Table Mountain
Cape Town Hello
Made it to Cape Town despite Dulles Airport making me pack out all my liquids, cremes, ointments because of the London crisis. This guaranteed that my day pack would be lost somewhere in baggage hell. Now I have no mosquito gel or sprays, shampoo, calamine or any of the other good stuff I packed .
Weather is supposed to be cool and rainy as a cold front just came in. This is great for me but others are grumbling.
Watched six movies going over and now ensconced in Cape Town's prison behind bars aka Ashanti Hostel. It’s all for our safety but still feels like being locked up. There's a nice kitchen so tomorrow I’ll grocery shop so I am not stuck with hamburger or pizza every night for dinner as that is what the bar/cafe here offers.
An oriental girl who's been staying here a month went out for dinner last night and got mugged. Her advice is to not look like a tourist. Most of the kids here seem to be Germans and Australians and appear to be post-college age. There’s a few folks with gray hair also.
I got about five hours of sleep on the plane and have the top bunk in the six bed dorm so it will be an interesting night.
Day 2
Slept until 10 am and then went out to get $12 worth of groceries to last me for the next few days. Went hiking up to Lion Head Mountain which was easy until the last half hour which required holding onto the rocks to climb up. There was also an area with chains to hold onto and a couple of ladders to climb.
Very nice view made the climb worthwhile as it was a 360 degree panoramic. Rocks similar to Sedona but not as red. The mountain is set next to the ocean which makes it very pretty. Weather was warmish for climbing. Spent the afternoon and had a very pleasant day. I understand that a lot of folks climb this mountain for sunset viewings. There were folks bringing picnic lunches, babies and small dogs.
Had to take a taxi there and back (cell phone came in handy to call a cab) and had a sandwich and some swiss chard for dinner. Of course, my lost luggage has not shown up. What I really miss is my $5 day pack.
Table Mountain
A view of Cape Town
Looking upwards towards Lion's Head
Day 3
Up early to catch the Baz Bus tour to the Cape Peninsula. Saw lots of seals, jackass penguins, and even whales mating. In between that we swung around the Cape of Good Hope and did the 15 minute aerobic hike to the lighthouse. Nice and tiring.
Seals of Duiker Island
African Penguins
View from Cape Point
Lost luggage arrived 10:30 pm last night. Tonight I'm wearing earplugs. The walls in this old historic Victorian mansion are thin and everything echoes in the big halls...also room is right by the reception and front door so we get to hear all night coming and goings.
Lady from Sweden in room (just for last night) was researching the effects of protected areas on communities -- i.e. a nature reserve is expanding which therefore results in displacing native farmers. She had to get up at 6:15 this morning to catch a flight, so I figured since the dorm was already disturbed, I might as well get up too.
Everyone is raving about the great white shark cage tour.
Day 4
Slept well. No dorm mates last night and the earplugs worked wonders. It was a rainy morning so I slept until 11 am. Met Adele, my Cape Town travel agent, for lunch. One of the "tapas" was made with ostrich. Couldn't tell what it was as it was made like a sushi roll.
Adele dropped me off at the Waterfront where I took in the aquarium for the afternoon. Wonderful attraction for $10 -- on par with the aquarium in Seward, Alaska. All sorts of exotics and some lovely large displays.
Shark tank
Took a taxi back to the hostel and planning on hiring a car tomorrow to visit Hermanus. The bus tour yesterday convinced me that I'd rather be on my own. I felt rushed the entire time yesterday though I probably wouldn't have visited as many places nor seen the whales mating (it was one of the passengers that spotted the whales.) It’s a tradeoff -- but I still think it’s more enjoyable to have the independence. Found a young fella from the Nederlands who will share the car with me tomorrow. Guess that's all the news for today. Just checked -- full dorm room tonight -- so it goes. No worries.
Day 5 - Great Day.
Finally, some freedom. Hired a car for the day and shared it with one of the hostel inmates, Martin from Holland, who wanted to go see the whales in Hermanus.
Martin watching the invisible whales.
Drove over in the morning, did some whale watching and some invisible whale watching and then drove over to the vineyards and tasted some wine (I tasted, Martin imbibed). I was obviously the designated driver because 1) I wasn't drinking and 2) I've had experience driving on the left side of the road.
Explored the coastline and found wondrous things -- including a non touristy spot with an African penguin colony.
Stoney Point, Betty Bay Nature Reserve (photo by Martin)
African Penguin chicks being fed
Got back to the hostel with the help of the cell phone as the directions for finding the hostel were not clear and then went out for dinner.
Yes, after dark, but with male companionship. Lots of people walking around. Security guards on every block. Something tells me that this business about not going out at night is so that the hostel can't be blamed if someone gets into trouble.
Tried the King Klip fish (whatever that is) some sort of white fish grilled which was very good. Now to go up to the cafe for a farewell drink as Martin leaves for Jo'Burg tomorrow and he's having drinks with the 3 Japanese student girls he befriended the other day. Martin studied Japanese in Japan for two years on business. He loves Cape Town.
Oh yes, saw bunches of dassies <rock hyraxes> today. They are the size of small rabbits. Not small enough to take home in one's pocket.
Day 6 - No Tourism, but what the hey.
Had a good night's sleep (with earplugs) and checked out the local area. Found the real grocery store so got some real food for dinner. My portable hard drive was giving me disk errors so took it down to the local internet cafe and copied the files off onto DVD and tried to reformat it. Of course, it didn't work so its useless now. It figures, I bought it in 2002 so it was time for it to die. I’ll ship it back to Miami in case I repair it. So ended up buying a couple more SD memory cards and I'll have to be selective on what images to keep or copy them onto DVDs when I get a chance. Thinking of climbing table mountain but by the time I got through with the computer crisis it was 3 pm. Went down to the African open market and bought a couple of items. Didn't have enough money on me so the woman walked back to the hostel with me so I could pay her. Her name means "Big Man" which was her mother's name. “Big” meaning “Respected”. She's been here 11 years and originally from the Congo where things were bad. She has 3 children -- 10, 7 and 2-1/2. It was a half hour walk back so I gave her some change for a cool drink. That's today's excitement. Tomorrow I hop on the bus to Oudtshoorn-- about a 6 hr ride. Marisa