Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Cape Town

Ok, sorry for the delay as I got my thoughts together about the trip and decided exactly how many details I wanted to subject you to... I think I will do 2 posts for the two areas we visited. One picture will represent each day. Then I will list the highlights. Ok, all set?

Day 1&2: Flying, flying and..... flying.

(This was not me, btw...you would have found me wide awake possibly staring at nothing in particular for 11 hours straight)

Seriously folks, that was some major travel time. We left Friday morning at 10 and got to South Africa Sat. night at 10pm. ...Jealous of our trip yet?

Day 3: North Cape Town and wineries.

Highlights:
  • Driving on the left side of the road. So much more fun than I remember!
  • The views we saw of table mountain from the north Cape Town coast
  • Wasting time after finding out there was no general conference broadcast at the church by driving out to see the much heralded wineries. They were all closed for Easter, so sorry...no free wine samples for us.
  • The views of table Mountain on the drive back into the city
  • Finding a coffee shop with wifi to listen to three conference talks live
  • The only day we ate at Nandos! Good thing we did at least once.
Day 4: Cape Point and Boulders beach

Highlights:
  • Finding out that so many things we wanted to do that day "wouldn't be open today" because of either the wind or being the day after easter
  • The wind at cape point literally held us up when leaning over the cliff
  • Finding the most beautiful beach I've ever been to (not saying much)..pictured on day 7
  • Seeing the cute, tiny penguins on Boulder's beach
  • Eating at Bertha's in Simon's town. Good food and we discovered that if we share 2 meals between the 3 of us we don't have leftovers to take to the hotel and rot. Plus, extra money for dessert!
Day 5: Clifton Beach and the downtown market

Highlights:
  • Lazing on a slightly windy beach avoiding the cold water
  • Getting swindled at the downtown market (we're so weak at bartering)
  • Visiting the waterfront at dusk to take some sweet sunset pictures
  • Dinner at the rotating restaurant on top of our hotel
Day 6: Downtown museums, Kirstenbosch gardens and Table mountain.

Highlights:
  • Waking up to clouds on the one day Table Mountain was open
  • Finding out it was actually open the day before, our hotel had just lied to us
  • Wasting time at kirstenbosch gardens and downtown Cape Town just hoping and praying that the clouds would break
  • Finally giving up and heading up the tram into the cloud to see the amazing view...of the cloud
  • Discovering that walking around in a cloud causes water droplets to form on every bit of body hair showing and our clothes. Also, it made us cold.
Day 7: Turn in rental car and fly to Durban.

Highlights:
  • Going through the maze of roads and signs to find the one petrol station at the airport.
  • KFC at the airport. You don't even know
  • The free mint on the plane (they are so generous in South Africa)
Next up: Durban

6 comments:

Mary Ann said...

Thanks for this post! I still want to see all your pictures sometime. I'm not at all jealous about the long, sleepless flight, but I'm super jealous about the penguins.

Tracy Blackburn said...

i'm super excited to hear about day 8 :D And you forgot about the bry (or however you spell that) on day 7, and the cockroach...although i guess that was on multiple days.

Andrea said...

Ohh.. the anticipation! Good first half despite the wind, clouds, and flying.

Jeff said...

That sounds super fun. I need to go to Africa sometime. Although, I'm not jealous about the flight. I'm like you, I just can't sleep on a plane. When we went to Hawaii it was a red eye flight and I didn't sleep for one second, but I did watch 3 whole movies.

jojoba said...

dang. A mint would be so much more useful than those peanuts. Talk about having bad breath!

Jana and Rob said...

You going to Africa is a culminating activity for my past 6 weeks of teaching! We are finishing our last chapter of Africa this week. Before I had to teach this, I knew nothing about Table Mtn. and Cape Town and the wineries. I can even tell you where Durban is located! I'm pretty sure I want to visit Africa sometime. I can't wait to see more pics and hear more about it from a current source, not the 80's documentaries I've been showing my kids.