South Africa – Cape Town

Oh Cape Town, your beauty beckoned me from across the Atlantic. Your haute cuisine, your unparalleled scenic views, your laid-back, cool-to-the-core style. I was sooo looking forward to relaxing on your beaches. Matt and I decided after a few nights in a tented situation followed by a B&B in Zambia, we deserved to treat ourselves to a nice hotel on the beach near Cape Town. What I failed to realize when I made the booking is that it would NOT be warm during the time of year we were visiting, the end of September. Don’t be naive like me friends, do your research. Now, the temps in no way detracted from the beauty of our surroundings, H-E-L-L-O seaside views from our balcony! However, we couldn’t fully enjoy all that the beach had to offer.  Nevertheless, this is still a little slice of heaven, don’t ya think? Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. He’s just adjusting his pants or something… candid moments here, people.

Perhaps a better view, minus one man with ill-fitting trousers.

If this pool/ocean view looks like something you’d enjoy when there is no real threat of hypothermia (Matt says I exaggerate sometimes) you should look into the Lagoon Beach Hotel. It does seem like it is geared more towards the business types rather than the savvy traveler, but the views were outstanding, the beds were quite comfortable (more on that later) and their food voucher system worked out great for Matt and I.

Now onto the good stuff! Remember that cold weather I told you about earlier? Unfortunately there were other side effects. Our highly anticipated cage-diving with sharks became unrealistic, our swim with the seals was canceled, and we were not able to Abseil Table Mountain like we had planned. Nope, being a dope on a rope would have to wait for another day. Instead we opted for a less heart-pumping activity and more of a heart-warming one. We hopped in the car, I held tight to my seat, and kept my eyes glued to the road as Matt navigated us to Boulder Beach to see the penguins. I’m not usually such a paranoid passenger but this was his first time driving on the left side of the road. Anxiety overload, but alas we live to tell the tale.  Boulder Beach was one of the most adorable places I’ve been. Penguins roaming around, swimming in the ocean, and waddling about – so. darn. cute. We got to Simon’s town as the main penguin colony was closing up for the day but we headed down to the public beach to get our fill. If you’re a lover of all things animal like me, don’t skip this place.

I mean, c’mon – are you planning your trip yet? Just look at them!

This seems to be a popular spot on the way to the The Cape of Good Hope, but our journey never led us that far. We were tired and ready to indulge in an adult beverage or two, so we headed back to the hotel. We were treated to some great views along the way and noticed so many of the locals outside enjoying a braai – equivalent to a barbecue. It seems to be a way of life in South Africa.

The next morning, we made a cup of coffee and sat on the balcony as the waves rolled by.  Matt embraced the wind as I wrapped myself tightly in my blankets, clutching my warm cup o’ joy. Since our plans for Table Mountain were no good, we decided to go for a hike. We chose the most difficult one in driving distance, or at least that is how it felt. Today we conquer Devil’s Peak!

Our idea of hiking is usually  a trot through the woods, there might be a little uphill, some rocky terrain, a river to follow, but never anything terribly demanding. Many have gone before us (we read the reviews) but we (I) struggled a bit with this one. Between the wind blowing me around, the rain dancing in and out, and the sheer vertical ascent, I never quite made it to the top. A shame really, because I got so close to the summit but told Matt I would wait for him to finish when we reached a certain plateau. I didn’t realize just how close we were. Here’s the view from where I waited for him. Not too shabby.Either way, we had some spectacular views along the way and we definitely earned our beer when we got to the bottom.

 

The next morning we tried our luck with abseiling Table Mountain again. We made several phone calls to the company to determine if it was safe enough to operate that day but due to the weather they were still kind of iffy. We took our chances and drove up to the mountain. Lucky us, when we arrived they had decided to open! We bought our gondola tickets to the top. There is an option to hike if you’re interested, but with Devil’s peak still fresh on our minds from the day before, we opted for the lazy route. Since the weather had been spotty all morning the crowds were at a minimum but on a sunny day be prepared to park quite a bit from the ticket office.

Off the gondola we found the tour company we would be rappelling with. The guides were nothing short of amazing. They quickly got us into our harnesses and explained the process and what to expect. As brave as Matt and I can be at times, taking the first step backwards off the mountain went against every fiber of our beings and the guides were really helpful at making us feel comfortable, offering up encouragement, and repeating instructions as needed. Also, completely over the top, one of them offered to take some photos of us on my camera as we made our descent. This photo below is a series of three photos he took that I later stitched together. Don’t hesitate to let your guides handle your camera/phone if they offer. They know what they are doing!

Once fear subsided, I actually took a second to pause and look around. INCREDIBLE! The views from this vantage point are simply remarkable. Soon enough our feet were on solid ground again. We then had to hike for about 45 minutes back to the top. We thanked our guides, grabbed our bags, walked around soaked up the atmosphere for a while longer and then headed back down the mountain. We wanted to get back to the hotel so we could get cleaned up before heading into the city for some much deserved lunch and to check out some of the breweries.

We showered and changed in record time. Before we knew it a car was waiting out front to take us to lunch. As we pulled up at our first destination I told Matt I was feeling nauseous. I took a few sips of water, exited the car, and tried to shrug it off as we headed up the steps into the restaurant. It was still a bit chilly but we opted to sit outside. We ordered our first round of beer and placed our food order. Two sips into my beer and the nausea got worse. Uh oh. Somehow I made it through my lunch before having to excuse myself to throw up. Just like that our time in the city was cut short. One of the employees was kind enough to call us a car back to our hotel. Remember that bed I mentioned at the beginning of this post? This is where I became very well acquainted with it. Food poison struck. One of the less glamorous parts of travel, that’s for sure. I sent Matt downstairs to the bar for dinner and drinks while I laid in bed miserable as could be. Before he left, he pulled the curtains open for me. If I was going to be sick, at least I could enjoy the view.

I laid in bed all night and the next day until it was time to head to the airport for our journey home. Not the best way to end our trip. I am mostly sad I missed out on seeing more of Cape Town which means a return trip is inevitable. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

What are some of your favorite spots? Any restaurants that aren’t to be missed? Hopefully some without a reputation of food-borne illness 🙂  Let us know in the comments!

Cheers,

Megan & Matt