Day 3 - Kinda Foggy in the Morning, then Sun - high 83
Day 3 (Friday) started off by sleeping in until 7am. We then went downstairs to enjoy a nice open-air breakfast in the warm summer air. The breakfast was surprisingly good and I learned my first interesting South African fact: Their pork sausage does not taste anything like ours. Very gamey. I fell in love immediately and vowed myself to eat the sausage every morning. Christina and I were up earlier than Joe and Maggie so we decided to venture out and walk to the V&A Waterfront. It was great to get out and walk around in nice weather. Cape Town is a very easy city to get around in, so we found the Waterfront after a brisk 10 minute walk. Being 7:30am, the Waterfront was fairly empty but we could see what the allure of this place is for the tourist - relaxing waterways surrounded by chic hotels, fine dining establishments, and up-scale shopping. Seals and dolphins could occasionally be seen popping their heads and fins above the water line. Very serene - a good way to start the day. We decided to go back to the hotel after only 30 minutes as we knew we would be spending most of our evenings at the Waterfront.
After a long couple days of travel we decided it would be best to have a day with no schedule. Joe and Maggie had been talking up the beautiful scenery for months now, so we decided to hop in the car and take the day to drive around the Western Cape. From our hotel we went west toward the beaches. The daylight revealed how beautiful Cape Town really is. Our hotel was smack in the middle of the city and we hit the beaches on the other side of the city within 5 minutes.
The road we took is the Western Cape's version of the Pacific Coastal Highway. It wraps around the city, hugging the mountains, then drops south to the Atlantic coast where it runs for over 30 miles, down to the Cape of Good Hope, goes east, then north along the Indian coast line to the beach towns in the False Bay section of the Western Cape. I can say with all seriousness that this road makes the Pacific Coastal Highway look like the Blue Route. Never in my life have I seen more breathtaking views than along this road. Chapman's Peak is called one of the best drives in the world and it did not disappoint.
Anyway, back to Cape Town. We took the road toward the beaches and found that we were in Orange County, CA - or at least it seemed like it. Much like southern California, beautiful homes were built into the hills overlooking the ocean. As we drove south we passed the Clifton Beaches. These beaches are where most of the locals go. Farther south brought us to Camps Bay, one of our favorite destinations on the trip. Camps Bay is still considered part of Cape Town but seems to be it's wealthiest section. The main road is dotted with cool little cafes and boutique hotels. As we found out later in the week the beach is much bigger than that at Clifton and much more picturesque. AND Oprah has a house there. She is treated like a god in South Africa.
Next stop on the list is the Twelve Apostles Hotel. What a wonderful place this is. Set at the base of the Twelve Apostles mountain range, this is the hotel the offers the seclusion that stars like Tiger Woods and Leo DiCaprio desire (they both stayed there recently). It's super small, but each room is obviously well appointed. The views from the dining area and pool are spectacular.
We continued south past more dramatic mountain ranges and quaint bay-towns. After passing Chapman's Peak Drive, we stumbled onto a beach I really wanted to see - Noordhoek Beach. Before the trip I was traveling around the Western Cape via Google Earth. Even from far away I could make out a large white sand beach with nearly no homes or roads around it. I never saw a beach this big and promised myself we'd go there. Well, around a mountain turn and there it is. The beach itself is over 1/2 mile wide and is known locally for its great (and semi-dangerous) surf. Even stranger than the size was that NO ONE was on the beach. Outside of a bunch of school kids playing volleyball, the beach was completely deserted. It was bizarre to be on a beach 1/2 mile wide and 4 miles long completely devoid of humans or homes. It brought to mind what beaches in our country must looked like a couple hundred years ago.
So we spent some time on the beach then resumed our journey toward the Cape of Good Hope. We had to pass through the Misty Mountain range on the way. This is a curious area. It is almost always enshrouded in a heavy fog and light mist. The sky was completely blue then we turned a corner and felt like we were in Seattle or something. But, all was not lost. We all were getting hungry and the map showed us that there were no towns in between where we were and the Cape. So, we decided to stop at a very small local eatery. This is the kind of place that Anthony Bourdain would seek. Not much bigger than a 2 bedroom house, this restaurant served our first and what would ultimately become our best meal of the week - at least for me.
Everything on the menu was caught or farmed locally - even the cheese, tartar sauce, and butter were homemade. I started off with my favorite dish of the entire week - South African calamari. Squid in South Africa are much bigger than ours. Their body is long and meaty and the tentacles are very small and discarded for calamari. The body isn't cut into circles. Rather, it is cut into strips, lightly breaded, and served with amazing tarter sauce. And boy was it AMAZING! Tender and mild and fresh. SO FRESH!
Our tummies full, we drove another 30 minutes to the Cape of Good Hope. More beauty. We climbed to the lighthouse and snapped a bunch of pictures. This place is a photographer's dream. Probably the coolest thing about the Cape is that you can see where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet - literally. There is a foamy white line in the water that extends over the horizon. Kinda cool.
We then headed north, back towards Cape Town. This time we went up the Indian coastline through really cool beach towns. One place we stopped is home to a very famous Penguin colony. I remember seeing a documentary about this colony on Discovery a long time ago. They nest on the beach but travel all throughout the town, so much so that people have to shoo them from their homes and off their cars much like squirrels or rabbits. They are the only Penguins to live outside of Arctic or Antarctic regions. No one knows why.
It was very fun to observe the fathers taking care of the eggs, the mothers coming back from hunting, and the stag males fighting over mates. We spent over an hour there and decided it was getting late in the day so we headed home.
After a quick shower and a drink we headed off to the V&A Waterfront for dinner. The final decision of where to eat was a good one. We went to Harrie's Pancakes, a dutch restaurant specializing in dinner pancakes. Weird but very enjoyable. Christina and I had the pancake with ground biltong (South African jerky) and mixture of different cheeses. Excellent. We followed that up with a dessert pancake with Bananas and cinnamon. Even better. Maggie hated every second of it simply because she thought it weird to eat pancakes for dinner. The rest of us loved every bite.
We then strolled around the Waterfront for a while before going home and getting some rest. I was able to watch the Buick Invitational live from San Diego. This was strange considering it was midnight in Cape Town and I was watching Tiger Woods play golf live. But, I was thankful and watched for an hour before falling asleep.
After a long couple days of travel we decided it would be best to have a day with no schedule. Joe and Maggie had been talking up the beautiful scenery for months now, so we decided to hop in the car and take the day to drive around the Western Cape. From our hotel we went west toward the beaches. The daylight revealed how beautiful Cape Town really is. Our hotel was smack in the middle of the city and we hit the beaches on the other side of the city within 5 minutes.
The road we took is the Western Cape's version of the Pacific Coastal Highway. It wraps around the city, hugging the mountains, then drops south to the Atlantic coast where it runs for over 30 miles, down to the Cape of Good Hope, goes east, then north along the Indian coast line to the beach towns in the False Bay section of the Western Cape. I can say with all seriousness that this road makes the Pacific Coastal Highway look like the Blue Route. Never in my life have I seen more breathtaking views than along this road. Chapman's Peak is called one of the best drives in the world and it did not disappoint.
Anyway, back to Cape Town. We took the road toward the beaches and found that we were in Orange County, CA - or at least it seemed like it. Much like southern California, beautiful homes were built into the hills overlooking the ocean. As we drove south we passed the Clifton Beaches. These beaches are where most of the locals go. Farther south brought us to Camps Bay, one of our favorite destinations on the trip. Camps Bay is still considered part of Cape Town but seems to be it's wealthiest section. The main road is dotted with cool little cafes and boutique hotels. As we found out later in the week the beach is much bigger than that at Clifton and much more picturesque. AND Oprah has a house there. She is treated like a god in South Africa.
Next stop on the list is the Twelve Apostles Hotel. What a wonderful place this is. Set at the base of the Twelve Apostles mountain range, this is the hotel the offers the seclusion that stars like Tiger Woods and Leo DiCaprio desire (they both stayed there recently). It's super small, but each room is obviously well appointed. The views from the dining area and pool are spectacular.
We continued south past more dramatic mountain ranges and quaint bay-towns. After passing Chapman's Peak Drive, we stumbled onto a beach I really wanted to see - Noordhoek Beach. Before the trip I was traveling around the Western Cape via Google Earth. Even from far away I could make out a large white sand beach with nearly no homes or roads around it. I never saw a beach this big and promised myself we'd go there. Well, around a mountain turn and there it is. The beach itself is over 1/2 mile wide and is known locally for its great (and semi-dangerous) surf. Even stranger than the size was that NO ONE was on the beach. Outside of a bunch of school kids playing volleyball, the beach was completely deserted. It was bizarre to be on a beach 1/2 mile wide and 4 miles long completely devoid of humans or homes. It brought to mind what beaches in our country must looked like a couple hundred years ago.
So we spent some time on the beach then resumed our journey toward the Cape of Good Hope. We had to pass through the Misty Mountain range on the way. This is a curious area. It is almost always enshrouded in a heavy fog and light mist. The sky was completely blue then we turned a corner and felt like we were in Seattle or something. But, all was not lost. We all were getting hungry and the map showed us that there were no towns in between where we were and the Cape. So, we decided to stop at a very small local eatery. This is the kind of place that Anthony Bourdain would seek. Not much bigger than a 2 bedroom house, this restaurant served our first and what would ultimately become our best meal of the week - at least for me.
Everything on the menu was caught or farmed locally - even the cheese, tartar sauce, and butter were homemade. I started off with my favorite dish of the entire week - South African calamari. Squid in South Africa are much bigger than ours. Their body is long and meaty and the tentacles are very small and discarded for calamari. The body isn't cut into circles. Rather, it is cut into strips, lightly breaded, and served with amazing tarter sauce. And boy was it AMAZING! Tender and mild and fresh. SO FRESH!
Our tummies full, we drove another 30 minutes to the Cape of Good Hope. More beauty. We climbed to the lighthouse and snapped a bunch of pictures. This place is a photographer's dream. Probably the coolest thing about the Cape is that you can see where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet - literally. There is a foamy white line in the water that extends over the horizon. Kinda cool.
We then headed north, back towards Cape Town. This time we went up the Indian coastline through really cool beach towns. One place we stopped is home to a very famous Penguin colony. I remember seeing a documentary about this colony on Discovery a long time ago. They nest on the beach but travel all throughout the town, so much so that people have to shoo them from their homes and off their cars much like squirrels or rabbits. They are the only Penguins to live outside of Arctic or Antarctic regions. No one knows why.
It was very fun to observe the fathers taking care of the eggs, the mothers coming back from hunting, and the stag males fighting over mates. We spent over an hour there and decided it was getting late in the day so we headed home.
After a quick shower and a drink we headed off to the V&A Waterfront for dinner. The final decision of where to eat was a good one. We went to Harrie's Pancakes, a dutch restaurant specializing in dinner pancakes. Weird but very enjoyable. Christina and I had the pancake with ground biltong (South African jerky) and mixture of different cheeses. Excellent. We followed that up with a dessert pancake with Bananas and cinnamon. Even better. Maggie hated every second of it simply because she thought it weird to eat pancakes for dinner. The rest of us loved every bite.
We then strolled around the Waterfront for a while before going home and getting some rest. I was able to watch the Buick Invitational live from San Diego. This was strange considering it was midnight in Cape Town and I was watching Tiger Woods play golf live. But, I was thankful and watched for an hour before falling asleep.
posted by JP at 4:43 PM
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