Jo'Blog: Cape Town

After a full day of driving, including two stops by the police (just regular license checks) and a realization that we would indeed make it to all nine provinces (since the highway briefly went through the Northern Cape), we made it to Cape Town Thursday night.

On Friday we decided to go to Boulder's Beach to see some penguins and to Cape Point to see... Cape Point. On our way to Boulder's Beach I noticed some brightly coloured change rooms that I had seen on the front of the guide book. I kind of wondered where they were but figured it would be too out of the way and so I forgot about them. Luckily they were right on our drive so we got out to take some pictures.

We parked at the far parking lot at Boulder's Beach so we had a bit of a walk to the actual penguin viewing area, but that just meant we got excited by every penguin we saw in the bushes before we got to the actual penguin beach. There were so many of them! We took tons of pictures and videos. Who can resist that waddle? On our way back to the car we went down to the actual beach and were lucky enough to have five penguins swim over to join us. We took even more pictures close up and then headed on to Cape Point.

Cape Point is actually a huge nature reserve and the point is about 10 km in from the gate. Once we'd driven to the actual point we climbed up the steps to the lighthouse and many view points. We also stopped by the Cape of Good Hope view point on the way out. It was sooo windy! We were going to be blown away so we got back in the car and went for a seafood lunch at the Black Marlin. That night we cooked our own dinner since we were staying in awesome suites with a kitchen.

On Saturday we headed to Table Mountain for some abseiling. When we woke up we were a little nervous that it was a clear day because that meant we were actually going to do it. I was extremely terrified the entire time, but it does give you the view and the rush of a lifetime. Probably not the best spot for your first abseil though as it's one of the longest commercial abseils in the world at 112m. Despite our fears, we made it down safely and climbed back up to the top of Table Mountain before taking the cable car down.

That afternoon we went to the Old Biscuit Mill market for lunch and some shopping. We had some delicious food including poffertjes, prosciutto sandwich, milk tart, craft beer, plus got some bread, cheese, and biltong (South African beef jerky.. but better) for later. That night we celebrated our abseiling accomplishment by heading down to the infamous Long Street. We went to a couple bars but ended up staying at the Space Bar since they had the best music.

On Sunday we went to Robben Island on a tour to see the prison where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were held. Since they need to ferry you to and from the island, the tours end up being very large which is kind of unfortunate as you can't take as much time as you would like to there. We had some very good guides though, especially the ex-convict Derek who told us about his experience there.

We finished up our time in Cape Town with a little souvenir shopping and another dinner at the suite since many restaurants were closed Sunday night.