Cape Town, South Africa - Day 3...the day Stacey exerted lots of energy going uphill!

We awoke this day to another fabulous breakfast and knew that today we would be exploring nature!!! We headed first to go up to Table Mountain and since I was not all that interested in hiking up we took the cable car up to the top; this cable car can hold up to 65 people and transports up to 80 people per hour. If it was up to Tricia we would have hiked but after hearing some storied about how strenuous it was for some this out of shape body thanks Tricia for being OK with taking the cable car. That point slightly right of center is where the cable car goes to:

Here is Lion’s Head which can be viewed wonderfully from the bottom of Table Mountain:

Here is the cable car we took up to the top as you can see it is proudly sponsored by Visa. If you did not take note in yesterday’s blog there were even some things in the townships that seemed to have company sponsorship...look back at those photos.

Here are some of the views from the top:

Here is a great pic that Tricia took of me with the city behind me:

After our time here we headed back down the mountain and I received a call from Emily (one of my LLC friends) who had just finished running a 5k in Cape Town and we went and picked her up from the ship to join us in our afternoon adventures. Our end goal was to make to the Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (the southwestern most point on the continent of Africa!) but we knew there would be stops along the way. Our first stop was in the town of Kalk Bay where we stopped to get lunch at Satori a fabulous restaurant whose only downfall was that because they brought me the wrong pizza to start with our quick lunch break turned into a 2 hour ordeal.

This is from the inside of the restaurant, I thought it was pretty:

We walked around Kalk Bay for a little bit and it was as if we were transformed to some sort of beach town in the US and I almost forgot that we were in South Africa. We then continued our journey South and went to Simon’s Town and Boulder Beach…I am in Africa and I was on a mission to see animals in their natural habitat even if they were penguins and not elephants and giraffes. Not sure why but this is where the largest colony of penguins reside in South Africa. We did not visit them on their beach but instead walked around with them at the Boulders.

I can not believe that I was able to capture such a beautiful picture:

We also saw this thing; it is called a Rock Hydrax (dassie) and it is some sort of small mammal (in its natural habitat:

As we continued south we entered Table Mountain National Park and stopped for some photo opps. So we had been warned that as we traveled between Simon’s Point and Cape Point to watch out for the baboons (100s of them). We were told that we will see them all over and that if we stopped to photo them they would most likely try to get into your car and look for food. This actually happened to people I know. I was kind of excited to get up close and personal with baboons but guess what I saw none. Every other person I spoke with who went here had some sort of baboon encounter and this I was deprived of it was kind of bizarre when I looked at pictures of the same places I visited and took pics of and other people had baboons in theirs and I did not have any. Even the guidebook I have in a section called “Things to Avoid” between Snakes and HIV/AIDS is listed Feeding the Baboons. Now that I have gotten that out I will move on to what I see.

An ostrich in its natural habitat:

Some pretty awesome trees:

 A memorial to Vasco de Gama:

 

We continued on and finally reached the Cape of Good Hope and discovered that the cable car that usually runs to the top where the lighthouse is was being repaired and we would need to hike up to the top. I took some pictures of the lighthouse, me in front of the sign and some surroundings and said OK, I have seen the lighthouse. I got a look from both Tricia and Emily and proceeded to climb my way up; that’s OK I worked off the pizza I ate for lunch.

Emily and I pausing for a moment so I can catch my breath on the way up to the lighthouse:

Note the line of cars parked towards the top right corner of this picture that is where we started our walk from and then we ended here at the lighthouse:

We then headed to our final destination; the Cape of Good Hope – this is where the Atlantic and Pacific collide (well not technically but that is the best way for me to describe it!) We watched the beginning of a very beautiful sunset here as well.

his is a Kadu in its natural habitat:

e headed back north after a great day of exploring nature to meet up with Cindy and Jim for dinner back at the Waterfront. We went to Belthazar Restaurant and Wine Bar which claimed to have the longest wine list in the world and best steak in South Africa. The steak did not appeal to me but I was excited to see this wine list. A long list it was but a bit overwhelming. I ordered an awesome chicken kabob that showed up on a sword and also got to sample Jim’s game kabob (kadu, impala, wildebeest and one other gamey meat). I rather enjoyed the impala but was still very happy with my chicken kabob.

Here is my sworded kabob:

The night ended well and as we left the waterfront we saw this mural that was created out of recycled bags and bottles...I love it!!!!

 And tomorrow there will be wine…tasting that is and cheetahs!!!!