Day Three - Cape Point
Day Three: Cape Point Tour
Third day of us in Cape Town and we decided to go on a guided coach tour of the Cape Peninsula. It was less of a coach and more of a minibus with about 12 of us squeezed on board. It had little supsension and although im usually a good traveller I was feeling the need to throw up as we went across the bumpy wilderness of the Cape.
First stop was about 15 minutes drive from our hotel at a place called Clifton and Camps Bay(pictured below), which is known for being the most expensive and desirable part of the city to live in with its long white sand beach and the Lion's Head and Table Mountain framing it, as well as a part of Table Mountain known as The Twelve Apostles.
After our little "Kodak Moment" we trundled off on our way through the city suburbs to Houts Bay passing residential homes that have armed response in case they get burgled and by small townships. Traffic light road junctions had black men waiting by the street corners for companies to come along employ them and pay them a days wage. This is common in South Africa, as they do not have a welfare system like in the United Kingdom. When we got to Hout Bay (another desirable area of cape Town) we were greeted by a long strip of arts and crafts with a marina behind it. For an hour you had the chance to either go and visit Duiker Island or to stroll around the seafront. I decided to go on the trip to visit Duiker Island with my mum, which is a seal colony. It takes not very long to get there and you can see the seals going about their daily business and the pups playing in the sea with their parents amongst the seaweed and kelp. When we came back we were greeted by a band who sing about your trip and expect money in turn :-)
From Hout Bay we went back on ourselves and travelled over to Muizenberg on the Cape Flats, as Chapmans Peak Drive was closed due to a recent landslide. From the coastal town of Muizenberg we drove along the east coast of the Cape Peninsula up to Fish Hoek, which a good viewing point for seeing across the Cape Flats. We then hopped back into our bus and down to our next major stop at a beach known as "The Boulders", which has a penguiiiiiin colony!!!! Along the Cape South Africa has it's own colony of nesting Jackas Penguins. You are not allowed to walk along the beach, but instead you walk along raised wooden platforms that allow the penguins to walk underneath you from the plants to the sand and sea. Aaah i love how penguins waddle and huddle together. If i am to be re incarnated i choose to come back as a penguin :-)
Leaving the lovely penguins behind we left for our main destination the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and to visit the most southerly point of the African continent Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, which are both different places. Clear warm skies greeted us at Cape Point and with a walk up to the lighthouse are brilliant views looking into False Bay and back up the Cape. With the short drive to the Cape of Good Hope however, we were joined by stormy seas, mist and rain! As the Cape is at the point of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean's weather conditions can change dramatically throughout the day.
After a small drenching we got back on the bus and raced the incoming clouds to see if we could get to Kirstenbosch before the rain decided to set in. Kirstenbosch is the National Botanical Gardens of South Africa and contains only plants that are native to the country, inlcuding flowers such as the Bird of Paradise with which Nelson Mandela has a variety in his name. The Gardens contains wild Guinea Foul and many sculptures amongst the ancient trees, shrubs and tropical flowers.
So after a long days tour we came winding from over the mountain's back into Cape Town with the sunsetting and our stomach's rumbling so it was time for us to have a nice dinner by the Victoria & Albert Seafront and watch the sun go down and the night begin.
Day Two - Table Mountain
Day Two - Table Mountain:
Today we decided to go to the main attraction and focal point that makes Cape Town unique, which is Table Mountain! Luckily for us this happened to be the only day where there were perfect skies at the top of the Table, which is very rare if your a tourist.
To get near to the sumit you first need to get a taxi to the Lower Station, which is about a quarter of the way up Table Mountain. To get to the top you have to go by cable car. This cable car however rotates round 360 degrees, as well as going diagonally up the side of the mountain giving you fantastic views of the city.
Once up at the top it is suprising hot, considering we are at the highest point in the Cape region. There are wildlife trails to follow and numerous flora growing in the rocks. From the Table Cloth you can see right to Cape Point and beyond, as well as a clear view of the top of Signal Hill and the Lion's Head and the cities suburbs. Steve my kerrr-ray-zee taxi driver said that is where paragliders take off from and drift over the city with their plastic wings. He also asked if we had been held up at gun point or something relating to guns, but he was only JOKING.
Day One - the flight
Cape Town Day One:-
Me, mama, papa and brother smurf went off on our quest to discover what Cape Town and Mauritius have to offer! Being picked up by our chauffer at 3 o'clock in the afternoon (for we are most posh). As we were running pretty early the guy asked if we wanted go the normal or the scenic way, so like the adventurous people that we are we decided to go scenic. Alas the man decided to take a wrong turn and then decided to realiy heavily on his Sat Nav to get us to Heathrow. He took us through such delights, as Crystal Palace, Anerly, Gypsey Hill, Streatham Common, Tooting Common and all other commons that are known for their high crime rates. Eventually passing my mums "place of birth" Chiswick we got to Heathrow and i had all the usual check-in stuff. Security was still tight due to the proposed plane bombings a week before so we were ordered to remove our shoes and put everything through the X-Ray machines. Once through we were feeling a bit peckish so we decided to p-p-p-pick up a Giraffe! Well that was the name of the restaurant and they do worldly foods and have smoothies with silly names that makes the adults sound stupid whenever they order them. You also get a little giraffe to stir your smoothie with! Anyway enough of talking about food (which i am a great fan of). We boarded the plane at 9 and i had to spend 10 hours sitting next to my brother *siiigh*.
South Africa Airlines were pretty good, they kept giving you drinks and had lots of movies to watch from American to English and African too! However this was my first long haul flight and trying to sleep in a plane seat is not the most comfortable of things in the world. Also when you are trying to watch a movie and your brother ends up sleeping with his face in front of yours, it is a bit distracting.
So to cut my waffling short we landed in Cape Town airport at about 10 in the morning and it was a sunny day with a bit of cloud. When coming to stay in Cape Town they like you to fill out a great deal of forms and stare at your passport photo and then look at you, which always makes me laugh as i have such an appauling photo with a bowl shaped hair-do (i don't have that now mind).
Once through customs we got on a mini bus and were driven to our hotel in the new financial district of Cape Town, where a new international convention centre has been built and various other developments are being made in time for the World Cup. However, next to the roadside that connects the airport to the city are many townships where farmers have settled in search of a better life.
Update!
Update:
From the critically un acclaimed author that is me.... Here are my rather late running accounts of my visits to Cape Town and Mauritius!
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens
Sissinghurst:
Last Sunday I went with my family out on a treks for lavender for our newly re designed front garden. Supposedly the place we were going to was highly recommended in the tourist guide book for Kent. This place was most perculiar... It was hidden away behind a converted mansion and the main building was a 1940s prefab and it looked like nothing had changed probably since that time. We were expecting to see fields of lavende,r but all there were were a few withered plants that looked like they hadn't been watered for a week and some old poly tunnels. To view "the lavender gardens" cost £4, but we did not take them up on that offer. Instead we found the only good plants there really and we bought them all so that we didn't feel so bad for driving all that way! Whilst we were so far into Kent we decided to visit this castle nearby, which belongs to The National Trust called Sissinghurst Castle Gardens. Over the centuries Sissinghurst Castle has been built up, knocked down, re-positioned, built back up again and once more been reduced in size. With the grand 3 sided mansion being demolished to leave just an entrance, central arched tower, barns, a granary and some tiled cottages. The rest of the land has formal english gardens that all link together with orchards and a herb garden and set within the rolling Kentish countryside.
