Our South African Honeymoon Adventure Part 2: Cape Town & Surroundings

Day 5: March 13, 2012 (Tuesday) Continued

So for the next leg of our journey ... Richard (our guide) drove us to the airstrip on the game reserve, about 20 minutes away from the Lodge. As we drove alongside the runway, we observed 3 zebras trotting along. At the end, there was no building; simply a very small aircraft called a Cessna which had enough space for the pilot, co-pilot, the two of us and our bags!! Pretty thrilling; can I now say I've flown on a private jet?! I'm going to say yes...

"In the unlikely event of an emergency, you are absolutely f___ed"

We flew to Nelspruit/Kruger airport. Amazing views from the plane as it flies at a much lower altitude but I did feel slightly queasy even though I took anti-travel sickness pills. The airport was much bigger than the shack at Hoedspruit and had a slight feel like the Koh Samui airport - tropical. Whilst sitting down we were approached by some people - Paul and Jill, the English couple who had left the safari the day before us! They had gone off to do the panoramic tour before continuing their journey from Hoedspruit [Note to self: Panoramic tour sounds interesting, must look up the various landmarks]. The flight itself was uneventful and took about 2.5 hours, most of which I spent dozing/getting neck cramps.

View of the Bush from the Cessna

We were met at Cape Town International Airport by Mark, who will be our guide for the guided Cape Point and Winelands tours. My first impression of Cape Town is that there is a bit of affluence - there seemed to be plenty of BMWs and Lexus in the airport carpark (or parkade, as they call it here). On the way to the Westin, we drove past Table Mountain as the 'Tablecloth' of clouds was settling in; we also drove past the hospital where the world's first heart transplant operation was done in the 1960s (the patient died 9 days later - his body rejected the heart, which had been donated by the parents of a girl killed in a car crash).

The Westin itself is lovely and centrally located. My favourite part is the staff, I think they are very helpful, particularly the concierge who helped us book various activities (shark cage diving) and also restaurants. We were assisted by Christian, from Romania originally. The Consultant was also impressed and tipped him with the Rand that his mum gave us (her leftovers from a previous trip to South Africa) - which turned out to be counterfeit notes. Eeek!

Oh and of course I love the bed here. The Consultant and I may have to purchase one of these 'heavenly' mattresses from Starwood one day!

For dinner we went to Marco's African Restaurant;

• Starter: Mixed carpaccio of crocodile, ostrich and springbok. The crocodile tasted quite fishy but with a firm, meaty flesh. The ostrich and springbok tasted quite similar (both delicious also).
• Main: Serengeti Platter consisting of grilled crocodile tail, grilled warthog and Senegal chicken (like a chicken in peanutty coconut curry). My favourite was the warthog, which had a gamey beef + pork taste. Kind of difficult to describe but definitely more similar to beef than pork. The crocodile tail tasted great but I stopped eating it because halfway through I started to encounter bones and couldn't pick them out beforehand due to the dim light. The Senegal chicken was OK but not particularly spectacular.

Marco's African Restaurant

The restaurant was quite busy and in the background there was a live band beating on the drums, playing the xylophone (probably the African equivalent, rather) and 3 women singing and swaying their hips. I'm not sure if many of the clientele were African but certainly a few were.

Day 6: March 14, 2012 (Wednesday)

Not much chance of a lie-in yet. Yesterday we asked Christian (the concierge) to book the shark cage diving experience for us. Normally the pickups from the hotel occur at 4am!! Luckily we managed to book a later tour starting at 8.15am. So still an early start but not as killer as our 5am starts at the game lodge.

Hopped onto a mini-van that was super cramped and packed full of pople - an English couple (wife a travel agent for Virgin; husband a credit controller at Gatwick airport) sat next to us and we ere chatting away during the journey; an Argentinian couple who spoke NO English, astonishingly; an Australian couple; and 5 smelly Czech men. They really smelled as if they hadn't showered after a heavy night of boozing - this was NOT a pleasant mini-van experience!

Drove 2 hours east of Cape Town to Gaansbaai, where we unloaded ourselves from the stinky confines of the mini-van and separated to our respective tour operators. Ours was called the Shark Lady. We had a light breakfast and got briefed by Lance, the dive master. Aside from us, there were a group of young Americans, Brazilians, the same Argentinian non-English-speaking couple, a pair of Australians and a trio of Swedes. Got onto the boat and immediately felt ill despite having remembered to take the travel sickness pills (for once!). We'd been divided into 5 groups of 4 people per group. The boat was driven off shore for about 20 minutes, then the crew started 'chumming' - throwing this nasty fishguts mix into the sea to attract the sharks. 

Looks safe, doesn't it?

Finally a great white shark came into view after maybe 10 minutes! These sharks look so much bigger than any I've ever seen in an aquarium.

I was surprised at the fact their fins usually stayed below the surface. Steven Spielberg and Jaws deceived me!

Fact: The waters off the coast of South Africa contain the greatest concentration of great white sharks in the world. Anyway, we still don't know about the breeding habits of the great white shark. They have never been witnessed in the wild as a pair or a group.

You do NOT want to mess with these badasses.

Group 1 were lowered into the cage and we watched as 2-3 great white sharks circled around them. The crew in charge of chumming would use fish heads (large ones, like the size of my own head) tied to a long rope as a kind of bait to entice the sharks. Group 2 were lowered into the cage after Group 1 got out (they got to stay in the water for about 15 minutes). Group 2 didn't have the same luck - after the first 2 minutes when a shark swam past, then it seemed there were none on the horizon. So the crew decided to move location.

OK. More boat movement = more me feeling sick. we arrived at the second location where a efw shark diving boats were just leaving, and the water was a beautiful turquoise colour. However, this meant that the visibility was much poorer than at the first site. But wow! All of a sudden after a few minutes of chumming, we could see the sharks coming!

Good to go

I ended up not going in the cage with Group 4 after all - too sick and nauseated, plus it didn't seem like one could see very much whilst actually in the cage. So I stayed on the deck and watched while the Consultant went down. Whilst he was in the cage, that was when we saw the most number of great white sharks, probably about 6-7 different sharks ranging from 1.5-3.5 metres long!! When he came up, the Consultant confirmed that the viewing was far better on the boat, as well as the fact that the water was freezing despite wearing the wet suit. So he didn't end up going in the cage more than once and just sat with me at the front of the boat watching the sharks from above.

The allocated 3.5ish hours went by amazingly quickly even though I was feeling sick. Too much excitement about seeing the sharks! Lance said that we saw 10 different sharks overall. It was a super cool experience. We even got to see some teeth - generally the sharks only circled the bait instead of grabbing it, but when the Consultant was in the cage one shark came up out of nowhere, into the air and bit the fishheads .. right in front of the Consultant's face!

We made our way back to Cape Town. Mostly uneventful for me as I was generally asleep although we did have some entertaining moments with the Czech guys - they had a bathroom and vodka shot break, and tried to convince the driver to drive them all to Stellenbosch (with all of us still in the car...). Upon arriving back at the Westin, we had a quick turnaround to get ready for our dinner reservation at Sevruga on the V&A Waterfront.

The bright lights of the V&A Waterfront

Fact: The 'V&A' here for the Waterfront stands for Queen Victoria and her son Alfred, not her husband Albert.

Similar to the London Eye

The waterfront was full of tourists and locals, buzzing with noise from the pavement itself as well as the restaurants filled with people dining al fresco. We watched as a band marched along the streets of the waterfront and listened to a busker serenade us from nearby until he was odered to move on, by one of the several patrolmen. Sevruga was packed full of people, with a chic vibe. I skipped on having a starter as I ordered the seafood and crustacean platter for one - and it was huge!! There was grilled linefish, grilled prawns, 2 types of grilled calamari and rock lobster. All delicious (except for the calamari bodies, which I'm fussy about anyway) but alas even my stomach eventually had a limit.

Food heaven for species such as Cape Fur Seals, and me

Day 7: March 15, 2012 (Thursday)

Yet ANOTHER early start - Mark our tour guide was scheduled to pick us up at 7.45am. This sleepy kitty managed to get up on time though. 

He drove pst Bantry Bay, Clifton Beaches and Camps Bay (also past Millionaire's Mile) to our first destination of Hout Bay. Our goal: see Cape Fur Seals! We came aboard the Calypso boat with a Japanese tour group and -even worse- an extremely obnoxious Chinese tour group who sat on the outside deck with us. Every single stereotype about Chinese tour groups rang true for this group as they were so loud, stepped on our feet without apologising, sported tacky clashing clothes, snapped photos of each other constantly with huge professional cameras and carried umbrellas to prevent their skin getting darker!

Back to the seals. They were so cute! As we were leaving the marina, we saw a big one with a trio of smaller ones, just hanging out on one of the marina's rubber floatey things. The boat made its' way to Duiker Island where the seal colony was located - there were thousands located on the rocks there, and many were swimming in the sea. The ones in the water looked so happy! Sleek and playful, turning backflips in the water, playing with other seals. It was super funny to see a couple of them on the rocks, sliding into the ocean.

Happy flippers!

Fact: Their main enemies are man, sharks and killer whales. They are indigenous to South Africa, and breed primarily along the coast of South Africa and Namibia. They feed primarily on fish, octopus and shellfish. They shed their fur every year and can reach speeds of up to 17km/hr. The seal's life span is approximately 20-40 years, with the males (bulls) being heavier than the females (cows), weighing up to 300kg.

Oh! We also saw some dolphins swimming alongside the boat on the way to Duiker Island (they are called Heavisides Dolphins).

I did feel quite seasick - the water's swell was very big especially around Duiker's Island itself.

The boat journey probably totalled 45 minutes. Upon returning to the marina, we saw one of the seal pups pushing the other pup into the water - as if they were siblings bickering - and the dad seal waddled over on his flippers as if to tell them off. Seal drama!

On the land, we bought a few souvenirs - rhino carved bookends and a giraffe statue carved out of rock.

From Hout Bay we moved southwards towards Chapman's Peak, a viewpoint with magnificent views over the entire Hout Bay.

Some random great looking couple enjoying the great view of Hout Bay from Chapman's Peak.

Stopped for a few photos, then continued southwards: 

→ Noordhoek (North Corner)  

→ Misty Cliffs (very misty indeed)

→ Scarborough (their claim to fame is a rock that is shaped like a camel) 

→ Cape Point Ostrich Farm, where we learned that ostriches are monogamous birds and each pair have their own enclosure; also encountered baboons crossing the road

Ostrich.

Baboon.

Protea plant.

→ Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, full of protea plants (South Africa's national plant is the king protea)

→ Cape of Good Hope itself! The most south-western point in Africa, but not the most southern (about 150km away) and it is not true that the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet at this point. Oh! When we were driving away towards Cape Point, we even spotted some wild ostrich! They were grazing on the scrubs near the sea.

We made it!

Wild ostrich!!

→ Cape Point, where we walked to the top of the lighthouse and stared at the expanse of ocean in the direction towards Antarctica. London is apparently  9,623km from Cape Point.

Cape Point.

→ Lunch at Boulder's Beach Café. The food and the views were great, but service was awful. I think they forgot to take the Consultant's order or there was some kind of mix-up; I ordered oysters for starter which took 30 minutes to arrive, and the Consultant's pork belly starter arrived another 20 minutes after that. The mains arrived an hour and a half after we had sat down (I had prawn caesar salad - delicious, huge and very filling). At least our waiter was apologetic and not rude about it, but it seemed like generally the staff were not particularly diligent nor attentive.

→ After a seemingly endless lunch, we made our way onto Boulder's beach itself and finally saw the penguin colony. Also very cute!! One couldn't actually go onto the beach itself - we were standing on a built walkway above observing them.

Snapshot into the life of African penguins. Clearly, they stayed because the weather is better than in Antarctica!

Fact: African penguins are the smallest of all penguin species. Like other penguins, they are also monogamous.

From where we were standing, they looked like the perfect size for cuddling at nighttime. Their height averaged 2 ft, I think. We saw a couple of them swimming in the sea, but most were hanging out on the beach, waddling along, lying still or grooming. Managed to shoot a short video even with all the tourists around us.

→We had a short drive to Simon's Town, named after Simon van der Stel, the first governor of South Africa. The country's naval headquarters were located here and we could see some of the battleships across the marina. The British stationed their troops there during WWII and had a big great dane as the troops' pet - this dog would make sure all of the drunken navalmen were able to get home at night. So revered was this dog, named Just Nuisance, that he was made an 'Able Seaman' and given a proper naval burial when he died! We saw his statue in the square facing the naval headquarters. The architecture of Simon's Town itself reminded me of 'Wild West' meets 'genteel colonialists'.

Simon's Town

Arrived back at the Westin with enough time to shower, then head out to the V&A Waterfront again where we were due to meet the Consultant's schoolfriend (from Campbell College, N. Ireland) Jonnie, his

fiancée Amy and some of their friends. They had been dating for quite a few years when he finally proposed this past new year's eve - they had lived through an extremely scary moment like the movie "Open Water" where they had been left behind by the diving boat and thought they were going to die!! We met them at a restaurant called Quay Four, alongside Jonnie's colleague/friend Jesse, and his girlfriend Zoey. It was a great night full of laughter, great (I mean really really realllyyyyy tasty) BBQ ribs, an excess of grilled prawns and even more excess of alcohol. Jonnie immediately ordered a round of jaegerbombs and tequilas as soon as we sat down and it seemed as if they were automatically refilled once we had downed them!

An awesome night in Cape Town with friends

A few observations...

• South Africa has a much more relaxed attitude towards smoking than in the UK. We even had an ashtray in our room at Simbambili; mostly everyone who sits outside lights up.
• Few people wear high heels particularly when going for drinks. I mentioned this to Amy and Zoey and they told me CapeTonians are very laid back about dressing up. There didn't appear to be any strict dress code observed at any restaurant along the waterfront. I think I was the only one wearing stilettos!

The evening ended with Jonnie and Jesse having a shot of whisky at the bar, then Jonnie promptly vomiting into the marina. The whisky was a bad idea probably..!

Day 8: March 16, 2012 (Friday)

FINALLY a day to sleep in and relax. And what did these fools do? We both woke up around 7.30am!! I had a mild hangover and the Consultant just couldn't go back to sleep as per his usual style. So we ordered some room service for breakfast (I had the breakfast burrito - egg, turkey pastrami, salsa and guacamole; it was alright, but could have done with some seasoning) and just generally lazed about watching the movie channel. ("Battle for Los Angeles" - like a war movie battling aliens). Also squeezed in some more snoozing.

I need to go back for more loyalty card stamps.

By midday we decided to go exploring a bit more of the Cape Town area. Unfortunately the weather was looking glumly gray, so we couldn't go to the top of Table Mountain, nor would there have been much joy in going to the beach at Camp's Bay, so we took a stroll up Long Street. We passed the CBD (including the Ernst & Young's office, which was like two buildings away from the Westin) and walked for nearly 1km when we stopped for lunch at Kauai. We had been recommended to check out the smoothies - I had the Go-Goji Berry Smoothi which consisted of pomegranate, goji berry, apple and banana; very refreshing. In addition, the Consultant and I both ordered the ostrich burger, and it was awesome! It reminded me of MOS Burger in Asia - juicy and meaty with a non-plastic taste.

A bit more strolling down Long Street combined with getting harrassed by dudes wanting money, then we turned back to the hotel as it started raining and was quite chilly. Table Mountain was hardly visible! So we then decided to relax in the hotel's jacuzzi on the 19th (top) floor. Warm and bubbly. The pool was a small lap pool so I only went in for 1 lap then stayed in the jacuzzi the rest of the time, enjoying the warmth and the view over the city and waterfront.

5pm. Jonnie came to pick us up at the hotel with his pal Ross (and Ross' new baby - a shiny white VW). We picked up Amy, then headed to Newlands' stadium to watch my first ever rugby game, the DHL Stormers (from the Western Cape) vs. the Auckland Blues (from New Zealand). We had amazing seats, about 4 rows from the pitch and right at the centre halfway line. This is because some of the Stormer players were actually some of Jonnie's clients!

DHL Stormers vs. Auckland Blues

We munched on biltong (like South African beef jerky) and hot dogs, watched DHL's Dancing Girls doing their cheering and whipping off their skirts to reveal red panties, and cheered fo rthe Stormers as they battled their opponents on the pitch. Watching live is much better than watching on the screen! Rugby is certainly a lot more vicious in real life (I'm sure I heard some bodies crunching) and I'm just amazed that more guys don't break their necks while doing the scrum. The final score was 27-17; it seemed the Blues were making a comeback after having been dominated during the first half, but alas they could not defeat the mighty Stormers.

With Ari

So those present at the match included the same gang from Quay Four, plus Ross, two more guys called Matt and Tim, and also another Campbell alumni - Ari (aka Tucker?). After the match, we ended up going for drinks at Matt and Tim's super awesome apartment in Cape Town. 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, spacious kitchen and living room (with pool table), balcony, amazing views of both Table Mountain, the city and waterfront ... all this for 11,000Rand/month (including bills, 3 carpark spaces and security). I want a place like this! I get the feeling that Cape Town might be a place where it's cheap to rent but mucho expensive to buy... Anyway, the Consultant and I were mostly chatting with Ari as they hadn't seen each other in 3 years. He's an artist/furniture designer based in Cape Town.

Midnight was rapidly approaching, and we hadn't eaten a proper dinner, nor had we packed, so the Consultant said our goodbyes while the rest of them headed off for what would undoubtedly be a very fun party night! I would have loved to join if not for the early start looming over our heads ......