I recently returned from a two week trip to Cape Town and the Western and Eastern Cape regions of South Africa or Seeth Ifrica as the locals pronounce it.
I normally travel alone or with a girlfriend and occasionally if I can persuade him my OH. As this was a special birthday trip he came along.
As usual the flight was a mind numbing experience and we finally arrived in Cape Town after 10 1/2 hours in the air, the words I'm never flying long haul unless it's in business class could be heard. We had arranged to be picked up at the airport by someone from Rikkis Taxis, the firm use old London taxi cabs painted in various colours ours was bright yellow and the driver was waiting for us in arrivals and we were soon on our way. Unfortunately the driver started to have problems with the gears and the vehicle had difficulty climbing the steep hills that surround the city. After a short stop and a change of route we made it to our Guest House. We had chosen to stay in the pretty resort of Camps Bay which is situated just a few minutes drive out of the city. The guest house that we had chosen was a bit upmarket http://www.Athollhouse.com and we were given a warm welcome by the manager Brendan. We stayed in the Onyx room.
Camps BayClick on Image
We spent the next three days either rambling around the resort or riding the Hop-on Hop-off bus into Cape Town. We visited the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront with it's myriad of shops and restaurants,the beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, the District 6 Museum where we learned of some of the shameful history of the white South Africans treatment of their fellow countrymen during the apartheid era. On one lovely afternoon we rode the Cable Car up to the top of Table Mountain. Late afternoons werespent sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine watching the sun go down over the Atlantic, we could see the Twelve Apostle chain of mountains and watched the twinkling light coming on at the top of Table Mountain which was to the rear of the guest house.
On the third day at the Guest House I celebrated my birthday and was surprised at breakfast by the staff bringing out a birthday cake and singing happy birthday to me, first in English then in Xhosa their tribal language. A very special moment.
Click on image
That evening we went to a restaurant in the resort recommended by the guest house manager, he arranged for taxis to take us and pick us up and made reservations for us at the restaurant. We were given a table overlooking the ocean and we both had superb meals, I had a Kudu (a sort of antilope) steak which was delicious and OH had a normal pepper steak. I had sticky toffee pudding, OH had ice cream and the management treated us both to a Vodka/chocolate drink to celebrate my birthday. We drank a bottle of lovely South African red and thoroughly enjoyed our evening.
The following day we were to travel into Cape Town to meet up with a group of fellow travellers to take a tour of the Cape Area and the Garden Route. We had to vacate our room by 11am but the manager gave us the key to a large private bathroom so we were able to stay at the guest house until late afternoon. I decided to have a lazy day by the pool and OH took off for a walk and returned about 3 -4 hours later after having climbed the Lions Head mountain. Late afternoon we took a taxi to the Cape Town hotel where we were to meet the people with whom we were going to spend the next eleven days.
more to follow.
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