Saturday in Capetown

There were 14 of us this morning that planned on renting a van to take us around and show us the sights. The girl (Glenda) that works upstairs in the ship’s store told us that she knew someone who would be glad to take us in his van. We all met down at the gate at 9:00 AM and Glenda was not there, nor was there a van waiting for us. Once the taxi drivers find out what we are looking for they all scramble to convince us to use their services. After much chaos we were put into two vans with six people in each one and it was confusing as to what the actual price was going to be for each one of us. Our driver was named Lorenzo and he said we were going back to the garage to get a bigger van, but once he got us out of the city he said it was fine just to have the two taxi’s so we never did get a bigger van. Lorenzo speaks English and is originally from Durban, South Africa and seems to be quite knowledgeable about Capetown. Capetown is a very pretty clean city and very colorful. We headed along the coastal road by the Atlantic Ocean and our first stop was at a town called Simon Town where there were a lot of African crafts for sale. We shopped for about 15 minutes and then they hustled us back to the taxi’s and some of us were not happy as they wanted to shop some more. Our next stop was at a national park where there are penguins. We did not drive into the park but walked along a boardwalk and the driver said he would pick us up at the end of the boardwalk. We saw a lot of penguins right up on top of the hill next to the walkway. It surprised me as I always thought penguins are only in a cold climate and did not stray very far from water. Here they were up on top of a dry windy hot hill. I did see some that were down the hill by the beach and going into the water. There were also humans swimming at this beach with the penguins.

Then it was on to Cape of Good Hope Table Mountain National Park. We each had to pay R70 to get into this park. The first thing we did was go into the restaurant for lunch. Everyone except one of the 14 of us ordered a hamburger and French fries. I also ordered a margarita and that tasted pretty good. After lunch Joe Bender and I were the only ones who wanted to go up to the top of the mountain to view where the Atlantic Ocean meets with the Indian Ocean. It cost R45 to take the Vernicular up to the top of the hill and was worth it to not have to hike up there. The ride up was interesting as about half way up there the other car was coming down and we had to go around each other. There was no air conditioning in the car and because we were stopped for quite some time, the car heated up and the windows got all steamed up because of the heat. It actually felt like a sauna. There was a group of Japanese tourists and their guide was quite vocal about we were going to die because we could not breathe and there was a baby aboard so open the doors etc. They did not open the doors and we finally reached the top and it felt really good to get out of the car and look at the view. It was a spectacular view and very cool and windy up there.

Then it was back into the taxi’s and drive down the hill and around the other side for another spectacular ride of beautiful ocean views (and steep drop offs.) Lorenzo had several phone calls during this excursion and he was supposed to pick someone up at 3:00 PM. He also was conversing with someone that was being discharged from the hospital and we gathered he was supposed to pick up that person as well. It was after 4:00 PM by the time we got back into Capetown and we needed to stop at an ATM before we got back to the ship, so we could pay Lorenzo. So he was late picking up whomever was waiting for him, but he certainly showed us a good time.

Another fun day!