And we're off...

Monday morning was quite emotional as we woke up and had to say goodbye to Lyndall and Craig.  As tears welled up, Mel told Lyndall not to cry because you always see people sooner than you think you will. How true this turned out to be.

We planned to go to Paternoster for the night. As it isn't too far from Cape Town, we thought we'd finish off our TEFL courses and then head off mid-morning. When we felt that we had done enough work, we decided to pack the car. With everything packed, we needed a few things that we were storing in the garage and then we would be on our way. We went to get the keys that we were using, but they weren't in the box where they are usually kept. Frantically, we searched our car and the house - not there! We phoned Craig, but he said he didn't have them. So we phoned Lyndall, she didn't have them in her handbag but said she would check her car after ward rounds. So we carried on with TEFL for a bit while we waited to solve the mystery of the missing keys.

This proved to be rather productive, because we both finished our TEFL courses, and are now officially qualified EFL teachers (whoop whoop!!). Anyway - the stress continued, because Mel and Lyndall were the last two who had the set of keys which were now missing. We were worried that we had misplaced the keys, and were quietly hoping that Lyndall had.

Craig came back to the flat during his lunch break to see if he was a better detective than we were, but to no avail. The keys were well and truly GONE! Suddenly, Mel received a phone call - it was Lyndall. It turns out that, subconsciously, she REALLY didn't want us to leave and had taken both her normal set of keys and the set we were using! Ironic, because of what Mel had said that morning.

Ross met Lyndall to collect the keys. By the time he got back to the flat, we decided that it was too late to head up to Paternoster. We unpacked the car again and headed into Cape Town for some lunch. We found ourselves at an awesome place called The Beer House. They have 99 different beers! We had two beers and headed back to Craig and Lyndall's.

 

That night we went to Royal Eatery for some of the most amazing burgers and milkshakes that we have ever seen! We shared a beef burger with bacon, pineapple and guacamole and a lamb burger with mint sauce - AMAZING! We also had Smartie milkshakes which were delicious.

After dinner we took a drive up to Signal Hill and enjoyed the view of the Cape Town lights. All-in-all our bonus day was a great success!

Table Mountain - Round 2

On Sunday morning, we decided to climb up Table Mountain, again. We woke up early and to our joy - clear skies! This time we climbed up a different route called Indian Venster. The 'path' goes straight up under the cable car and then wraps around the mountain to the Camps Bay side. The first section was by far the hardest as it consisted of a set of about a million stairs that go straight up the mountain.  Any spring that you may have had in your step when you started is vanquished by about the tenth step, along with any "energy" which you thought you had. (Please note that the smiles in these pictures are staged).

Half-way up

Craig and Willow

The silly, steep stairs are over, hooray!

Craig and Lyndall (these smiles aren't staged, they're fit enough to enjoy the walk) 

The group: Mel, Ross, Sam, Kevin, Craig, Willow and Lyndall taking the photo 

Crazy much? These rock climbers are hard core!

The City Bowl view

Rock climbing - there were chains in some places to help you up

The Camps Bay view

Or up!!!

Done

When we reached the top, we stopped for a picnic. The view was much better this time, forget Camps Bay, we could see all the way to Cape Point!

Cape point in the distance

Where we're going!

We felt that we had done well walking up for a second time in one week, so we caught the cable car down while the rest of the group walked down Platteklip. Taking the cable car down also allowed us to reflect on the path we took to get up the mountain, we were impressed!

Some of the stairs on the path we walked up

Where we walked (smudges from the cable car)

After a strenuous morning (which despite what we said at the top of the post, we thoroughly enjoyed), we went back to Lyndall and Craig's house, had a swim, some lunch and then an afternoon nap. We had a lovely farewell braai with them and were packed and ready to leave in the morning. 

Wine route

On Saturday morning, we decided to go and do a bit of wine tasting. Our first stop was Clos Malverne just outside of Stellenbosch. The wine was delicious and the company was great. We bought a bottle of the Auret - a five year investment (now we just need to make sure that we don't drink it before 2019!).

De-Marie and Dudley 

The boys - Dudley, Mike, Ross and Justin

Justin, Mike, De-Marie, Dudley, Mel and Ross

We then moved on to Brenaissance, down the road, for lunch where Lyndall and Craig joined our group. We both did a pizza and wine pairing - four different pizzas and four types of wine that compliment them. The highlights were definitely the Merlot and the biltong and fig pizza (although they weren't paired together!).

Delicious Lemon, Lime and Mint juice

Pizza and wine pairing

The rest of the group left and the four of us headed back to Clos Malverne. This time for a wine and ice-cream pairing! The ice-cream was delicious and the wine was pretty good too.

The AMAZING ice-cream:
Top Left – Coconut, lime and chilli
Bottom Left – Strawberry and rosemary
Top Right – Honey, cinnamon and nut
Bottom Right – White chocolate, cherry and sage

We were blessed with a beautiful day, the pictures don't do it justice! Thanks so much for having us and for showing us around your neck of the woods, Dudley and De-Marie, we're certainly going to miss you.

These two little birdies have clearly been having a tough time down in The Cape.

Cape Town - Climbing the mountain (Platteklip)

After two exciting days with perfect weather, we decided that we needed to get up Table Mountain. We were feeling energetic, so thought we would walk up. Unfortunately, when we woke up on Friday morning, there was a massive cloud right over the mountain! Ross was super bleak, because he had never been up before. We had some breakfast and did some more work on our TEFL courses while we waited out the weather - we hoped that the cloud might lift, or even better, blow right away.

We were running out of time, because we had plans for the afternoon, so we decided to just go to the mountain and walk some of the way up. That way we could have lunch with a great view and return to the mountain another day (if the weather allowed it then). We packed a backpack, sun-creamed up and excitedly made our way to the bottom of the Platteklip trail.

We started the relatively steep walk with a spring in our step, and it wasn’t long before we could admire the impressive view of Cape Town’s city bowl. We stopped under a small tree for a sip of water and to take some photos. Then we walked on, zig-zagging our way along the rocky path, up the side of the mountain.

After a while, we were a good portion of the way up so decided to just walk to the top. We were enjoying the exercise, the subtle changes in the vegetation and the water. But most of all, we were just loving the view! Imagine what it must be like at the top!

Despite the large cloud covering the top of the mountain, we were walking in the sun for almost the entire walk - and we were beginning to feel the heat. As we got closer to the top, the path got steeper and steeper and our ‘view breaks’ became longer and more frequent. The rocks were cool to the touch, and Mel found one particularly refreshing.

Cooling off

The last few 'stairs'

When we finally made it to the top, the view was… miserable! There was a white curtain of cloud everywhere we looked. On the plus side, there were hardly any other people around, so we didn’t feel claustrophobic as we explored. There were one or two moments where we could catch fleeting glimpses of the city below, but they quickly disappeared as the curtain of cloud closed tightly shut again.

The awesome view from the top

Where we walked

We were cutting it fine to make it to our friends, Dudley and De-Marie’s house before the Friday afternoon traffic consumed us. So we caught the cable car down and steered our little car towards the already building city traffic. After a while we made it out of the city and the traffic began to flow much more freely. We headed towards Durbanville, and were excited to spend some time with our friends.

Top of the mountain

Bottom of the mountain

At Dudley and De-Marie’s we had an awesome, chilled evening with them, Justin and Mike. We ordered in some pizzas and had some good wine. Great day, great people and great experiences!

Day Two in Cape Town

On Thursday we decided to take a drive along some of the more famous roads around Cape Town, and visit some of the surrounding little towns. We started our trip by checking out Sea Point, the lighthouse, the fancy hotels and the promenade. We then continued through to Camps Bay and had a delicious ice-cream while we walked along the beautiful, white sand that is their beach.

After our ice-creams, we meandered our way to Hout Bay, and we went to the harbour. As we were walking down towards the waves, and taking in the stunning views around the bay, Mel noticed that there was a seal playing in the water just beyond the waves. We watched it for a while, and it even started surfing some of the waves! We then took a walk down the pier to look at some of the boats. They were swamped by seagulls, which were swooping down and landing on anything that mildly resembled a perch.

Seal surfing a wave

The next section of the road was the infamous Chapman’s Peak. We wound our way along the pass, stopping at every available view point to appreciate the breath-taking beauty around us. The sea was a rich blue, and the clouds created transforming dark patches throughout the bay. Ross got excited as we drove through the partially tunnelled section - which he had only seen before in fancy car adverts on the TV.

View from Chapman's Peak

Once we were over the pass, we made our way towards Kalk Bay for lunch. We stopped at Kalky’s (a restaurant which was suggested to us as a “legitimately Cape experience”). We ordered some fish, calamari and chips and waited at a table for our order number to be called out. After a while, a kwaai looking coloured lady came out holding two plates screeching, “Order number 56!” It wasn’t our order, but we suddenly understood how things were done at Kalky’s. When our order did arrive, the lady plonked it down in front of us, said something as she was walking away (which both of us missed completely) and returned with a small tray of sauces - which she promptly bashed down between us. We think she said “Enjoy your meal,” after that, but we can’t be sure. The suggestion was a good one, and we enjoyed our feast.

Inside Kalky's

Next we drove to Boulders Bay to see some penguins. We were too cheap to go into the actual viewing area, and we walked along the beach instead. This proved to be a great decision, because we walked smack-bang into a little penguin sunning itself on a rock. We snapped some shots and then went and walked along the boardwalk. We saw loads of penguins (both near and far), but our beach sighting was still the best of the day. We went to have a photo with Just Nuisance (a statute of a dog who served lovingly in the navy in Simon’s Town).

Just Nuisance

Once we got back to the flat, Lyndall suggested that we go to the Rhodes Memorial. It was a lovely walk - to stretch the legs after a day with quite a bit of driving - and a spectacular view! We watched as the last few rays spread thinly over the city, and then we began our descent. On our way back to the car, we saw a rabbit, some squirrels and an owl. What a fruitful day!

Rhodes Memorial

View from Rhodes Memorial

Happy sisters