 years there and it is now a museum. Unfortunately my planning was poor and they were sold out for the rest of the week. I had to do with the museum which was at the pier. Very informative and a scary reminder of how power in the wrong hands can wreck havoc. There were lots of posters that were used during the independence struggle, and they reminded me of the posters used in Vietnam to spread the
anti-US propaganda.
So instead of visiting Robben Island I booked a two hour cruise on a catamaran, it was very nice, very relaxed and the views of the city with Table Mountain in the backdrop were perfect (just like on the postcards!). After lunch I headed out to Camps Bay which is a great beach about 10 mins outside Cape Town. White powdered sand and crystal clear (and cold!!) water. Great restaurants and coffee shops along the beach and a resemblance with some areas outside Sydney. It was great finally being on a beach and being warm! Never mind about the swimming, there will be plenty of that in Mozambique! Last night I ate my first ostrich steak at Mama Africa, a place that specializes in African game and has great live music. So how is ostrich? No, not like chicken! It was pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. It's definitely red meat and supposed to be 99% lean.
This morning a car took me down to Noordheok beach, about 30 mins south of Cape Town. This beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. What would make it perfect would be warm water and
The penguins
I warned you, they are that cute. a few palm trees here and there. The beach is about 6 miles long, a perfect crescent of white sand and turquoise water with perfectly shaped 3 foot tall waves. It's about half a mile wide and absolutely....empty!!
The point of my visit to this beach was to ride a horse right on it, which is what I did for a couple hours with Lydia who is a 6 ft tall (looking even taller on her horse!) South African woman who has been riding horses since she is 8. Well, I thought I signed up for horse riding only but ended up also indulding in whale watching and bird watching while riding my horse! It was absolutely incredible, the whole beach to ourselves, crashing waves, about 8 whales playing in the water all along the beach less than 200 yards from the shore. Lydia said that was the most whales she had seen in a while - lucky me! I really was not sure about riding a horse (you guys know I am not into that) but I thought I'd try something different I would normally never do - I am so glad I did. An amazing moment and
Victoria Harbor
Before getting on the catamaran a great memory to end my stay in Cape Town.
My bag is packed for my first safari and I really don't know what to expect, and it's kind of fun that way. I think I am handling this increased dose of uncertainty in my life really well. I am keeping safe and in great spirits. I am meeting lots and lots of people and many of them are surprised to hear I am traveling on my own. There is always the question "why alone!?" which seems to puzzle people.
I am not sure when I will be able to update this next, hopefully very soon. As you can see I am able to upload photos and will do my best to add more.
The messages and comments left by everyone are great and they mean a lot. I hope everyone is doing awesome. I miss you all and I think about you all very often.
Love
Isa
FRENCH Bonjour a tous!
Et oui ce coup ci c'est la version anglaise qui sera un peu plus longue. Ne m;en voulez pas!
Alors je suis a 2 heures du depart pour Johannesburg. Mon sejour
Cruise on the Catamaran
No wind...Still a very nice time. a Cape Town s'acheve deja. Aie! les jours commencent deja a defiler!
J'ai passe 4 jours vraiment agreables et je ne regrette pas du tout le detour. Comme vous pouvez voir sur les photos j'ai vu des paysages magnifiques et tres sauvages.
Table Mountain et le Cap de Bonne Esperance m'ont vraiment emballee...et presque envolee a cause d'un vent fou comme je n'ai jamais connu! J'ai fait un tour organise dans un petit bus (6 passagers) pour ces deux ballades et ca a ete un tres bon choix. Guide tres rigolo (vieux Sud Africain a la langue bien pendue), voisins de siege sympa et paysages superbes! La cote est vraiment superbe et la couleur de l'eau est incroyable: bleue turquoise et tres tres claire!
On a apercu pas mal de baleines ainsi que des autruches et des babouins qui se balladaient sur la route et ne se sentaient pas du tout deranges par les voitures. Un a meme saute sur la capot de la voiture devant nous qui etait a l'arret - vite on a bien remonte nos vitres!
J'ai profite d'une tres belle journee chaude et sans vent hier pour faire une ballade en catamaran,
on a pas pu mettre les voiles tellement c;etait calme! Du large on a pu admirer la ville avec l'immense Table Mountain comme decor. Superbe. Apres cette balade je suis allee a Camps Bay, une tres jolie plage a 10 minutes de Cape Town. Cette plage se situe au flanc d'une grande montagne et on y accede par une tres jolie route qui m'a rappele les corniches de la cote d'azur...palmiers, pins, belle villas, petits escaliers qui descendent vers des criques que seuls les gens du coins doivent connaitre. La plage principale etait vraiment chouette! Sable blanc fin tres propre, mer tres claire. Majorite de blancs sur cette plage, pas de doute le coin est frique. J;ai fini ma soiree hier a Mama Africa, un resto tres sympa a cote de mon hotel qui sert de la viande Africaine. J'ai goute pour la premiere fois a un steak d'autruche. Pas mal. J'ai bien digere, pas trop lourd, mais bon ca casse pas des briques.
Pour ma derniere journee a Cape Town je suis allee faire du cheval sur une immense plage de sable blanc qui s;etend sur 8 kms en arc de cercle. Super sauvage, en 2 heures on
a croise 2 promeneurs qui d'ailleurs on effraye les chevaux. Cette ballade en cheval a ete une experience fabuleuse, j'etais la seule avec la proprietaire du centre d'equestre, on avait cette immense plage a nous seules et en bonus, tout le long de la plage une dizaine de baleines qui se prelassaient a moins de 200 metres du rivage. Incroyable! Et une eau bleue turquoise transparante de reve! Vraiment pour ma derniere journee a Cape Town ca sera un superbe souvenir.
Ce soir je retrouve mon groupe de safari. J'espere qu;ils seront sympas! Ca va me faire plaisir de pouvoir etre en groupe (et je sais que ca rassure beaucoup de monde!) bien que seule je fais beaucoup de rencontres et les gens sont tres ouverts et curieux (ah..vous voyagez seule en Afrique 3 mois! Mais qu'est ce que vous faite comme metier?).
J'ai la forme. Je mange comme 4 et espere reprendre du poids rapidement - pates a tous les repas et dessert obligatoire tant que je peux en commander...
Allez, je me sauve. J'espere que tout le monde est en forme. Bon weekend a tous (tiens je viens de me rappeler que c'est vendredi...je commence
Horse riding in Noordheok
My horse's name is Chelsea. Very sweet. a perdre le fil du temps. bon signe!)
Bisous a tous. Je pense fort a vous tous
Isa
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Laurent
non-member comment
L'aventure commence
Coucou Isa, Je suis si content pour toi , merci de nous faire partager tes experiences , quel voyage tu fais, le meilleur reste a venir, prends un max de photos, fais attention aux elephants et aux leopard, (conseils de mon ami Jean-Chris), ce sont les les animaux les plus smart parait il, tu en jugeras par toi meme j'en suis sur. Je t'embrasse tres fort, ton frere qui pense bien souvent a toi, et t'aime tres fort, Laurent