Table Mountain, World's End and Penguins!

WOW What a day!  I don’t want to go too hard on the superlatives as it is only day 2, but WOW!

Things I learned today:

·       South Africa has 12 official languages including sign language

·       Cape Town was founded in 1652, making it 373 years old

·       Baboons are vicious

·       Penguins are cute and do not smell in the wild!

We did a tour today and ticked so many things off our to do list.  We booked the tour through ‘Get your guide’ and the company was Beyond Africa Safaris.  We were to be picked up at 7.30, so it was already an early start, but the guide came for us at 7! Not even time to get breakfast, so we just had to grab coffee and go.  It was a semi private tour, with only 14 people – all nationalities, and all really nice – there is usually one pain in the arse in any group – and Emma and I have just realized that if everyone else was lovely…..it must have been us!

Our guide was called Gordon and he was so knowledgeable – and he knew EVERYONE! Everyone was coming up and shaking his hand – he was a proper celebrity.

First stop was Table Mountain.  Even though we were there before 8.30, the queues were huge – we had advance tickets so did not have to wait too long, but when we cam back down, the queue to get up was 4 hours long. (yes I know this is not Table Mountain, but you cannot take a pic of it when you are on it!)

We went up in the cable-car which was pretty cool as it rotated round as you went up so everyone got a good view.  We have some spectacular pictures, far to may to include in this blog, but take my word for it, they are great. 

Most embarrassing moment…..I was busy telling Emma about the smaller mountain next to table mountain, and I said with such confidence ‘that one is Sugar Loaf Mountain’……nope, not even close – I know I had mixed up South Africa and South America – we are definitely not in Rio de Janeiro! 

It is actually called Lion’s Head, but it is still pretty cool.

 A great phrase I heard today, when one of the guests asked if they had to sit in the same seats on the bus the guide said ‘Sit anywhere – life is all about choices’ – and it is.

Although everyone accepted the fact that we all had to queue, we did encounter the archetypal American who pushed in between our group and then proceeded to call the rest of her group over….she got her comeuppance though and they all got held back for the next cable-car….karma is a bitch, there would have been room for them in ours if they had not tried to push in!

At the top of the mountain there were lots of trails you could take, although to be fair, pretty much everyone went clockwise Whales from the top of the mountain.  We got some absolutely stunning pics – even if I had to wait a while to get people out of the shot (laughing each time that were Emily here she would be waiting for people to get into shot).

From Table Mountain we next went to BoCapp, which is a really colourful area of Cape Town, founded 1702 and was originally slave accommodation.  The houses are all pretty colours, and there were lots of murals on the walls – with the population being 68% Muslim, there were quite a few ‘Free Palestine’ ones.

The streets are cobblestoned and well worth a walk along, although our guide did a good job of keeping us safe and stopping us walking down the ‘wrong’ streets where we would ne in danger of being robbed.  It all made sense as to why he asked us to leave our handbags etc in the van and if anyone asked for money we were to say we did not have any.  Gordon (guide) treated us all to a south African donut, which was spicy and cinnamony and dusted with coconut – yum!

2^nd January was the only day off in the life of a slave, and they used to PARTYYYY hard, with lots of singing and dancing – so much so that people used to travel from far afield just to take part or watch – this became part of the Cape Town culture and still they have a huge festival every January 2^nd to celebrate.

Then we ticked another place off our list - Camps Bay. 

This used to be a beach for whites only, particularly for the rich and famous, until 1994 when came the start of democracy.  I just cannot imagine not being able to go somewhere because of the colour of my skin, and I know I speak from a place of privilege, but I just cannot comprehend it.  At Camps bay there is a tidal pool that you can swim in – perhaps we will go back and have a swim, but we will wait to see how tomorrow goes (more of that later).

As we were driving to the next place Gordon explained that marijuana is legal in SA and we passed some cars by the side of the road and he said that was where to buy some – at least half of the bus got off and paid the guy a visit…. Not us though 😊

We passed by a shanti town (the name escapes me) and across from there was a sports complex that Jorgen Klopp had built and funded which encouraged the kids from the shanti town to get into sports and away from gangs and drugs – he has bought 15 properties in South Africa and is opening these complexes all over the place – whether you are red or blue, you have got to admire that man.

We went to Mystical Bay, which is famous for surfing and the waves were really high, and then we went on to Cape Point and on again to the Cape of Good Hope – this is actually the end of Africa and is where the two oceans (Atlantic and Indian) meet.  The cold and rougher water of the Atlantic meets with the warm calmer water of the Indian, and on one side of the point the sea is typically 5 degrees and the Indian Ocean is 15 degrees, but in False Bay (we are going there tomorrow too) it is warm and calm, and is hopefully full of sharks!

We had pics taken at the sign for the Cape and I tried to get pics of the Ostriches on the beach (I know!!) but I just missed them.

Almost time to leave but I convinced Emma and a few of the others that we had time to go up the funicular railway to the lighthouse at the top of the mountain – I am a fan of lighthouses, but this one was a bit nah, and we were already late for the bus so we snapped a few pics and came back down – where Emma (who is such a stresshead about being on time) apologized for being late and said it was because I had diarrhoea!  I had even taken a pic of her looking at her watch – thankfully he did not believe her and we were only 8 minutes late anyway.

After the lighthouse we went to Simonstown and Boulder Beach to see the penguins – so cute, and they did not even smell.  I have only seen penguins in the zoo before today (and they stink) but these ones just roam around and live their best life, not smelly at all!

also spotted this little guy, but Gordon told us to keep away from it as they have rabies and bite...we did not need to be told twice!

Last stop was at Muizenberg which is really famous for surfing.  They have cool beach houses, really colourful, which anyone can use - they are for the public and a great idea.

It was getting to the end of the day and the sun was going down, so I did not try the sea temperature, but I did see a blue plaque that said Agatha Christie learned to surf there – she was one of the first European women to learn to surf - how cool was she!

On the way home we were ambushed by a troop of baboons – they are vicious and know how to open doors and windows, so people have to be really careful about locking everything up as they will get in everywhere if there is food.  Gordon told us that if we are holding food and they come to us we were to drop the food as they would attack us to get the food from us – eek!

Tomorrow we are going cage shark diving....there may not be a blog tomorrow night :)