The last time I wrote Harrison and I were about to go on a
horse ride in Saldanha Bay, through the nature reserve and along the beach.
Again, I have been really bad with writing and that was about a month ago. But
I will start from there and let you know what we have been up to! We set out in
the morning to the equestrian centre at the Saldanha Bay military base. The
lady who was to take us out on our ride was named Zelda (much to Harrison’s amusement)
and she was a lovely lady. We were shown our horses, mine was named Joy and I
don’t remember what Harrison’s horses name was. As I am quite a short person, I
needed a boost up onto my horse; which proved to be horrifically embarrassing for
me and hilarious for everyone else, as I had real issues getting onto the back
of this horse. But once I finally managed to get a top of the horse and
Harrison had easily mounted his, we set off. First off we rode out to the
nature reserve that is on the military base. It was very beautiful, riding
through the wilderness. We saw loads of different birds, a snake, loads of
caterpillars and even a small buck. It was beautiful to ride amongst the mountains
and grasses, and feel the sunshine warm our faces. We rode about half an hour
into the park before turning back. Once exiting the reserve we made our way
onto an idyllic beach. The waters were crystal clear, and bright blue and the
sand was a beautiful white.
We were the only ones on the beach, and it was
incredibly peaceful. We rode our horses through the water, waves splashing up
their legs. My horse loved the water, but Harrison’s was a bit scared. We saw a
seal playing in the shallows, and many more birds flying around and landing on
the water. We rode along the beach, and then up along a pathway that followed
the beach for some time. Eventually we made our way back to the stables. In
total it was a two hour ride, and it was absolutely beautiful. I loved every
second of it, and wished we could have gone for longer (although my butt was
grateful to get off the horse). After the ride we had a light lunch at a small café,
and then headed back to our holiday home for the rest of the afternoon. The
next day we left Saldanha Bay and headed back to Geoff and Wendy’s house. We
were there for two more days. On the 3rd Wendy took Harrison and I
to Kalk Bay, which is a little harbour close to their house. We were lucky
enough to see three seals out of the water and playing on the docks!
One was
the biggest seal I had ever seen, and he had gotten into the place where the
fishermen gut their fish. He had found a disregarded fish and was going to town
on the thing. I never knew that seals were so violent when they ate! He would
get the fish in his mouth and whip his head viciously from side to side, until
a chunk of fish flew off. It was very fascinating to watch.
On the other side
of the docks we saw more seals playing and swimming around in the water. It was
really cool! After Kalk Bay we had a quick stop at Muizenburg Beach to look
around and take some photos, and then we headed home.
On the 5th it was time for us to leave Geoff and
Wendy to stay with my uncle and aunty, Robin and Jenni. They live closer to the
centre of Cape Town, in a suburb called Woodstock. On our first day with them,
Harrison and I wandered around the city centre. We walked down a street called
Long St, which is apparently the most popular street in Cape Town. It is filled
with little cafes and bars, and quirky shops and vendors. We meandered in and
out of shops, and stopped for lunch at a Cuban restaurant, which was really
good. We also visited the Company’s Gardens, which is a beautiful large garden
in the middle of Cape Town. There are lots of fountains and it is a lovely
place to go and relax in the sun.
We stopped in at the café in the gardens and
had a milkshake and a slice of delicious cheesecake. That night Jenni took us
for a walk along the promenade which is a walkway along the water. It was very
beautiful, and so full of life.
For dinner that night we went to an Indian restaurant
which was really yum! The next day, we booked tickets on the Red Bus. This is
the same bus that we took through Johannesburg that shows you all the major
sights. The first stop that we got off at was Table Mountain! We arrived at the
foot of the mountain, and were greeted with such a long queue! Luckily we had
already purchased tickets online, so our line moved a bit quicker. However we
still waited in line for about an hour before we got into the cable car. I
wouldn’t want to think about how long we would have had to wait if we hadn’t
pre booked tickets! The cable car ride up Table Mountain is really cool. You
get into this huge cable car, and the floor rotates so you get the opportunity
to see every angle whilst going up. It was great for photos, but it made me
feel a bit motion sick! Once you get to the top of the mountain, you wonder
where all the people from the line have gone! Everyone is so spread out, that
you really don’t feel like there are that many people up there. We were very
lucky, and had a brilliant day for going up the mountain. There was hardly any
wind, so it was actually pretty warm up the top, and the skies were a beautiful
blue and clear enough for us to see for miles.
We had packed a small picnic breakfast, so we found a spot and ate our breakfast with the most incredible view. We spent quite a while up the mountain just wandering around and taking in the beauty of our surroundings.
When we came down from the mountain the queue was even longer!
The next stop we got off at was Camps Bay. Camps Bay is a
beautiful beach, with lots of trendy restaurants and shops. It was about lunch
time so we picked a nice looking seafood restaurant and had lunch looking over
the beach. I had prawns and calamari, and Harrison had fish and chips. It was
really delicious!
After lunch we wandered down the beach for a bit, then hopped back onto the bus.
The drive out of Camps Bay was absolutely stunning! We got a beautiful view of the Camps Bay beach and all the others beaches around it.
We passed through the most expensive place in Cape Town, and the houses were amazing. We stopped next at the V&A Waterfront. Our bus ticket entitled us to a 30 minute harbour cruise, which we decided to hop on while we were there. The cruise was quite nice, it just stayed in the harbour and we learnt some more about the history of Cape Town. We also saw more seals! Whilst on the cruise Harrison realised that he had left his jacket at the restaurant we had lunch in! He was so upset. It had been two hours since we had eaten lunch, so we doubted the jacket would still be there. However we decided to give it a go anyway, and rushed back to Camps Bay. We spoke to one of the waiters with little hope in our hearts, and to our amazement he said to wait there; and he went into the back of the restaurant and came out carrying Harrison’s jacket! He was ecstatic to have it back. That night for dinner we got some pizzas takeaway, and went and sat on Clifton Beach with Jenni. We ate pizza and watched the sunset over the water. It was such a beautiful night.
Once finished with dinner we drove to the airport to pick up my uncle who had been in Joburg for work.
We had purchased a two day bus ticket, so the next day we
were back on the bus. As we hadn’t really had the opportunity to see the waterfront
the previous day, we stopped there first. I love the V&A waterfront. It has
such a vibrant, buzzing vibe. There are so many people wandering around and so
many different types of shops and restaurants. It was really awesome.
We wandered around the waterfront for a while, and then had some lunch at
the food court in the mall that is there. Once we had finished exploring, we
got back on the bus and made for Long St. We hopped off and went to a place
called Greenmarket Square. It is where people used to sell food in the old
days, but is now used as a place where people can sell their art and other gimmicky
tourist things. There were so many stalls set up! You had to squeeze through
the tiny makeshift alleyways to get to each stall. It was pretty cool, and the
stuff that they sell there is awesome. Once we had looked around, we got on a
different bus route. This one took us around downtown Cape Town. We didn’t get
off at any of the stops, but listened into the headsets about the history of
the downtown area, which was very interesting. After the tour we made our way
back to the Gardens and sat in the sun until Jenni was finished work. For
dinner we went to a place called the Royale Eatery, which is well known for
their burgers. We all ordered burgers, and they were pretty delicious! Harrison
also ordered a peanut butter and Jack Daniels milkshake, which was surprisingly
yum!
We had to get to Jenni’s work the
next day by ourselves from home, so we decided to take an Uber. We have had
really good experiences with Uber, so we didn’t think it would be an issue. I
entered the address that I had been given, and off we went. We started to get
further and further out of town and away from the mountain, which wasn’t right.
I checked the address on google maps, and it showed we were going in the wrong
direction! It turns out there is the exact same address, in a place called
Bellville which is about 40 minutes out of Cape Town! It was so lucky that I
noticed before we got all the way there! The Uber driver turned us around, and
we made it to Jenni’s work safely. We made our way to the waterfront. Jenni had given us tickets to go on the Cape Wheel, which is a Ferris wheel at the waterfront. It was really cool!
We got to see some beautiful views of Cape Town. After the ride we went
to the Two Oceans Aquarium. We had been told that it was very good, so we were
excited! We spent a really long time wandering around the aquarium. It was
pretty great!
They had lots of different types of fish, and even a few sharks.
They also had penguins which I liked.
It was quite small, but there was a lot
to see. As well as the harbour cruise, we also got a sunset bus ride included
in our bus tickets. We had to use it within three days of purchasing it, and that
was our last night to use it so we thought we may as well. The bus took us up
Signal Hill, which as its name suggests is a large hill, located next to Table
Mountain. The bus drove up to the top, just as the sun was starting to set. We
found a spot on the hill and watched the incredible sunset over the Pacific
Ocean.
It was truly amazing, and stunningly beautiful. Once the sun had sunk
away we rode the bus back to the Waterfront where we met Robin and Jenni for
dinner.
We went to a pub first and Harrison and Robin had a beer taste testing
platter. We moved onto a Belgium restaurant where they had another beer tasting
platter. After all the beer had been tasted, we set off to find a place to eat
dinner. We picked Ocean Basket which is a seafood restaurant. I had some sushi
and prawns. Both were so delicious! The next day was a Friday, and both Robin
and Jenni took the day off to take us into the wine regions of Cape Town. We
stopped first at a place called Spier Wine Estate. There was bird of prey
section of the estate, which we went into. At the bird sanctuary you could hold
an eagle! We looked at all the birds that they had first and patted a few
adorable owls,
and then both Harrison and I decided we wanted to hold an eagle.
Harrison went first, and he held a massive black Verreaux's eagle that weighed 5kg!
She was huge!
He had to wear a glove to protect his arm from being crushed and scratched to
pieces. It was really amazing. I held a much smaller eagle called a Wahlberg’s
eagle. Her name was Wally and she was very cute. She just wanted to nip at my
hands and chin. The cheeky thing even bit my lip!
She only weighed 1kg, and I
didn’t have to wear a glove to protect my arms. It was an incredible
experience, and I am so happy we got the opportunity to do it! We left the
estate after that, and made our way into Stellenbosch and surroundings. We looked around and
stopped at some viewpoints. It is such an incredibly beautiful part of the
world!
We had lunch at a restaurant that used to be a train station. It was
really cool, and the food was yum! Robin and Harrison also tried more beer!
We got up a bit earlier that
morning and Robin and Jenni took us to a market in an old biscuit mill. It was
awesome! There was a food section and a market section with shops and craft
stores etc. We wandered around for a while, and got some food from the food
market for breakfast. It was really great. Very busy though! But I think that
just made the vibe even better. There was so much positive energy in there! I
loved it! Robin and Jenni had never been to Robben Island, which is an island
that has a prison on it, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years. So
they decided they would accompany us to the island that day! We were due to
leave at 3pm, so we made our way to the waterfront early so we could line up
and all that. However when we went to cross the harbour to get to where the
ferry leaves from, there was a boat show going on and they had raised the only
bridge across! The time came ticking closer, and there was no sign of the
bridge being put down again. Listening to other people around us, it seemed we were
not the only ones facing this issue! There were so many people with us who
needed to get across the bridge, and everyone was getting very frustrated. We
called the museum entrance where the ferry leaves from and told them the issue.
Luckily they understood and said they would wait until the bridge was back in
use before leaving. As soon as that bridge came down, a whole mass of people
surged forward, trying to get to the ferry station. The ferry people made good
on their word, and the ferry was still there waiting for us.
The ride across to
Robben Island only took about 20 minutes, but the swells were quite high that
day. Luckily neither Harrison nor I are scared of boats, because we really got
tossed around! We arrived at Robben Island and were separated into groups, and
given a tour guide. I thought the tour of the island was very interesting, but
unfortunately it was very unorganised. It seemed they didn’t have enough guides
for groups, and as we were the leftover group we didn’t get a proper guide,
just a guy that worked on the island. This wasn’t too much of an issue, as he
had actually been imprisoned on the island so it was really interesting to hear
his point of view. Just, as he was not a tour guide, it seemed he didn’t really
know how to connect or communicate with people and went off topic a lot. But
nonetheless everything he told us was interesting. We got to see the cell where
Nelson Mandela lived in,
and the common areas and other areas of the prison.
Once the tour of the actual prison itself was done, we hopped on a bus that
would take us around the rest of the island. We waited about 15 minutes on the
bus before anyone showed up to take us! The guide we had on the bus was excellent
though. He was very entertaining and knew a lot about the island. He actually
lived on the island himself. We saw the old quarry and the village on the
island.
I enjoyed learning more about the prison and what life was and is still
like on the island. The boat ride back to the main land was fortunately not as
bad as the trip coming to the island. A girl on the boat did end up puking
though which was a bit yuck. We had dinner at a restaurant at the waterfront called
Willoughby & Co. It’s a Japanese restaurant and was amazing! I had probably
some of the best sushi of my life.
We went on a walking tour of the
Cape Town city centre the next day. It was really fascinating! Our guide was
absolutely brilliant, and I learnt a lot about Cape Town and South Africa. On
the tour we passed some little girls wearing their traditional dress, and
dancing. It was so cute!
After the tour we went to the supermarket and got them
some juice and snacks and took it back to them. They were really happy, and it
was too adorable. We had lunch at a café with Robin and Jenni, and I think I
had the best wrap ever! It was chicken, tomato and hummus. It was absolutely
delicious! After lunch we all drove to Hout Bay. It was such a beautiful day,
and the water was bright blue and crystal clear.
We saw a man on the docks who
had trained a wild seal to jump up and sit next to him, and let people pat her.
It was pretty cool that he trained her, but I didn’t really agree with it.
We
wandered around for a bit and looked at some shops, then headed home. Robin had
to fly back to Joburg that night, and we were leaving really early the next morning
so we had a relaxed night at home. Robin and Jenni have the cutest, and fattest
cat ever, named Frodo. He is so lovable and adorable! We didn’t want to leave
him! We had to leave around 7:00 the next morning to get to the airport. We
arrived back in Joburg during the early afternoon. Harrison went to see the
physio as his back is troubling him again. We had all of a day to relax, before
we were off again. This time to Zanzibar!
I will write a separate post for
Zanzibar, and our current adventures as it would be too long if I added them to
this post! x
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