Cape Town Adventures

The journey from Hong Kong to Cape Town was incredibly long but relatively uneventful. I was in transit for over 20 hours and ended up using an airplane bathroom for the first time ever. It’s pretty crazy that I have gone so long without using one, I’m a little disappointed in myself for breaking the streak but I have to say it was much cleaner and slightly bigger than I had expected.

I was exhausted when I arrived in Cape Town despite the fact that I had an entire row of seats to myself on my second flight and was able to stretch out.  I’m sure I got more sleep than I would have if I had only had the one seat but interrupted sleep never leaves you feeling rested. Since I was so tired I really didn’t do anything my first day in Cape Town. This was probably a dumb move since I had very little time to spend in the city but the list of things I wanted to accomplish was short and I was grumpy and had a bit of a sore throat so I only ventured out of the hostel to get some food and headed to bed nice and early.

I booked a tour for the following morning in an attempt to force me to get over the jet lag but I’m not sure it worked. I was the second to last person to be picked up so I got stuck at the back of the van in a seat with no window, no ideal but I was too tired to really care. The day started off at a leisurely pace, which was nice because I was still feeling pretty tired and still had a sore throat. We drove past some beaches and made our first stop at Hout Bay. There was an option to go on a boat to go check out a seal colony but boats and I are not on speaking terms at the moment so obviously that wasn’t an option. I had an hour to kill while waiting for the seal watchers to get back so I perused the markets along the harbour. This was the kind of market I was looking for in Hong Kong. There was some manufactured stuff but it was mostly arts and crafts and most of the manufactured stuff had an African theme so I was pretty stoked. I didn’t buy anything as I don’t want to overload my backpack before my safari but I enjoyed perusing the various stalls.

Next we took a drive up Chapman’s Peak Drive, through an area affected by last weeks fire. Our guide was pointing out the fire damage along the way but from my terrible seat I wasn’t able to see any of it. I was able to see some of the devastation when we stopped at a lookout for some juice and a group photo.  I seem to be a fire magnet lately but hopefully that trend stops here.

We drove through a place called Simon’s Town and I kind of wish we had stopped there because it looked like a cool little village but we were on a mission. At a beach on the outskirts of the town is a colony of African penguins and I was oh so excited to go visit them. The African penguin used to known as the jackass penguin because of the noise that it makes. I heard a couple of them and they really do sound like donkeys. It is a bizarre noise to hear coming out of such a tiny little bird. There were penguins of different ages and even some eggs being protected. Some of them were hiding in their burrows, others lounging in the sun, and others seeming to enjoy the attention of all the tourists and posing for pictures. This was a much better experience than penguin island in Australia, the penguins actually spend their days on land so the ones that you see aren’t being held in captivity, they are free to leave whenever they want, which is pretty cool.

I was feeling pretty good after the penguins, I was still tired and my throat was still bugging me but I was happy and was having a good time but that was all about to change. Our next activity was a bike ride, a 5km bike ride. I don’t remember the last time I rode a bike so I knew this would be a challenge. The seat started to hurt my ass the second it made contact (it still hurt to sit the following day) and it only got worse as the day went on. My bike was missing a bolt in the handlebars so I was one of the last people to leave, I did not feel good about this, I needed to have someone behind so someone would find my dead lifeless body if I got hit by a car, we were riding on the highway after all.  My legs felt like they weighed a million pounds by the time I reached the finish line but at least I made it the distance and didn’t get hit by a car.

Our lunch break following this workout left me wanting more. We got a single cold cut sandwich and there was a Greek salad but feta cheese is gross so I only had the sandwich. I was lucky enough to get a second one but I could have eaten a horse at that point. There was another group at our picnic spot and they were clearly on a much more posh tour than I was. They had individual lunches prepared in plastic containers with figs and cheeses that they enjoyed while their guide poured them wine. To be honest I wouldn’t have eaten anything they had but they seemed to be enjoying themselves

Exhausted and still hungry I climbed back in to the van. I had heard rumours of a hike in our future but I was hoping it would be a short hike on a flat surface. The first task was to hike up to a lighthouse overlooking the spot where two oceans are said to meet. There was a funicular running but our guide said it was only a 10 minute walk so I decided to put my big girl pants on and hike to the top. The guide was full of shit. It took me almost half an hour to walk to the top, the views were pretty cool but I should have taken the funicular. Even the walk back down was hard on my knees.

The next hike was a 45 minute hike and from what I could see it looked like the whole thing would be a gentle decline so I figured I could handle it. The first half hour of the hike was fine. I managed to stay near the front of the pack even though I was stopping to take pictures. Towards the end of the trail I had to scramble up a mountain and back down the other side. This was not my favourite part of the day. I am incredibly uncoordinated so these types of activities make me incredibly nervous. I rolled my ankles a few times but for the most part I finished the hike unscathed and got to pat myself on the back for making to the most south-western point of the African continent.

I was oh so happy to climb back into the van and into my crappy seat at the end of the hike. I had less than no energy, my legs felt like they were going to fall off, and I was starving. I wanted to eat as soon as I got back to the hostel but I had signed up for a brai (African bbq) and it wasn’t starting for another two hours. The wait for dinner seemed to drag on forever. I signed up for the brai thinking it would be a good opportunity to socialize with other people in the hostel but I was far too tired to talk to strangers so I hid downstairs away from the crowd. I had a bit of steak and it was okay but I saved the sausage for last thinking it would be the best. Oh boy was I wrong. It was very fragrant, to the point that it tasted like I had sprayed an air-freshener into my mouth and all I could picture was walking into the bathroom after someone else had taken a poo. The fact that it was chewy didn’t help matters, I kept chewing and chewing and eventually started to gag. I ended up spitting it out and not even touching the rest of the sausage. I like my meat to taste like meat, not lilacs and lavender.

The following day I woke up with a fever but I didn’t want to waste the day so I got up feeling determined. I had a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, and took some cold medicine and crawled back into bed.  It very quickly became apparent that my day would not be going as planned. I had a four-hour nap and still felt pretty rough when I woke up but I needed to do something.

I walked to the V&A Waterfront, about a ten-minute walk from the hostel. My original plan for the day was to check out Table Mountain but the walk to the waterfront required far too much effort so I decided to leave it for another time. I wandered along the waterfront, taking in the scenery, looking in the shops, and enjoying a smoothie, for an hour or two before heading back to the hostel for the night. While I was disappointed the day didn’t go as planned I was still happy I made it out of the hostel even if it was only for a little while.

I still felt pretty crappy when I woke up this morning but it is my last day in Cape Town so I had to make it to Table Mountain. The view from the top was the only thing I wanted to see during my time in Cape Town and unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it happen. The cableway to the peak wasn’t operating today due to high winds and there was no way I could handle the 3 hour hike to the top with this stupid cold. I'm pretty upset that I was not able to cross this off the bucket list and have been playing the what-if game with myself. Would I have made it to the peak if I had tried yesterday or even the day I arrived? I did make it to the Cableway station at the base of Table Mountain and the views from there were pretty good but I know I missed out and I’m kicking myself for it.

The day wasn’t a complete waste. In order to get to Table Mountain I purchased a ticket for a hop-on-hop-off city bus tour so I did see a fair bit of the city. I probably should have hopped off more than I did but I just didn’t have the energy. I rode the bus around in circles a couple of times hoping the wind would die down and the cableway would open but no such luck. I made my way back to the hostel feeling defeated.

Tomorrow I leave for Oudtshoorn where I plan to hangout with meerkats and possibly ride an ostrich. Here’s hoping things there work out better than they did here.