My trip to South Africa part 2

After travelling by taxi from Camps Bay we arrived in Cape Town late afternoon and checked in to our hotel in the city. The hotel was http://www.Strandtowerhotel.co.za a decent 3-4* about a 20 minute walk to the waterfront and 100yards from the lively Long Street area. Like everywhere else we stayed in the country, spotlessly clean with very helpful, friendly staff.

We met up with the rest of our tour group and tour leader, we had a short talk about the tour and introduced ourselves to the rest of the group. There were thirteen of us all together, four couples and five singles. As I get older I find myself increasingly taking holidays with group tours as travelling totally alone becomes more and more of an effort but I do a huge amount of research before deciding on a specific tour and company but it's always a bit of a gamble as to whether there will be like minded people on the tour despite all of the research. I only like to go on small group tours, the thought of travelling around with fifty others on a bus doesn't appeal. So I found myself eyeing up my fellow travellers hoping we hadn't got any oddbods (usually one or two) but they seemed like a friendly bunch and they proved to be great group of fellow travellers throughout the tour.

The following morning the tour began and an early start saw us on the small bus heading south west, we travelled down to an area called Hout Bay where we caught a boat out to Seal Island and saw hundreds of seals. On the way to Hout Bay we stopped to see a pod of dolphins swimming. The scenery was beautiful, very mountainous on one side with the very blue Atlantic and lovely beaches on the other. We saw Ostriches and Antelopes feeding in the bush. We drove over an area called Chapman's Peak, a road that had been carved out of the side of the cliffs overlooking the sea and the curvy road with it's overhanging rocks and steep cliffs down to the sea was at times quite hairy. Lots of cyclists on the road, many of them practising for an upcoming race over the peak that attracts cyclists from all over the world.
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We finally reached the most south westerly point of South Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, we could either climb up to the highest point, the lighthouse, or ride the funicular railway, I chose to ride up, OH of course walked to the top. After visiting the lighthouse we could then walk down a steep rocky path to the sea. Most of the group walked, I rode in the bus, I suffer from a slight vertigo problem and of late have difficulties with my balance, so I chose to take the safe route. After the obligatory pictures we climbed back on the bus and headed back to Cape Town but stopped off at Boulders Beach where we saw lots of penguins. We then walked round to another beach where it was possible to go into the sea and join the penguins for a swim. We drove back to Cape Town taking a different route and again the scenery was lovely and the long white beaches were really gorgeous.
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The next day was another early start and the only day of the two weeks that the weather was bad, a fog hung over the city, which was a shame as this was the day the group were to climb Table Montain,seven of the group including OH did the climb, six of us rode the cable car to the top. Was I glad we had been to the top the week before when the weather was glorious as the views were now none existent. There are lots of trails at the top of the mountain and we chose to do a two hour one before meeting up with the rest of the group. After descending the mountain we climbed on to the bus which then headed out of Cape Town.

We headed for Stellenbosch in the Winelands region. We headed over Franschoek pass stopping at the top where we were quickly surrounded by Baboons, they stared at us and we at them before we headed on for our lunch stop. Lunch was at a Vineyard where they not only made superb wine but lovely goats cheese. We then headed for a very swish Vineyard that made quite exclusive wines, where we could do a tasting. I lost count after eight wines and the amounts we were given were not tiny but a good couple or more drinks. After the tasting we were all in a mellow mood and climbed onto the bus and headed off to our accomodation. We were to spend the next two nights in the Stellenbosch area and the accomodation was in a converted farmhouse in the middle of vinyards a few miles out of town.

to be continued

edited to add a word