Cape Town Adventures
Wow, so much has happened on the past few days - it is hard to think of everything when the Cape Town Aquarium beckons...
We left Pretoria Frisay morning at 7:00am. The High Comission car was late picking us up, and we almost missed the airplane (sounds familiar? It really wasn't my fault this time, though, really really...) We arrived at the airport, found the driver with the sign (Mrs. Galk), and caught a ride to the car rental place, where we rented an adorable Nissan Micra, manual, of course (it was so much cheaper than nice happy automatic).
Sis had not driven a manual car for over 5 years, and Cape Town is a very hilly place, however she is a very handy and clever sis and we hardly stalled at all, and soon we were speeding along the highway - rugged mountains on one side, and the blue Atlantic on the other.
We stopped in Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, and bunches of other strangely-named places, but soon re reached Boulders Bay, where the Cape Town PENGUINS live.
Yes, they are real penguins, and really adorable, too (and a bit bitey). We took loads of pictures, and swam im the bay where they were splashing. Penguins are so cute, and I only got bitten a little, and I managed to pet one when his back was turned.
After the darling penguins, we stopped for lattes on the boardwalk, and headed for our B&B. The directions to the B&B were not clear. Nor was the owner answering her phone. After much driving around in the dark, we arrived at an empty-looking B&B, where no-one would answer the bell.
I won't bother writing about how annoying it was to drive 40km on a 2-lane mountain highway at 11pm back to Cape Town, where we figured we had a better chance of finding lodgings. Or the moods we were in once (thanks to a kindly gas station manager who let us use his phone) when we finally arrived at a musty downtown motel. It is good, however, that we did not have to revert to our alternate plan, which was to drive to the airport and watch planes taking off all night...
The next day we decided to make certain that we did lots of fun activities, so drove back down the coast, and stopped at a Tourist Information booth. Through them, we booked HORSEBACK RIDING on the beach. Now, in the books which little girls read horses are gentle and riding them is easy. Not so! Wendy had a knack and was cantering and trotting all over, but after my horse (aptly named Storm) ran away with me back to the stables, I was not in the mood to canter. Why is it so hard to ride a horse? It took most of the 2 hours to get the knack of it (and I am hurting SO MUCH today) but I think that next time I might even be willing to try a little cantering.
We also saz baboons by the highway. And a guinea-pig creature that is actually biologically related to a kangaroo. And I caught a darling gekko who kept nipping my fingers. That was Saturday.
Yesterday we came to Cape Town proper. We spent a few hours wandering through the African Market (NO ONE is better at bartering than my sis.... I mean, I thought I was good, but wow, is she better!) and buying necklaces, and then had a nap in the hotel and went out for Thai.
There are more details, but I do want to get to the aquarium today....
We left Pretoria Frisay morning at 7:00am. The High Comission car was late picking us up, and we almost missed the airplane (sounds familiar? It really wasn't my fault this time, though, really really...) We arrived at the airport, found the driver with the sign (Mrs. Galk), and caught a ride to the car rental place, where we rented an adorable Nissan Micra, manual, of course (it was so much cheaper than nice happy automatic).
Sis had not driven a manual car for over 5 years, and Cape Town is a very hilly place, however she is a very handy and clever sis and we hardly stalled at all, and soon we were speeding along the highway - rugged mountains on one side, and the blue Atlantic on the other.
We stopped in Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, and bunches of other strangely-named places, but soon re reached Boulders Bay, where the Cape Town PENGUINS live.
Yes, they are real penguins, and really adorable, too (and a bit bitey). We took loads of pictures, and swam im the bay where they were splashing. Penguins are so cute, and I only got bitten a little, and I managed to pet one when his back was turned.
After the darling penguins, we stopped for lattes on the boardwalk, and headed for our B&B. The directions to the B&B were not clear. Nor was the owner answering her phone. After much driving around in the dark, we arrived at an empty-looking B&B, where no-one would answer the bell.
I won't bother writing about how annoying it was to drive 40km on a 2-lane mountain highway at 11pm back to Cape Town, where we figured we had a better chance of finding lodgings. Or the moods we were in once (thanks to a kindly gas station manager who let us use his phone) when we finally arrived at a musty downtown motel. It is good, however, that we did not have to revert to our alternate plan, which was to drive to the airport and watch planes taking off all night...
The next day we decided to make certain that we did lots of fun activities, so drove back down the coast, and stopped at a Tourist Information booth. Through them, we booked HORSEBACK RIDING on the beach. Now, in the books which little girls read horses are gentle and riding them is easy. Not so! Wendy had a knack and was cantering and trotting all over, but after my horse (aptly named Storm) ran away with me back to the stables, I was not in the mood to canter. Why is it so hard to ride a horse? It took most of the 2 hours to get the knack of it (and I am hurting SO MUCH today) but I think that next time I might even be willing to try a little cantering.
We also saz baboons by the highway. And a guinea-pig creature that is actually biologically related to a kangaroo. And I caught a darling gekko who kept nipping my fingers. That was Saturday.
Yesterday we came to Cape Town proper. We spent a few hours wandering through the African Market (NO ONE is better at bartering than my sis.... I mean, I thought I was good, but wow, is she better!) and buying necklaces, and then had a nap in the hotel and went out for Thai.
There are more details, but I do want to get to the aquarium today....
posted by Melamondiale @ 2:22 AM
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