Friday morning and we were delighted to finally see the mountain without any cloud or wind – so quickly checked – and the cable car was open. Hurrah!

So we quickly booked some fast track cable car tickets on line and then booked an Uber to take us up there. There was a cruise ship in town so there were lots and lots of people around….luckily we had the fast track tickets as the queue was over three hours long at this point! Was fantastic and the scenery was just beautiful. Will let the pictures do the talking……

Coming down in the cable car we realised that the traffic was at a standstill and that we may have a long wait for an Uber – so decided instead to get on the hop-on hop-off tourist double decker bus and see where it took us. We purchased 48 hour tickets and set off. There are a number of routes and we knew that the blue scenic route was going to be closed on the Saturday because of a marathon so decided to do that first. By now we were running low on cash and the weather was heating up so returned to the hotel via the ATM.

We got back, changed into shorts, and then headed back out on the bus to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. We enjoyed walking around and doing the canopy walk and spent some time just enjoying the scenery and views. We were there for a few hours – particularly enjoying the abundant bird life – so decided to call it a day and returned to the Waterfront where we enjoyed happy hour in Time Out.

We then returned to our hotel room, having navigated more African groups of dancers and singers entertaining the tourists, sorted out some laundry and then went out for dinner. We find the Grand Cafe and it was absolutely superb. Fantastic food and ambience. Great fun. Finally it was time for bed.

Saturday we headed back out after breakfast – this time we were going to try out the red route. We got off in the middle of Cape Town and joined up with a walking tour guide. This was 90 minutes long and we certainly wouldn’t have done this on our own without a guide. These guides work purely for tips so a great service. Was fascinating to learn more about the history of Cape Town and enjoy some very familiar architecture along with some even more familiar faces.

Back on the bus we decided to take some time out and got off at Camps Bay beach. Here we were met by dancing groups of kids and lots and lots of vendors who wanted to sell us something. Richard wanted a wooden monkey so we got that with our last few Rand we had left in our pockets that day. It wasn’t peaceful on the beach as we were constantly being pestered – in a good way not aggressively – but enough was enough so we headed across the road and found a nice restaurant for lunch which was lovely, just enjoying the sights and sounds of this beautiful area.

We then returned towards the waterfront and walked towards Grand Africa which is billed as a beach bar – well it was kind of, but the seating was grubby, the drinks were expensive and the service was definitely lacking – and that was after walking through a sketchy area to get there. This place was listed as one of the top places for sundowners – it was mega busy – but we didn’t feel it so decided not to wait for the sunset and left. We obviously walked a different route back! We decided to return to Time Out which is really a food hall with lots of different offerings and a few bars – very popular place. We had a snack and a bottle of wine and chatted to a couple from NYC who were in Cape Town for a few months filming a TV series along with their cute kid Rusty. We then went back to the hotel and had another glass in the lounge but this was absolutely empty and quiet so decided to take the glasses back to our room and finish off the night there. By the time we got back the laundry had been delivered – what a great service! So the final glass was in front of the TV and so to bed.

Sunday we had a leisurely start and checked out what we wanted to see for the day. Decided that we needed to recharge our batteries and the sun had come out so went to the pool (which was located in a sister hotel across the road) for the day. We relaxed, enjoyed a fab lunch and great wine, before returning to our room to get cleaned up for a night out – and yes we were the only people there so had a very personal service from the fantastic waiter. We headed back to the Grand Cafe as it had been so good but sadly it didn’t live up to our expectations this time. Oh well, never mind. We returned to the hotel for pontoonies and called it a day.

Monday morning we packed our bags in preparation for our departure the following day and headed back to the pool. And relax……smashing. Another great lunch too…. Later on we returned to our room to get ready for our last evening in Cape Town which was on a champagne sunset sailing cruise – sadly the monohull schooner we were booked on was not operating so we were moved onto a catamaran. Bit of a shame that. But the guys were great and promised they would get the sails out – and they did – and they served us lots of sparkling wine with nibbles and they even allowed me to helm, although I wouldn’t recommend this with a glass in one hand LOL. We enjoyed a fantastic sunset on the water and was sad to get back to dry land again. We decided we weren’t hungry so had a few drinks on the waterfront before returning to our hotel for a pontoonie and to bed.

So that wraps up the Cape Town part of our African adventure. I will be blogging the rest of the trip later as I’m having a total hip replacement tomorrow so will be out of action for a little while. So in the meantime bye for now.

Jan