Back in the big city

25/07/10

Excuse the tardiness, I’ve had flu. From the wonderful wine lands we drove to Cape Town. There we stayed in an apartment we booked back in the days when we thought our budget would last a lot longer. A bright and airy studio apartment about 200m from the football stadium at Green Point. Can't imagine what they charged for this during the world cup.

We went back to Cape Town to do all the things we'd missed out on doing when we arrived late in April thanks to the volcanic ash cloud; diving with seals, Robin Island, climbing Table Mountain, and driving to the Cape of Good Hope. As for achieving all this... we realized a long time ago that we weren't going to be diving with seals in water that cold, the Antarctic/Atlantic currents sweep up the coast making it freezing all year round. We came close to going to Robin Island, and are both aware that is sacrilegious when visiting Cape Town, as the informative tour tells you loads of really important stuff about the history of the country, but on bright sunny days history is never going to win over trips to the beach. Climbing Table Mountain seemed like too much effort for Nick who is recovering from a headcold, and me who was just getting one. Instead we had a long lazy picnic on the slopes of the mountain at the Kirstenbosh botanical Gardens. The one thing we did manage to achieve was going to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Clear blue skies and flat ocean made it a great day out. After doing the tourist parts, overrun by South African school groups and a UK rugby school tour, we found quieter areas and got to see whales playing in the surf just off the beach.