Still rather sleepy, we woke up in our bed on the morning of 16 September. A look out of the window did not bode well, as it was quite stormy. But so far we have usually been lucky on our trips and so we first went to breakfast. We had cheese omelette with toast and fresh coffee – so the day could begin.
As already mentioned, we had been a bit late for Table Mountain the day before and now time and weather were on our backs again. We only had 30 minutes to get to our car rental 15km away to pick up our new, faithful companion. Fortunately, in South Africa you can rely on Uber and Bolt very well and so we at least managed this first trick of the day.
We had again opted for a Toyota RAV4, which had already served us faithfully in Kenya. This time, however, we got a new model, packed with technology.
We checked the weather and the status of Table Mountain again online – as if a single glance towards the mountain was not enough. Unfortunately, we had to cross this item off the list for good: too cold, zero visibility and too strong wind … Table Mountain remained closed that day and so we started south somewhat disappointed.
Hope dies last
Our first stop was in Muizenberg. A small town with a few colourful huts on the beach, a train station and full of surfers. So we could enjoy the Atlantic and the sun while drinking a coffee and watching the surfers.
But Muizenberg was not our actual destination and so we were soon drawn back to the road. In fact, the traffic in South Africa was much more pleasant than it had been in Kenya. Superbly built roads and relatively reasonable road users allowed us to reach our destination quite quickly.
The view at the Cape of Good Hope was breathtaking. As soon as we entered the national park, we saw some animals roaming the landscape to the left and right of the road. Apart from us, there were hardly any other vehicles or visitors to be seen in the barren, almost Mars-like landscape.
The entrance fee for the two of us was still quite reasonable at 380 Rand (about 22 €) – for our dinner before we had paid 900 Rand with all the trimmings. A highlight that we didn’t expect were 2 ostriches that appeared completely unexpectedly next to the road. These two were really calm and were not impressed by us or our white projectile.
After Andreas had climbed a bit over stones, or rather rocks, at the cape to get closer to the water for photos, we made our way uphill to also take a look at the lighthouse on the cape rock.
The car park below the lighthouse was quickly reached. For the cable car that led up to the tower, we both had to pay another 150 Rand. The view was good, the sun warmed us and we were not really bothered by the many other tourists. Wherever all these people had come from.
With tails on the beach
After this experience we drove roughly back towards Muizenberg to make a stop at a very special beach in Simon’s Town, where there should be very special sun lovers.
As soon as we arrived, Andreas was once again approached by one of his many “brothers” in the car park. He had spotted the Tanzanian national colours on Andreas’ wrist and so another lively conversation ensued … on the way back from the beach, a longer conversation was to ensue.
Before we reached the beach, a brazen ticket booth stood in our way. In fact, this stretch of beach was a national park. So we threw another 340 rand into the pot to be able to pass.
The time on the beach was wonderful. The sun was shining, there were not too many people around and the beach dwellers were just cute to look at.
After saying goodbye to the tailcoats and Andreas’ Tanzanian brother, we made our way to Gansbaai. We wanted to spend the night there before the next highlight the next day.
The drive to Gansbaai was … ok. A long construction site and the onset of darkness made Mel’s nerves a bit frayed again. We ended the evening with dry rolls, kielbasa (smoked Russians) and cheese. Unfortunately, except for a mini-market, everything was already closed.
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