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We left our apartment in Neutral Bay at 12:45PM Sydney time on Saturday and didn’t arrive at the hotel in Cape Town until 7PM Sydney time on Sunday (or 10AM local time) – over 30 hours worth of traveling! All in all, the trip went smoothly with the exception of a crying infant on the flight from Singapore to Joberg. And surprisingly, we weren’t too jet lagged on Sunday. In fact, we made the hike up to Lion’s Head that afternoon. |
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Cape Town has some unbelievable views – as can be seen during our hike up Lions Head. The hike took us two hours round trip and actually had some really steep parts where we had to scramble. It was worth it though as the 360 degree views were amazing. We decided to walk all the way back to the hotel after, which allowed us to see more of the city, and took another hour or so. |
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We ended the evening early but made it to Long Street for a beer and dinner. Long street is know as the main strip for night life, bars, clubs, etc. It was pretty dead since it was Sunday but still had a nice meal and cheap food/beer on a rooftop bar (there seemed to be more rooftop / second story bars and restaurants than there were on the main floor! Made for some fun pictures!!). Rob tried his first local beer called Stellenbach Lager and thought it was good!! |
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The next day – it was clear – the priority was the Broncos playoff game. Before leaving Australia, Rob made sure he knew exactly what time the Broncos would play and where we’d be. Luckily, we weren’t in the air but Rob insisted on waking up in the middle of the night to game-cast the game (the hotel didn’t have the game on so the best we could do is watch via game cast). Still, he was able to make the 5:30AM wake up call for our shark cage dive at Gansbaai – 2 1/2 hours southeast of the city. On the trek, we chatted with an English bloke who told us it was his second time in 3 days doing the dive (apparently, the first day wasn’t all the great in terms of visibility). This made me a bit worried but the day did little to disappoint. |
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Rob and I volunteered to dive first (for one – I was hoping to get it over with!) and, turns out, we were probably the group to stay in the water longest. There were 8 people in the cage at one time. As the instructor showed us (see pic above), we had to hold our breath when they yelled “Get down, get down!” and we had to make sure we grabbed the handle below. The crew would hang the bait right in front of the cage so the shark would swim right in front of us! |
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– Water temp: 17.8 C |
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Rob decided to go in twice and the second time was one of the best of the day! There two or three times when the sharks jumped out of the water right in front of him. Then the last pass of the day, the guide lead a shark right to the cage with the tuna head. The shark attacked the tuna head against the cage literally 4 inches from my (Rob) face. What a rush! Linds got a video here: http://youtu.be/ka8YtYWwJlQ. Here is another video while I was in the cage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWaTHYURThQ&feature=youtu.be. |
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South Africa is know for their meat selection and quality so later that evening we went to one of the top steak houses in town, The City Grill, at the Water Front. The Water Front is a really nice area on the water with tons of restaurants, bars, etc. Touristy but also very nice. |
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The meal didn’t disappoint and had some interesting tastings… ostrich, crocodile, venison sausage, chicken, springbok, and warthog. Our unanimous favorite was…ostrich?? It was really good and we did not expect ostrich to taste like that. We are loving the prices here especially after three years of Sydney prices. Beers are around $2-3, a bottle of wine at the nice restaurant was $11 and most meals about $5-$8. |
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Of course we couldn’t fly to South Africa without paying our respects to Nelson Mandela. We caught the 9am ferry to the famous Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for 18 of his 27 years of his imprisonment. A 30 minute ferry ride took us from the Water Front to the island where we took a bus tour of the island followed by a tour inside the prison by a former inmate. The climax of the tour was seeing Mandela’s tiny cell where he spent 18 years of his life. |
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We also saw the limestone mine where they were forced to work doing meaningless tasks, moving rock piles from one side to another and back again. A lot of the prisoners had severe eye issues from working in the sun without any protection, primarily due to the reflection from the bright white rocks. Mandela had to have several eye operations after he was released and his tear ducts could no longer produce tears. |
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We learned a lot on the tour about Mandela, the Apartheid, and the history of South Africa in general. It helps that we are also listening to Mandela’s autobiography “A Long Walk to Freedom”. It is very easy to recognize how well he was loved. Considering he passed away last month (Dec 2013), the city has his name and picture everywhere. He comes up in most conversations with the locals – he was and is clearly loved by his country. |
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In the afternoon we decided to hike up Table Mountain, catch sunset, then take the cable car down. Table Mountain rises 3,500 feet directly above Cape Town and the hike was only 2km but with a 2,000 ft elevation gain. So basically straight up…the views from the top far exceeded my expectations and it was easy to see why this is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. On the top we met two locals and talked to them for a good 20-30 minutes. They gave us a lot of good suggestions for Cape Town, Cape Point, and Stellenbosh. The sunset was easily the best I can remember with nearly 360 degrees of water surrounding us (we sat on a rock overlooking Camps Bay – see pic above). I was a little uneasy taking the cable car down, for part of it we were probably 1,000 feet off the ground but the view of the city at night was worth it. |
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**CAPE POINT** |
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One of the main attractions near by is Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. First stop was Camp Bay (viewed from on top of Table Mtn in the pictures above), a 15 min drive from Cape Town on the other side of Lions Head. It was an amazing beach with the mountains right behind us. From there we took the very scenic drive towards Cape Point to Boulders Beach, home to the largest colony of the endangered African Penguins. We were able to get up-close-and-personal as shown in the pic I got of Linds. |
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(Unfortunately we had to take our camera in to get fixed so we didn’t take too many pictures.. Some are from the iPhone or GoPro) |
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Another 30 minutes and we arrived at Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. The point represents the convergence of the warmer Indian Ocean currents with the colder Atlantic Ocean currents. However, we learned that this is not where the two oceans meet. That happens at the southernmost point of Africa, another 3 hours east. The Cape of Good Hope was a landmark early explorers used as they made their way around Africa. Once they hit the Cape of Good Hope they knew they were starting to head east. We did see a few NEW animal sightings!! Several baboons, a family of ostrich, and a lone elder. |
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We finished the day at Kalk Bay where we had dinner at Harbour House, one of the best seafood places in the Cape Town area. The best part was the location, we were right on the water and had an amazing ocean view at sunset. |
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Cape Town is such an amazing city! We HIGHLY recommend it to family and friends — there’s so much to do and see, we just didn’t have enough time to do it all!! All-in-all, we both agreed it’s one of our favorite (or favourite) cities we’ve visited to date :)! |
Rob and Linds 