WEATHER: Finally a wet free day – Cape Town turned on the weather for my last day
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Spending time in the sun with Dave and seeing some of the city
BUMMER OF THE DAY: The day had to end
BUYS OF THE DAY: Wine tasting at Groote Constantia for 6AUD and you got to keep the glass
WORD OF THE DAY: onkloofya
CAMP SITE RANKING: Same as last night – hotel and a bed – yip yay!! 5 out of 5 stars
It was time to say goodbye to the lovebirds aka my family aka my friends. It has been a tense 3 days, but it is not to say that I won’t miss these guys like crazy. So as we embraced for the last time and tears sprung from our eyes, we knew that it is just a farewell for now, as I hope to see Lisa in London at the end of October, so it is only like 6 weeks away, so that is what is getting me through absolutely losing it right there in the reception area. So as their taxi pulled away with their faces smiling and waving till they were out of sight, Dave and I still had each other and a day planned to keep us busy that we had lost 2 of our buddies back to reality.
So over breakfast as we were telling Meyouki how bad German tourists were, one of the said German tourists came over to us and asked if we were doing the hop on hop off bus today. Well actually we are, and he then proceeded to knock our socks off and gave us 2 free tickets. They weren’t going to use the 2nd day, so asked us to take them and he wouldn’t accept any cash for them. Well can you imagine how we had to try to explain to Meyouki that this was well out of place and to not hold the Germans in a good light based purely on this man generosity? But we did make a pact to not drill the Germans for a day as thanks to the travel gods. He saved us each 16AUD. Thanks random German man. I think today is going to be a good day, even with the parting of friends.
So we had decided to do the blue line on the hop on hop off bus. It takes you to the beaches of Cape Town and also has 2 stops at wineries on their route included. The first bus left at 9.42am, so we made sure we were there for that and what a good decision that was. With the sun high in the sky, we were able to sit on top in the open seating and just soak in what Cape Town had to offer. We were so lucky with the weather; the last 3 days had been raining till well after lunch time. Our first stop was Kirstenboch Botanical Gardens. I am not a plant fan by far, but we had a few people mention it was worth going to check out, so hell we thought we would do just that. The bus comes around every 45 minutes, so we thought we could duck in there for 45 minutes and then continue our journey. Well when we got in there we knew this was just going to be a rush if we did that so we spent 90 minutes exploring and checking out all the beautiful flowers and plants. With Table Mountain as a back drop for the gardens, it was just stunning and if you have the time, it is worth going and paying the 6AUD entry. It was just BEAUTIFUL! The Gardens are the 6th largest in the world and the only gardens that is 100% dedicated to local and indigenous plants of South Africa.
With the bus perfectly on time, we jumped back on with our next stop a winery. Well by the time we get there it was 12 noon, so not breaking anyone’s rules about drinking. Once again stuck to a schedule we had 70 minutes to get in a wine tasting and see some of the grounds of this historic winery called Groote Constantia (said Constancha). It is the oldest winery in South Africa established in 1685 and was the choice of many Kings and Queens in its time including some of the Henry’s and European royalty. So we headed straight to the wine tasting center, where we paid our 6AUD and got a choice of 5 wines from their tasting menu. So I picked 2 whites, Dave picked 2 reds and we finished with a port. Nothing like having to knock back wines to be able to catch the bus on time, but the lady that was serving is seems okay with us belting through the tasting. We did all the right things. Swirled the wine to release the aroma, sniffed the wine and tried to guess the ingredients and then tasted it for the final taste verdict and then compared it to the sheet to see who was the closest (Sparky would be proud). Anyway down the hatch with the 5 wines gave us 25 minutes to check out the vines, the cellar and then to get back to the bus stop which we made with 2 minutes to spare! This day was just perfect.
Next stop was finally lunch time. We decided to get off at Houts Bay where they had several seafood places where we could eat. This was the best place, I got calamari and chips with a sangria and Dave got fish and chips with a large arse beer, to look over the white sandy beach and blue water was awesome.
Once again we had 70 minutes here and after lunch we still had time to spare, so we took a walk along the jetty and we got to see some seals that were getting feed by a local, the water was so clear, even that close to the jetty, it was pretty cool to see and they weren’t half as smelly as the seals we saw along the skeleton coast, but then there were probably 14,997 more there than here. There were some pretty rusty boats also sitting in port and one looked and sounded like it had stepped straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean part 2. Back to the bus stop with 5 minutes to spare. We were thinking lucky we started out when we did, as it really takes 2 bus times to see the stop you’re at.
By this time it is just about 3.30pm and our next stop was Camps Bay. It was just like stepping out in Miami. With tall palm trees, beautiful white beaches, people riding bikes, bars and restaurants and people playing beach volley ball. The only give away again was Table Mountain looming in the back ground. We had some guys come up to us trying to sell us paintings and it came about we had travelled through Malawi and that was where they were both from. Small world. We decided to walk to the next bus stop to stretch the legs and get some fresh air. It was a pretty cool walk, we were perched most of the time on cliffs overlooking the ocean and beaches walking past all four Clifton Beaches to get to Bantry Bay 1 hour later and with, get this 4 minutes to spare before the next bus came along! Talk about timing here!! We R-O-C-K!!!
By this time it was 5pm, so it was time to call it a day. So we headed back into the city and got off at the last possible stop to make the walk up Long Street and back to the hotel. Well can you guess where we got dropped out the front of? An Irish Pub! Well after the other one that fell well below expectation the other night, curiosity got the better of us so we decided to stop for a drink, just one. Well it could have been a bar anywhere in the world, there wasn’t too much Irish going for it, till we finished our beers and a drinks special caught my eye at the front door. Double spirit plus mixer for 25R. That people is like 3.50AUD for a double shot and mix. Well who are we to pass up a drink special. The only downer was they were out of vodka (TIA) so we had Bacardi instead and stayed for another 3 drinks. If I wasn’t on a plane tomorrow we could have turned that night into a pretty messy one!!! And just for a little redemption they had free Wi-Fi so all in all it wasn’t bad for a one drink stop that turned into 4 and home at 8pm.
It was now time to pack for airline travel once again. It has been a while and I hate to say I maybe out of practice. I have found some more things that needed to be posted home, so I have a separate carry bag for that, so I am now back to 4 bags, but I am just using the Intrepid shopping bag and I will be posting it from Madagascar before I leave there, so I am not too worried on picking up a ‘part time’ extra bag. Otherwise everything fitted. I have some more clothes than what I came with and I have no idea how I am going to combine my London stuff with the stuff I currently have, but that will be an October problem and nothing for me to worry about at this stage.
So it was a great way to spend a great day for my last day on the mainland Africa. I can’t say Africa in total, period, as I am off to Madagascar tomorrow (still part of Africa), and I do head back to the continent early October when I have my 2 week Ethiopia tour, so Africa is not quite finished with me yet – but we have been great pals. AFRICA ROCKS.
No comments:
Post a Comment