Day 18-21: Cape Town/Joburg
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2004
1
8
57
Trip End
Jan 05, 2006
Cape Town / Joburg,
South Africa
Saturday, October 2, 2004
Rentia and Nico picked me up from the backpackers and took me to a fantastic restaurant on a hilltop overlooking Cape Town - can't remember the name unfortunately :O( But the view was spectacular as it was just after sunset (we did want to get there before sunset but didn't make it) however it was just as amazing as you could see table mountain with a sunset sky behind it and all the lights from CT in the foreground.
The meal was also excellent, it was traditional SA cuisine and it was a buffet so there was loads to choose from, I stayed clear of some things which really didn't take my fancy - tongue anyone??? - but what I did it was delicious....and it was good to get the chance to chat to Rentia and Nico who were really friendly and easy to chat to plus they very kindly paid for dinner!
Then they dropped me off back in town where I went to the backpackers to check out the party - it was only 10 but everyone had left already, turns out the went clubbing so I went to Manhattans again, got chatting to a nice bloke called Johan....
And Friday came so it was time for the Winelands tour, picked up at 9am and then rounded everyone else up and there were about 10 of us altogether; canadian girl, english/south african couple, 2 dutch guys, aussie couple, swiss girl...erm and me.
Champagne sizes on wine tour
Really nice people and again we got on well. Went to four different vineyards and tried various wines...managed to win a bottle of champagne after correctly guessing the biggest wine producer in the world - and if you didn't know it's Russia with 960 millions bottles a year! See....this diary is also educational. Had a lovely lunch too....now I'm not much of a wine lover so didn't drink a lot - but did like the dessert wines we tried...very nice :O)We got back about 5pm so I went straight up to signal hill for sunset as it was my last night and I hadn't seen the CT sunset yet - watched it set over the ocean and watched CT slowly light up - they'd also lit the mountain so it looked excellent and managed to get some good pics so will hopefully get them up soon. Got bloody stranded on signal hill as I couldn't call for a taxi from there but some nice germans gave me a lift down.
Then as it was my last night I just went out for a few drinks at Manhattans, Bronx and the Hothouse and got in about 1...for an airport shuttle pick up this morning at 8.45. Unfortunately the plane was delayed and hour but wasn't really a prob. Derek picked me up from the airport and basically just mooched around in the afternoon and had a little nap too before going out.
We went to a Japanese restaurant with some of Derek's friends, very good food, had some sushi, and also opened the champagne I got Friday in Cape Town. After the meal we went to Oh!Bar for a couple of bevvies, then on to a huge house party which was being held in honour of a local drag queen who had died recently - very good party tho I was starting to flag a bit. However we went to one more place to finish the night off - The Rec Rooms - and got home about 4am. Probably a good thing coz if I'm knackered later today (Sunday) I should fall asleep more easily on the flight to Perth.
Just been for breakfast and will be heading back to Dereks soon to pack up ready to get to the airport to check in for the flight at 6pm, arriving at about 9.30am Perth time. Hopefully not too much jet lag....so the next update will be from Oz!!! :O)
