Entertaining people the world over

In Cape Town, we spent 3 nights at a B&B called David's, run by David and his partner Hannes, who is the main guy we dealt with during our stay.  On the last morning, as he was running my credit card through, Hannes asked me, "Why do you have such a strange name, 'Willey'?  Really! How odd." After we had a nice chuckle over that, he proceeded to call ahead to another B&B on the Garden Route to let them know we might be coming to stay.  The one-sided conversation went something like: "Yes... yes, a very nice couple...  You won't forget the name: Willey.... that's right... yes, a big room for Big Willey."  

We gave B&B number two a pass, you might not be surprised to learn.

Anyway, we just posted a small album from our 3 days in & around Cape Town.  Our big activity from our stay in Cape Town was our hike up Table Mountain, but we also made it out to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners of apartheid were held.  It seemed good to go and visit, but unfortunately we didn't find the tour all that worthwhile - more entertainment than information, oddly enough!

Is Cape Town a Safe Town?

I have been a little anxious about visiting Cape Town, not because of the warnings in the guide books, but because one evening, after a few drinks, I was lectured at length by my South African friend, Natasha, on the mortal perils of visiting this dangerous city.  Essentially, the message went, I was risking life & limb if I decided to walk in, drive through, or think about Cape Town.  I was terrified. Keep in mind, we have lived in West Philadelphia.

You will be glad to know that we escaped unscathed, and while we practiced CONSTANT VIGILANCE, we never really felt in too much danger.  (However, after a wrong turn into a township around 10am one morning, I can understand why we were advised not to drive around at night without 100% certainty of where we were headed).  But on foot, we felt pretty secure, especially due to the presence of these: 

There was no one in here.

I'm pretty sure these "Mobile Crime Prevention Units" weren't around during the time Natasha lived in South Africa, or her opinion of the Cape Town's security would certainly be more positive.  Clearly they've made a difference! 

First Attempt at Strenuous Activity

After two weeks of easy going travel, being driven around to look at animals and chilling out on the beach, our arrival in Cape Town presented the first real opportunity for us to stretch our traveling legs. While we undertook a nice walk around the neighborhood where we stayed (Green Point/Sea Point) and the V&A Waterfront after our arrival. On day two we set out to conquer Table Mountain, the ever present landmark looming over Cape Town.

Table Mountain view from V&A Waterfront

Based on advice from a couple of people we decided to begin our hike/climb from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, southeast of the city center, via the Skeleton Gorge route. The mountain peak is 1087m and offered by far the most ambitious climb either of us had undertaken, which doesn't speak too proudly for our mountaineering - especially after meeting so many Kilimanjaro climbers in Tanzania.

Fair warning

The ascent took us a little over three hours, with a good number of photo breaks, and included some periods of seriously steep up hill walking, ladders and even some climbing up  and over rocks in part of the gorge. 

A little help on the way up

The views and scenery were unbelievable even on a somewhat hazy day, and the energy exerted made for a real sense of accomplishment when we finally reached the top where we enjoyed our lunch of leftover snacks from our safari lunches as we didn't bring any real food with us (whoops). 

Success!

Unfortunately the descent did not provide any relief to our now aching legs and feet. Most people take the cable car back down so we should get some points for walking back, even if the pace was slow and there was a lot of groaning. 

Carefully down

After almost another three hours we emerged back in the botanical gardens, although not exactly where we expected to. Thankfully we waited till the very end to get a little lost. We treated ourselves to a well deserved beer and cookies on the grass in the gardens while hoping the ascent for our Inca Trail hike in April will at least be a little more spread and also come with a real lunch.

We climbed all the way up there!