Cape Town

  Cape Town, South Africa
Thursday, February 9, 2006

Hello Everyone,

We are finally here in Capetown. It has only taken us 6 weeks to get from Johannesburg to Capetown. It can be driven in less than 2 days if you take the direct route between the two, lol! We did a lot of detours along the way.

Just when you think you have seen the most spectacular views and scenery possible, this country pulls out another punch! We have only listed one thing so far on our trip as a must do in your lifetime, the Serengeti. Capetown and the surrounding area will be the second one. This place is amazing, we really can't get over it. There is so much to do and see here, I'm sure we will come back again.

You have two oceans, the Atlantic on one side and the Indian ocean on the other. A beautiful mountain smack in your face and the city going all around it. The city kind of has a San Francisco feeling to it. It is very cosmopolitan. Some people are calling it Africa's New York as well. It has some beautiful old buildings with Victorian architecture.

Downtown Capetown with a clouded view of Table Mountain



There are enough restaurants here to keep you eating at a different one for each day of the year. The menus are very creative and the food is excellent. We have only been here for 2 days and have been to the waterfront each day so far. It is another area that Cape Town is known for. It is called the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. Today we decided to take the car, big mistake. This place is so busy.



We spent over 20 minutes driving around for a parking spot. We finally got the idea of what to do. If you have two people in the car. You look at the people coming out of the exits of the shops, you watch to see if they are going towards a car. If you spot them going to one that is not in your row you have the passenger jump out and go stand at the spot as they back out. You have to guard it with your life until the driver can get the car around to claim it. The driving here is so crazy. There are what they call double intersections as well as many roundabouts.



There is a funny taxi service here called the Wedge. They are those micro size minivans. You literally wedge yourself into the back of one. We have seen many people shoved in like a bunch of sardines. Today a driver went around the back to help someone out. It was more like pull them out of the sardine pack. He had on a pair of shorts and a bikini top. I did say he, just in case you didn't get that part!



For the 6 weeks that we have been traveling in South Africa we have been flying by the seat of our pants and just booking accommodation when we show up somewhere. We haven't had any problems up until now. Cape Town doesn't really slow down for tourism throughout the year. Maybe a bit in the dead of their winter, which would be May.

We had a bit of trouble finding a place to stay. We have now got a backpackers for the next few days. We have booked all our accommodation now until we leave here at the end of February. We will go to a town called Hermanus for a few days, then Simons Town and then back to Cape Town for the last 9 days until we fly out.

We made one of our first outings here to Table Mountain. It has incredible views as you take the cable car up to the top of it. The cable car holds about 60 people and the floor rotates around the inside so everyone gets to see a 360 degree view as you go up or down. It is recommended by most fit travelers that you hike up the mountain, it is much more rewarding. It is quite a difficult climb though. Right now they are asking people to stay off a lot of the trails. There are apparently over 300 routes up. They have had many fires here in the last while because it is so dry. Recently a bad one was started by a tourist from England. He threw his cigarette, how ignorant.

We were lucky enough to get a perfectly clear day. The mountain has cloud that covers it up a lot of the time. They call it the Table Cloth. Winds can get very bad up top causing the cable car to be shut down. If the wind suddenly picks while you are on the mountain they will sound a horn. Everyone is to make their way back to the cable car as quickly as possible or you have to walk down.









Another day we set off for a drive which included Chapmans Peak. It is claimed to be one of the most scenic drives in the world. Many car commercials have been filmed on it. They show the car hugging the corners around the steep cliffs that are carved into the mountain. The cliffs drop straight down to the sea. One part of the road is carved into the face of the cliff and you drive through the notch they have made for a few hundred meters. It is like a cave but open on the side that faces the water.







On the way back we drove past Camps Bay Beach, it is one of the most popular ones. I say past it because there were cars parked on both sides of the street for many kilometers. There was no where for us to park. It happened to be Saturday at about 6pm, one of the busiest times. The cars were parked all the way to the next bay of water. Hundreds of people were along the beach. The restaurants lined the other side of the road and were quite busy as well.



On Sundays there is an Pan African market on the grounds outside a stadium. The stalls of stuff for sale go as far as your eye can see. You can spend many hours if not all day looking through stuff. Anything is available from beaded necklaces, wooden masks, stone carvings, drums and clothing. We have become quite used to bartering for the price we want to pay for something now. General rule of thumb offer half of what they say and go up from there.

The first backpackers we stayed at here, Big Blue Backpackers, was only about 10 minutes walk from the V&A waterfront. It also had a few good restaurants and a cafe just down the street. It was again more like a hotel than a backpackers. Very clean and well run with friendly staff.

Pan African Market


Our room at Big Blue Backpackers


We had some great social evenings in the bar here. One night we had a small United Nations going. There were Canadian, Swiss, Dutch, Irish, English, American, German and Brazil in the house. We once again felt some what left out because a lot of people were able to communicate in more than one language with each other, mostly German. We feel so meager only knowing one language. German is definitely a good language to learn if you are going to travel a lot.

Oh my goodness, we got our first taste at partying with the Irish, they over took the bar from everyone. We have never seen anything like it. They order 4 drinks at a time and it doesn't stop. We were here for 5 nights. You think they would slow down after a few days, no chance. This group did tend to swear a lot, every 2nd word I think. We weren't really bothered by it, in fact it was quite funny. They don't sound like they are swearing because they say fook. Everything is fook this, and fook that, lol! They are really fun people to be around, we can't wait to go to Ireland.

There was one guy who claimed to be from London, but sounded Irish to everyone. He was a bit strange. Everyone was getting a little tired of him one night. He was quite intoxicated and was very loud and obnoxious. He made no sense at all and kept going on and on picking at the one poor American guy. He kept saying America had nothing more to offer than bloody hot dogs. Also yapping about the Mafia. All night hot dogs and the Mafia, that's all that came out of his mouth. Then he went on to say that we all had red dots on us and the sniper across the street was going to take us all out. I think maybe he had more than just alcohol that evening.

We met two guys at the Cape Town Backpackers. The countries they were from drive on the left side of the road. They were managing to drive on the right side of the road here in a very unique way. They had rented a manual car, the guy doing the driving could not master the technique of shifting with his left hand. So he did the steering and worked the breaks, gas and clutch while instructing his travel mate in the passengers seat when to do the shifting, lol!

We went to a musical production at a place called the Artscape Opera Playhouse. It is a production that has traveled the world called Umoja. It tells a story about the history of African music, from the start with drums, to during the apartheid up until present day. It was really well done, and full of high energy with lots of singing and dancing.



We were told of a prison in this area where you can book to go have dinner. You are served by the inmates, some of them even murders. You have to sign a waiver before you go saying you understand you enter at your own risk and the prison takes no responsibility if something happens to you. Doesn't this sound like a romantic evening out. Maybe we should book it for Valentine's Day, lol!

On to the town of Hermanus.