South Africa (Part I)

Plane Trip
Had to get up at 3am to make my Cairns flight! Dad drove me to Cairns from Port Douglas then had to drive home and go to work - craziness. All the flights were uneventful and I slept nearly the entire way as usual. I will say this though, my dislike of Qantas still stands. There was one friendly flight attendant though, who went and stole me some cashews from business class after I complained I couldn't eat any of the economy class snacks because they were all made from wheat. So the problem with Qantas? They almost completely filled that Sydney to Jo'burg flight and there was only 2 meals in the whole 14 hours!!! I was initially seated next to a couple with a small child in a 3 seat row. Dunno what Qantas were thinking there - you can hardly expect them to keep the child on their laps the whole time. So I got moved to another seat. It was an emergency exit seat with loads of leg room. I always feel a bit guilty in those seats as I have short little legs and really don't need the room - I can just feel the tall, long-legged people glaring at me! Arrived safely in Cape Town starving (tight change overs at airports meant no time for a snack!) and pretty sleepy. You'd think after sleeping on planes for a cumulative period of about 15 hours I wouldn't need anymore sleep.

Cape Town
I'm staying at Aardvark Backpackers in Sea Point. It's on the corner of the main road and a little one way street. No one seems to pay attention to the fact it's one way though. I have a dorm room but no dorm mates so it's just like having my own flat as the dorm has a kitchen and bathroom. How lucky am I?

I had two full days to explore around here so decided to take in the V&A Waterfront the first day and a city sightseeing tour the next.

V&A Waterfront

Table Mountain

Since the weather was so nice (unusual for Cape Town in winter, right Talia?) I decided to walk to the Waterfront. It's 4 or 5 kilometres along the beachfront. A nice walk really - lots of giant kelp washed up on the beach. I was almost there when the noon gun sounded. In Cape Town a cannon is fired from Signal Hill at noon everyday except Sunday. The blast is really quite loud! I arrived at the Waterfront to discover that it's chocolate week at the waterfront this week (they must have known I was coming!) but alas, I had missed the day's event already. I wandered round fairly aimlessly for a while then decided to do a habour cruise. It's cheap and pretty fun. Our guide was very funny. There was a jellyfish in the water next to our boat and I swear it looked just like a box jellyfish. We also saw lots of seals. They get fed by the fisherman so are extremely lazy - why move if you don't have to I say. The whole time I was at the Waterfront my eyes kept being drawn to Table Mountain. It totally dominates the landscape and it's hard not to keep looking at it.

City Tour

Camps Bay

The city tour is a hop-on, hop-off bus cruising round the city sights. Again it's quite cheap. It's an open air double-decker bus. The weather was more wintery today so I didn't hop-off as much as I would have done yesterday I think. I got off in the city centre and explored Green Market square (a curio market) then the company gardens. The company gardens are a bit like a botanical gardens I suppose and were made by the Dutch East India Company (I forget when. It's all in the brochure...). I sat there for ages watching the crazy squirrels and a goose that I thought was going to attack me at first but it was just looking for food. One of the guards there, Stephen, came up and had quite a long chat with me too. I hopped back on the bus and meant to get off at the castle but missed the stop. I think I must have been too pre-occupied getting my jacket and gloves out as the weather had turned foul. Nevermind. Continued on the tour which took us round District Six, the colourful Bo Kaap and then winds up to the Table Mountain cableway. We were driving in cloud as the whole mountain was enclosed in it! Not the best day to go up. I didn't bother since I went up the last time I was here anyway. The tour continued down to Camps Bay (a very pricey area) then Clifton and back to Sea Point. On the road just before Clifton I spotted a whale off the shore. Dunno what kind it was - it was very far away and I only saw it spurt then it's dorsal fin as it went back under. Pretty cool though.

Off on my Coastal Explorer tour tomorrow which takes me along the Garden Route and Wild Coast up to Durban. Not sure when I'll have the chance to update again - Durban at the latest though :-)