Cape Town

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 3^rd 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 5^th 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

Cinque Terre

On our second day in Cinque Terre we decided to explore the other villages. The first village we went to was Riomaggiore, which is first in the line of villages. We wandered up the main street of the village, looking at all the cute shops and resturants along the way. The towns are not very big, so we had seen the main part of the town within about 20 minutes. As it was approaching lunch time we went in search of some food. We came across this seafood shop that sells seafood in a cone. I decided to be adventurous and ordered the mixed seafood cone! When I got it, I began to question what I had done. There were small, whole fish staring blankly up at me, whole baby squid, chunks of who knows what. You need to understand that I am an incredibly fussy eater, so this was a huge moment for me. 

With a brave heart I tucked into the meal. I tried almost everything in the cone. Some things were actually very yummy, but other things not so much. The tiny whole fish were not so good. They were very hard to eat, with their eyes still staring at you, and were incredibly salty and fishy. There was one other whole fish in there, that Harrison tried but it still had the bones in it so I couldn't handle that. But most of the other seafood in the cone was actually pretty good. I'm not entirely sure what I ate, but I am glad that I tried it! 

After braving lunch, we made our way done to the beach. As I mentioned in the previous posts, the beaches aren't really beaches more rocks, and this one was much the same. However, this one was more of a bay that you could swim in, with little boats parked all around. 

We had bought some fruit from the local grocer and sat on the rocks to eat our fruit and take in the beauty of the town. I chose a nectarine, and it was the best nectarine I have ever eaten in my entire life! It was so juicy and full of flavour! It was absolutely incredible, I am so in love with the fruit here!! We finished our fruit and headed into the water. We had rented goggles from our hostel so we hoped to do a bit of snorkelling. The water was much colder than the day before, but we made it in and ventured further out into the bay. The water was also not as clear as the beach in our village, but it was still very beautiful. We swam around for a while, looking at the little fish swimming about. 

The next town we planned to visit was Manarola. We hopped on a train heading in the direction we needed, and watched as a few minutes later it went straight past Manarola. And past the our villiage, and the one after ours. It eventually stopped at the last and biggest villiage of the 5 called Monterosso. We quickly jumped off before we went any further away from where we wanted to be. Montorosso is where all the big resorts and hotels are, as it is the largest of the villages. It is also the only villiage with a proper beach. 

Although the beach is half sand and half pebbles. It was incredibly busy when we got there, we took one look at all the people and decided we had seen enough. We did wander down to the beach, but there were just so many people you could barely move. So we went back to the train station in a second attempt to get to Manarola. We looked up which train we needed to be on and waited for it to arrive. When it did we got on, and once again watched all of the villages pass us by. This time we ended up in a place called La Spezia, which is the town before Cinque Terre. We had gotten on the right train, it had just been an express to La Spezia and didn't stop at all the stops like it normally does. So once again we waited and boarded a third train. And finally made it to Manarola! 

I think that Manarola and Corniglia are my favourites of the five villages. Manarola is really beautiful, with the picturesque coloured houses overlooking the water. We walked up a bit of a hill to a look out point and got the see the whole, beautiful villiage. It sits right on the water, and the coloured houses compliment the crystal blue of the ocean. It was truly beautiful. 

After taking some photos we wandered back down to the area where you could swim. The water was very deep here, but still crystal blue. There weren't as many little fish and things to see with the goggles though. 

We swam for a bit, and then sat on the rocks and watched the water and the people swimming around, and jumping off rocks. 

By the time we made it home, we were both pretty knackered. It had turned out to be a really long day. After a bit of a rest we walked into the town to look for dinner, and some gelato. 

The next day we visited the next villiage along, Vernazza. Luckily we didn't have any issues getting there. Much the same as the previous day, we wandered around the villiage for a bit and then found somewhere to eat lunch. I ordered ravioli and Harrison ordered cannelloni, and we also ordered a 1/2 litre jug of wine. Firstly, the wine came out in a 300mL bottle. We were a bit confused but didn't say anything, thinking they must have run out of the 1/2 litre or something and would charge us less. Secondly, our food came out and Harrison took a bite of his cannelloni, only to find out the centre was stone cold. He took the meal to the front to complain and was met with attitude. They brought the meal back, the same meal, scraped onto a different plate and put in the microwave. We went to pay and found out that they intended to charge us for the 1/2 litre of wine, even though we never received it, and full price for Harrison's meal, even though it came out ice cold! Harrison stood his ground, and refused to pay full price. They were incredibly rude to Harrison, and then only ended up taking €2 off the price. We weren't happy! 

We walked down to the beach area and were a little disappointed. It wasn't nearly as nice as all of the others, with murky water and dark brown mud/sand. We decided against swimming there, and made our way to Monterosso to meet our friend, Bec. There were just as many people at Monterosso as the previous day, but by some miracle we managed to find our friend in the crowd. We were looking around for somewhere to sit, when we were told by a life guard that it was a private beach, and we had to leave or rent a chair. We went looking for a chair, and Bec and her friend got the last two. And had to pay €25 for 2 chairs and an umbrella. I think it's a bit ridiculous that you have to pay to sit on the beach. We went swimming for a little while, and then made our way back to our hostel. 

For dinner that night we found a cute little resturant overlooking the water. 

After having such a bad experience with lunch, we were looking forward to some good food. And we certainly weren't disappointed! The waiters were super friendly, and the food was absolutely amazing! I ordered carbonara, and they serve it to you with scrambled eggs in the pasta. It was really different, but tasted good! Harrison got the pesto pizza and it was amazing! Even better than the first days pizza. To end the night we walked to the lookout, to catch the end of the sunset. We sat on the wall of the lookout and chatted to an American guy we met at our hostel, until it got dark. 

We were woken today by the clap of thunder, and the loud downpour of rain. A storm had settled over Cinque Terre. We spent the morning in the hostel, until we had to leave for them to clean. Luckily it had stopped raining by this point, and there was only a faint grumble of thunder every now and then. We found a dry spot to sit and nestled down to read our books. Our friend Bec met us at our village for lunch, and by then it was pouring again. Poor Bec had walked from Monterosso and was totally drenched! We took shelter in the same little resturant we had eaten at the night before. The weather had turned fierce, the rain was really coming down and the wind was howling. We were really grateful to be under shelter. We ate lunch and waited until the rain had eased a bit. We stayed in the safety of the hostel until it was done. Once the rain stopped, it turned out to be quite a nice day. However this was only at about 4:30. We decided to go over to Manarola, since Bec hadn't seen it yet, and get some gelato. The gelato was amazing, as per usual! 

We spent the evening watching the sunset over the beautiful Italian coastline. 

Tomorrow we are leaving our little patch of paradise, and moving to Nice.