We were up bright and early the next morning on our way to Table Mountain, partly because there was so much we wanted to do and see, partly because we were still pretty much on Korean time so 4 am in Cape Town was already a sleep in. We made our way up to the car park and hopped out of the car talking about how fantastic it was that it was so quiet and clearly holidaying ing the winter was smart because there was less of an issue with crowds…only to discover that the reason it was dead quiet probably had more to do with the fact that the cable car that goes to the top of the mountain was down for maintenance until August and it was the 26th of July.
We stopped in Camps Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches, and had a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs, smoked salmon, and croissants… me coming close to a heart attack when my friend worked out that even though it was the most expensive breakfast on the menu it still worked out to about $3 Australian. I felt a whole lot less guilty about ordering food that looked expensive after that! We went for a little wander on the beach after breakfast.
Then it was back in the car headed for Hout Bay. Wow. Hout Bay is stunning! When people talk about picturesque places Hout Bay is the kind of place you would imagine. The colours were spectacular and the scenery… It was also a beautiful sunny day and we had a clear blue sky which just added t it all. We pulled off into a carpark and wandered over to buy a ticket to go out on a boat and see Seal Island. The boat was due to leave in about 10 minutes which gave us time to wander around and look at the handcrafts that the locals were selling – some of which was really amazing. I was particularly fascinated by the hand-painted Ostrich eggshells.
Some of them were unbelievably detailed and quite beautiful…if we didn’t live in a shoebox on the other side of the world I would have considered buying just because they were so different. Alas, transportation difficulties, and not having anywhere to display it meant that it was really not an option.
The trip out to Seal Island and back took about 45 minutes and the view was even more stunning than the view driving into the bay. The seals definitely have some prime real estate! Needless to say I took loads of photos!
Next it was “World of Birds” which is a bird sanctuary…they have everything there from Australian kookaburra’s, to South American parrots, to local African birds…and then a really cute collection of tiny monkeys. We spent ages wandering around looking at the different birds, the owls and birds of prey were the most impressive, though some of the colours of the other birds were absolutely gorgeous!
*****
We caught up with Jaco and went bowling. The boys didn’t believe me when I said I was terrible at bowling until after I had started playing…then they believed me. Saying I am terrible is an understatement. Then we mucked around in a game arcade where we busied ourselves scoring tickets to win stuff we didn’t need…but we had a great laugh doing it! After all the excitement we went in search of a drink…which was a little harder than I thought it should have been in a casino… the sports bar didn’t appear to be open and the other bar was closed for a photo-shoot with some girls dressed up in can-can gear. We resorted to buying a drink at one of the little standing bars around the edge of the gaming area and then taking it into the sports bar to sit down. We sat there for quite a while and eventually it did open!
When we started to get hungry we took Jaco up on his offer of dinner and followed him out to his parents place for a braai (bbq)…they were so hospitable and his Dad is an absolute crack up…insisted that we both add him on facebook…which we must remember to do. The food was amazing and the company superb –thanks Jaco!
No comments:
Post a Comment