Cape town, for a record fourth time!

Cape Town, from top of Table Mountain

And here I am, again at Cape Town! I don’t visit the same places too often. The only other city I have visited a lot is Paris, but of the 6 times, 3 times I had gone for work and stayed back. So Cape Town leads the pack 😁. As I said in the last blog too, Cape Town never ceases to amaze me. This time around, I saw another very different side of the city as I went there with my South African colleagues. And it felt so very new and exotic again...

We spent a weekend in Cape Town where we did not plan anything beforehand at all. And the one thing we had planned got cancelled 😂. Our itinerary was as follows:

• Friday evening: Fly from Joburg to CT, dinner at Beefcakes and then Long Street 
• Saturday: Laze around Camps Bay, lunch at Blues, trek up Lion's Head and dinner at Cape Addis 
• Sunday: Drive to Stellenbosch and lunch at Jordan

Friday evening:

We flew to CT from Joburg on a Friday evening after work. At the start of the trip, two of us had a bit of an issue when our flight did not let us board the flight without our passports! We had assumed that for domestic flights, we did not need to carry passports but the check-in attendent did not agree! We showed them copies of our passports, UK driving licenses and so on. But they just refused to let us on (even though one of our colleagues got onto South African airlines flight at the same time without a passport!!). Also it was a bit ironic that our British airways flight refused to accept the UK license as ID proof 😂!

But this was South Africa 😜, so we pushed a bit and finally they agreed on the condition that flying back, we would have to get our passport copies attested by the police before we board the flight. I wondered why the police would attest our passports if we don’t have the originals with us but anyways, it was not the time to think and we said yes to their conditions. We had to go through the same questioning at the departure gate but somehow they let us off more quickly and we were off on the plane to Cape Town.

Colours of the sky, the moon and
the mountains

The views from the flight were spectacular, with loads of empty green landscapes and mountains down there. And while landing, we saw the full moon at eye level with the mountains in the background, a very short but absolutely breathtaking view. Once at the airport, we spent some time finding the police to attest our passports which they refused to. But one of them agreed to attest our driving licenses. Anyways, after a bit of running around, they did that and we hoped that was enough for our flight on Sunday.

It turned out that this was the weekend of an international cycling event in CT - the Cape Town Cycle Tour - which meant that everything there was very busy. After checking in to the Westinn hotel, we went for dinner to Beefcakes. It is a special kind of dinner place famous for its awesome burgers but also for its drag shows. We were all kind of sceptical about going there but one of our team members convinced us all. And it was so much fun! Given all the visa running around, we only caught the fag end of the show but it was very entertaining. There were a couple of drag queens who danced on the stage and their performances were a lot of fun. And I think after that show, "single ladies" has become a favourite song of mine 😊.

Street art on Long Street

After dinner, we went to Long Street - the party area of CT. It was a nice walking area with lots of restaurants and an active night life. We walked around a bit, the whole area felt full of students and tourists. People were out and walking the streets which isn’t that common in SA:). And lot of the buildings felt quite old. They all had outside terraces to sit and enjoy the sights of the street.

We first went to Waiting Room which was quite loud and crowded. It had an outside terrace looking towards the main street. And then a rooftop area, from where you can see the mountains in the background, the stars above and the lights on Signal Hill. The place felt quite local and rustic. We did not stay there long though. We walked a bit and then went to Ubuntu, where we sat on the outside terrace for some time. As we had taken a flight after a full day of work, we soon felt tired and went back to our hotel quite soon.

Saturday:

For the next day, we had booked paragliding for the morning. But there was so much wind that it got cancelled. So we all had a lazy start to the day. We had a longish breakfast at the breakfast lounge in Westinn which has beautiful views of the city, with the mountains behind the city high-rises. After trying to unsuccessfully get into the spa as it was fully booked, we all went to Camps Bay for the afternoon. It was about 20 minutes drive and for the first time I noticed that there were lot of colonial style British buildings in town.

Camps Bay beach

Camps Bay is a very stunning beach area. It had a beach with some rocks and crystal blue water. And the background was grand holiday houses perched on the hills. It was a sunny day and made the afternoon very enjoyable. Everywhere around were people chilling and hanging out lazily. We spent some time on the beach and a bit in the water. It was not too cold that day, so the water felt ok but it wasn’t really warm for swimming. As the sun got too hot, we moved to the promenade for lunch at Blues. The seafood there was yum and felt even better given the spectacular views of the beach from their terrace.

Table Mountain top

After lunch, one of the guys went up Table Mountain using the cable car. He was quite lucky that it was clear that day as all my previous trips had met with clouds on the top. The view from the peak was spectacular - across the city, as well of the straight mountain top.

The treacherous climb

And then at around 4 or so, we started trekking up Lion's Head. It was a bit late but there were loads of people starting the trek, so we were not concerned. Also, we had expected it to be a walk in the park but as we started walking up, we realised it was quite a treacherous climb up! You first walk around one side of the hill, then the other, and after that, you literally have to go up to the peak!

The climb up

There were parts of the trek where you had to hold onto railings on the rocks or step onto small steps made into the rocks and pull yourself up or walk on very narrow rock ledges while avoiding a fall! But given so many people going up, it felt safer than I think it actually was.

Camps Bay from the top

The views once we made it to the top were stunning - of the city in the bowl, with clouds tiptoeing over table mountain and the sky turning pink as it was time for sunset. On the other edge, you could see the waves lashing on the beach of Camps Bay. And Robben Island far away where Nelson Mandela was kept in prison for 27 years! We also sat on a rock on the edge, literally feeling that we were at the edge of the world:). We stared at the sunset and the beautiful colours of the sky for some time.

Sunset from Lion's Head

View of the Town

We would have liked to spend more time on the top but it had got quite late by the time we were there, so we started walking down very soon. Though people were still climbing up, running all the way, with torches on their head!! Talk about being brave and adventurous! We reached down the trail safe and sound, using our phone flashlight for the last half an hour or so.

After patting ourselves on the back, We went back to Long Street again for Ethiopian dinner at Cape Addis. The food was yum and quite close to Indian food I would say. After that, we again walked around a bit in the area. It was a beautiful night with a full moon and beautiful colours in the horizon. We went to Orphanage Club and hungout there for some time. I left soon enough but some of the people continued partying late and ran into Russel Peters!! He was in CT for the cycle race and DJing at the club they went to. What a miss for me 😏.

Sunday:

Entrance to Jordan

The next day, the cycle race got cancelled in the morning, again because of the wind! So lot of people suddenly had the day free to do something new. We tried calling a couple of places in Stellenbosch for lunch but all of them were already booked. We thought we would try anyways, so we turned up at Jordan winery, and all our begging and pleading did not get us a table at its restaurant 😟. But they gave us a seat at their bakery where they only had cheese and meat platters to offer. We thought why not have those as starters and then go to another place for lunch.

View from Jordan winery

But it was so tasty that we ditched our lunch plans after that and continued eating the cheese and chocolates for lunch. I realised that a good variety of cheese can be a good meal too. The wineyard is quite picturesque too, with a green grass garden and a blue pond in front, and then vineyards till afar. And the sun was out in all its glory that day, I was really not missing London at that time 😜. We all felt like sleeping in the garden too for some time, but we kept eating for so long that we never got the time to do that.

After the sunny and unhealthy lunch, we were off to the airport, to take off for Joburg. While getting back, no one asked to see our passports, so that was one weight off our backs!! It was tough to leave to go back to Joburg, and I am sure I will be back in Cape again for a new and different adventure soon...

Accomodation

We stayed at the Westinn hotel which was quite central and well located. It had a beautiful breakfast lounge on a high floor, with a view of the city and some of the mountains around. I would suggest though that anyone visiting CT should stay slightly outside town, next to the sea. Maybe some holiday homes on airbnb may be better and more fun options.

Food

All the places we ate at were amazing. Beefcakes' burgers were amazing. And the entertainment fantabulous! Blues had tasty seafood, right across Camps Bay. Cape Addis on Long street offered tasty Ethiopian. And the views and cheeses of Jordan were very enjoyable. In fact, you can even stay at Jordan, as at many of the other vineyards in the area.