Friday 15th June - Cape Town

After a lovely nights sleep it was up and into action.

Breakfast was great, sitting in the sun looking at the ocean, Lions Head and Table Mountain.  The fog was gone by the time we got up so we didn’t see the ‘table cloth’ on the mountain.

The drive to the cable car station was stunning.  Table Mountain is a massive mountain slapped just in from the sea. It’s 1100 m high – virtually straight up!  With a flat top. Its 3 kilometers long and the rise would only be about 10 meters from the highest to the lowest points. You drive about half way up then catch the cable car.  It goes up for 1200m on a 45 degree angle. 

The whole mountain just looks time a gigantic stone block – it’s made of sandstone that has a grey crust over it. When the edge is broken you see the glorious orange colour in the stone.  It is far more resistant to erosion than normal sandstone. 

Where you get to the top you are blown away by the amazing environment up there. On a world map, showing the different eco-systems for the world, there is a tiny little one called Cape region , just covering this tiny area.  There are 2200 species of plants on Table Mountain – that’s more than in the whole UK!  We saw lots of birds and lizards but no mammals.  Except for a collie if you want to get technical.

There was also a Soccer ball vending machine.  Just what you need on top of a mountain! We presume it is still there from the World Cup last year. 

We then made our way back down to the Waterfront district.  Like most modern cities on the coast, Cape Town has a stunning waterfront.  Buskers, heaps of people trying to sell their tourist junk, beggers, street people, tourists and locals.  We went to a lovely Belgium Beer Bar and had a coffee.  Well, Sarah had coffee and was happy. Raina had a Belgium Berry Beer. Yum. It tasted more like fruit juice then beer and was very refreshing – but also like a fruity cocktail. Lovely mix.

As we sat at the table, watching the world, we saw our first “African kill”. Right in front of us a water bird caught a good sized fish and had lunch!

Cape Town has a giant Coke Man. It looks like a massive Lego construction but is actually made of coke pallets.  It was Coke’s modern art display for the World Cup. It really is cool, so has been left there.

We wandered around the status of the four World Peace price winners and were inspired buy such words as Nelson Mandela’s “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.”

We drove around a variety of suburbs, from the very rich to the not so rich. The houses are so beautiful.  The water view, rich houses were stunning. Great big rendered houses with huge windows, yuppie balconies and razor wire.

The not so affluent areas where rows of terrace houses, all painted in different bright colours and in various states of repair. Not so much razor wire – just bars. It was so pretty.

Next was a drive down the coast to the town of Hout - at the bottom of the Cape, rumored to have the best seafood in town.

We had a Seafood platter – salmon and other fish, squid, tiger prawns, salad and a full – big – cray.  It fed three of us.  And with soft drinks and coffee cost 500 ZAR - about $60.

An Awesome day in Cape Town