Day 54 – 67: South Africa (Cape Town and Karen)

After a day of blogging, sorting accomodation and having sundowner drinks at Camp’s Bay for Simon’s 30th Birthday we jumped ina taxi back to the hostel to await he arrivial of lovely Karen. She arrived in time for a few glasses of vino and some dinner. It was fab to see a familiar face even though it was quite odd that she was in Cape Town with us!

We had a busy old week and think we managed to squeeze in all the tourist things to do in Cape Town. I know I was exhausted by the end of it.

We climbed Table Mountain (and got the lift that roitated back down). I vowed that i would not climb a mountain again (as it is 1,000 metres of climbing) but when we got to the top it was worth it (if not a tad chilly) and the views were fantastic. We also were tempted about abseiling down! We walked back to town and then needed some well earned beers to cool us down! That night we went to game resturant and had (more) game meat but it was lovely!

A really good day for me was when we hired a little punto car and drove to Cape Point (where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean) and the Cape of Good Hope (the most southwestern part of Africa). Apart from the amazing views it was really nice to get out in a car and have the freedom to go where you pleased. We stopped off at some really nice beaches on the way there and back and found some fab Fish and Chips for lunch (Simonstown). We also managed to visit the Penguin Collony just outside of Cape Town but were a bit let down as we did not see thousands of them as we had expected (there were really cool though).

We also spent a lot of time shopping while in Cape Town. Where we were staying (on Long Street) had some really cool small shops and a good market only 5 mins away. But we also visisted the Vicoria and Albert Waterfront quite a lot (a bigger, more modern version of the Royal Quays North Shields with more bars and resturaunts).I liked it there as it was like being in civilizaton again. We had some nice meals there and one night met up with Andi, Matt and Maria from the trek (who were still in Cape Town) for a meal and some cheeky beer tasting.

Camps Bay was also a really nice place to visit and chill for an afternoon. It is where all the beautiful people go so obviously we fitted in quite well ;o). We had some really good sushi there as well.

It would have been rude to go to Cape Town and not visit Robben Island. We loved the guide we had and he was hilarious (and obviously loved ‘Mr Mandella’). It was a really funny place to visit as there are people that live on the island. The part where we visisted the prison was a littlew rushed for me but we got to see what we wanted – it was also interesting as they had an ex political prisioner showing us around which made it even more interesting. That night we went to a traditilanal Cape Malay dinner. It was so nice but there was so much of it!

As Karen wanted to do a wine tour we decided we could do another one. Unfortuantely, we could not get one that was different to the one we had done the week previously but this was not hardship! We had a mini bus and driver just for the 3 of us and we went to Stellenboush (again). It was good though as we knew what we wanted to buy so got some nice bottles of vino for so cheap! I also got to ‘traditionally’ open a bottle of bubbly using a sword! When we got back we went out for cocktails – needless to say we were a tad tiddly.

On Karen’s last day we had tickets booked for a Super 14’s game (Stormer V Cheetahs) so we said our goodbyes after an early lunch. It was sad to see Karen go but we did have a lot of fun drinking tea, eating lots of food and shopping!

The game itself was really good. The stadium was a little bigger than the falcon’s one (45,000 seater) and the crowds were definately ‘different’ (very loud and funny). Newlands was a really nice part of town as well so we got to see that in the taxi.

The next day we moved accomodation to Saltycrax in Bloughberg. We had decided to stay a couple of weeks in Cape Town so we could relax a bit before we headed off to Asia and the centre of town is a bit hectic and we had done all the tourist stuff with Karen. Blauberg is about 20 minutes out of town and by the beach. It was a lovely little hostel with the two nicest dogs (border collies, I think) and a goat. We just relaxed, organised some stuff for Asia and eat ice-cream. The biggest hardship we had was drinking all the wine we had bought on the Stellenbosch tour! By the end of the week we were refreshed and ready to face whatever Asia could thow at us.