08/9/09: Cape Peninsula Tour

Today got off to a great start, the famous Table Cloth had finally lifted and we got our first view of Table Mountain. Its amazing! The pictures will not do it justice I'm sure.

Myself and Nicole were then stood around for a while waiting for the Baz Bus, which, as everyone had predicted was late! Our guide Miranda was very nice though, as were the other travellers!

The first stop on the tour was a place called Hout Bay. Not much going on here beyond a pretty little harbour and a little market. We then drove around False Bay, catching our first sighting of a whale (a small black dot in the water) before stopping at Simons Town. Here we went on a short walk down to a place called Boulders Beach were we saw lots of awesome Jackass Penguins in their natural habitat. The penguins were beautiful, and didn't seem to be too bothered by the tourists invading their home!

After a quick food stop at Shark Beach (!) we travelled on to Table Mountain National Park on the Cape Peninsula. The first activity was a bike ride. Unfortunately Baz Bus had not seen fit to bring any female bikes and this meant Nicole and 3 others missed out. To be honest they didn't miss much. The ride was quite short and the bike was a death trap! I did spot an eagle though!!!

Lunch followed (nicer than either of us had expected) and we were then taken to Cape Point to walk up to a lighthouse built in the wrong place on the mountain by the British (leading to the sinking of numerous ships before the British admitted their mistake!) The walk was massive, and having been given only 30mins we decided to go halfway and enjoy the views.

We returned to the Bus, and following a desperate search for 2 missing Italian girls we set of on the trek to The Cape of Good Hope. The walk was stunning. We passed deserted beaches and climbed almost sheer rock faces before arriving at the South Western tip of Africa and the place were the Atlantic and Indian Oceans collide. Customary photos followed and then we returned to the bus for the trip back to Cape Town.

This should have been the end of the trip, but on the way back we bumped into 2 wild female ostriches (you tell the sex by colour, females are a dull grey, the males black) This was then followed by us hitting a traffic jam, caused by wild BABOONS on the road!!!

Eventually we arrived back at the Hostel for tea and a well-earned rest.

9/10/09

We woke up today with our fingers crossed. We had our tickets booked to Robben Island and had learnt that the trips are cancelled in anything but perfect weather. Thankfully the weather was perfect!

A quick taxi later and we arrived at The Gateway. After waiting awhile we were finally on the ferry and on our way to Robben Island. The journey there was fairly eventful as we were perched on the top deck!

On arrival we raced to a bus that takes you on a guided tour around the island. Our guide, a former political prisoner on the Island and friend of Nelson Mandela was amazing. His passion for freedom and knowledge were humbling and he told some great stories. He even suggested that Nicole might be mentally imbalanced due to her wearing 2 earring studs in 1 ear!!!

The Island has been used for hundreds of years in various forms and we saw a leper graveyard, guns built for use during WW2 that were not finished until 1947 (!) and the Limestone Quarry Nelson Mandela toiled in for 13 years.

We then finished the bus tour and were taken around the prison by another former inmate named Ntoza. He had been branded a terrorist whilst fighting apartheid. The jail was incredibly cramped and we were taken to see Nelson Mandelas Cell, which was no bigger than 6ft by 3ft. He didn't even have a bed and slept on the floor on a mat for his stay at the prison! A prisoner spent 16hrs per day in their cell, 7hrs labouring and 1hr eating.

After seeing Nelsons cell we were back on the ferry to the mainland. The Island is an amazing an moving place and we could have spent all day their but unfortunately the tour is the only way of seeing this world heritage sight and you only get 2hrs on the Island.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Cape Towns central district enjoying lunch and another chocolate milkshake at Dodge Cafe before a stroll up Long Street (the main street through Cape Town) back to the hostel were we packed in preparation for leaving in the morning to go on to Hermanus and its whales!