Capetown, South Africa

BYE-BYE CAPETOWN

I was never that excited about Capetown as a destination.  I thought it was just a city with a big, flat mountain behind it.  We’ve all seen the pictures, right?  But to cruise in there on a perfect, cloudless morning and see that tiny city at the base of that massive mountain.  Breath-taking.

We had three days in port, and of course I was going to be seeing Robin for the first time in weeks.  Dad and I were doing a tour up the mountain, via cable car.  When I saw how steep it was though, I had second thoughts.  And then Robin had to text me and say, “I’m up the mountain.  Will wait here for you!”.  Great, now I had to go up.  In fact, when you’re crammed into that cable car with 64 other people, the floor rotating 360 degrees, and the city and sea spilling out before your eyes, you tend to forget about the deathly drop below you.  And it was so romantic to be meeting Robin at the top.  Except for the fact Dad was there too, bless him.  It was only about 5 degrees up there, so after a quick hot drink we did a brisk hike along the tracks.  I saw the rodent like dakkie? chewing on shrubs.  It’s looks like a rat but is the size of a small dog, so it gave me a fright to come upon it.  Some genius tried to feed it, and it went straight for his finger instead.  Hope he had his rabies shot.

That afternoon I moved over to Robin’s hotel down at the V&A waterfront.  This is the Viaduct-like area where there are hotels, shops, restaurants, bars, museums, and the aquarium.  We found a place, just like Kermadec’s at the Viaduct Basin, for a late afternoon treat of oysters and champagne.  As the sun went down we watched the charter boats coming and going, and listened to African buskers performing around us.  The souvenir shops around that area  are of excellent quality.  Robin’s credit card started to smoke, I bought so much so quickly.  MAF are going to love me when I arrive back in NZ.  Later, we had dinner at a charming, nautical pub on the water.  I ate bobotie, a local dish of curried mince, with a baked egg on top, and sampled the excellent South African chardonnays.

The next day was taken up with checking Robin onto the ship and getting him sorted out.  I went for a solo wander around the V&A area and eventually met up with Robin, Dad, and our ship friends, Karen and Doug.  They had been recommended a restaurant called Sevruga so we had made a plan to dine there together.  It was such a gorgeous evening.  No wind, full moon, candlelight, fine food and wine.  It was sad to say goodbye to Karen and Doug who were leaving the ship to go off on safari.  I blame my new bingo addiction on them!

On our final day in Capetown, Robin and I did a tour out to Stellenbosch, a quaint little university town out in the wine country.  It’s a very picturesque area, with the vineyards sprawling to the foot of the impressive mountain range, and the odd glimpses of wild-life to be seen.  That is, wild-life in captivity.  Like farmers in NZ might have donkeys and llama to entertain the punters.  Of course we visited a vineyard for a wine tasting.  And it was very good too.  We left with their famous pinotage, and some sav blanc in case the Nobilo’s on the ship hadn’t been re-stocked.  We’d drunk a bit of wine, but the drive back to the ship, through mile upon mile of shanty towns, was pretty sobering.  Still so much poverty, within what seems a prosperous city.

I was sorry to leave Capetown.  The city centre had some beautiful buildings.  And I loved the Malay quarter, with it’s bright, lolly-coloured houses and petite mosques.  And the V&A waterfront reminded me so much of home.  Our sailaway at sunset, watching Table Mountain turn pink, will be an enduring memory.

THE CABLE CAR GOES ALL THE WAY UP TO THAT TINY POINT AT THE TOP.  INSANE!!

OSTRICH EGGS EVERYWHERE, BUT NOT USUALLY WITH A CHICK SITTING IN ONE.