Dec 23, Friday

Dec 23, Friday

I did not sleep well; woke up many times during the night for no apparent reason.   This morning I stayed in bed and slept on and off until about 11 am.   By noon I was driving out to Signal Hill (elevation 350 meters).  I had checked out my map and knew where to go, having driven on the same roads yesterday, but the signage wasn’t as good from the direction I was coming.   I looped around a second time before spotting the small street sign veering off Lower Kloof Road to Upper Kloof Road.  I was expecting to see one of the big road signs I had seen the day before, pointing the direction to Signal Hill and Table Mountain;  NOT !    Small tourist detour, but it was worth it; the views were spectacular.

 View of Sea Point

 View of Lion's Head

 Me with Table Mountain in the background

 Downtown Cape Town

 The harbour

 The Soccer Stadium

 Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned for many years

 Cape Town

  My little car

From there, I backtracked and went up to the Table Mountain Lower Cable Car Station.  Unfortunately, the cable cars had not been operating due to high winds.  There were no more people in line waiting to go up the mountain, and I watched as they sent 3 different cars in about 45 minutes testing the winds.  I decided to take a chance and got in line with only about 8 people, in the hope that the winds would die down enough to be able to go up the mountain.   One lady who was waiting just behind me with her two sons said that she would only wait for 30 minutes, then would go off and do something else instead.  I told her I was feeling very positive today and that we would probably make it up.  Sure enough, within half an hour we got the All-Clear signal and up we went, 1087 meters above sea level at its highest point.  The cable cars can hold 60 people !  And it was full on the way up.   The floor of the car actually rotates inside the glass casing, so everyone gets to see the 360 degree view.  Incredible.

 Signal Hill as seen from the base of Table Mountain

  Table Mountain on the ride up the cable car

  Table Mountain and the coast line, from the top

  A view to one of the lookouts and down to the ocean below

 Downtown Cape Town

 Signal Hill

 The harbour

 Cable car arriving at the top

 Something I won't be doing in Cape Town

For those of you who may decide at some point to visit Table Mountain, a word to the wise:  bring a windbreaker !   It was cold up there, and as you can see from the picture above, I was wearing a skort and a sleeveless sweater.  I only stayed up there for about 1 hour and made my way back down.  There were only about 12 people on the cable car for the ride down, so it was quite pleasant.  I spoke to 2 young ladies (one from Spain, the other from Mexico) because they were comparing Rio and Cape Town.  I gave them my own impressions and they were amazed at the fact that I had travelled all this way on my own.  The one from Mexico could not believe I had driven from Ottawa to Puerto Vallarta last winter.  We had a good laugh together.

It was about 3:30 by then and I was quite hungry having only eaten a bowl of 4-grain Cheerios and a cup of coffee for breakfast.  I decided to make my way down to the “Victoria & Albert Waterfront” to walk around and find a nice restaurant.    The signage was good this time around and I made it right down to the waterfront.  Found some underground parking and found out I was in a building just in front of the “Clock Tower”  one of the landmarks in the harbour front.

 Victoria & Albert Waterfront

 The clock tower

  Christmas is coming

 Santa's village

Walked around and took pictures until I found a restaurant with outdoor tables but shaded from the hot sun.  I ordered some linguini with salmon and dill, in a nice rosé tomato sauce.   For dessert I treated myself to a banana cheese cake with caramel topping  (Murielle,  tu aurais vraiment aimé ce gateau!) 

I ended up walking into one of the mall buildings just to browse, but I spotted a camera shop and went in to purchase more video tapes for my camcorder.   I’ve used up 5 of the 8 I had purchased before leaving Ottawa and decided to buy another 4-pack, just in case.   I made my way back to the car and found the right exit to get back to Sea Point and my hotel.   I was able to obtain one of the few parking spaces at the hotel, inside a security gate for the entire week;  at an extra cost.   And the internet/wifi connection is also at an extra cost, so my communications may be limited in the coming weeks.   I’m staying in Cape Town for 7 nights, giving me 6 days to along the coast up to Durban and then north up to Johannesburg.

Tomorrow, I’ll be doing the Hop-on,  Hop-off bus tour of Cape Town.