The road trip continued

Eventually we close on Cape Town after hundreds of miles. The mountain ranges that circle Cape Town are visible from about a 100 miles away, snow capped and seemingly impassable. However as we get closer they appear more beautiful as we approach the mountain pass that enables us to make our way. The scenery appears greener by the second, the sun breaks through and we face the long drop down through the mountains into Worcester, vineyards by the mile and we revel in the scenery that unfolds. But there is a twist, the beggars on the road increase as we approach some of the worst looking townships you could ever imagine, the contrast between the incredible scenery and the deprivation that is in front of us is indescribable.


The sun is setting in the distance as we make our way through the suburbs of Cape Town; Table Mountain an imposing figure in the background is shrouded in mist and the mountain light. Traffic delays us yet again and we arrive on the coastal road rather later than we expected. The scenery is stunning as we negotiate our way around the coast, down through Kalk Bay and onwards to our final destination at Fish Hoeck. We arrive, and are taken aback by the quality and spaciousness of our accommodation. The name, Amazing Views, is everything it promised to be and even at night the view across False Bay takes the breath away. We settle in, and then jump in the Batmobile to find something to eat. Low and behold the first thing we come across is an Indian Restaurant called Bihari, and we all pile in. The owner explains that they don’t have a liqueur license but that doesn’t bother us as we offload a crate of red wine from our car. Strangely enough the owner is English and is attempting to create English style curries in this part of the world. You can order medium, hot, or Indian hot and I choose the latter for my chicken Jalfreizi. And it is hot! After several hours we make our way home, bellies full of curry and popadoms, catch up with the football on the telly and then make our way to a welcoming bed.

A Painful Start

Day 6, and no more ejections from the big brother house, well not yet at least although I’m tempted to elect a few who are irritating me a little more than usual. We all awake to some of the most amazing views we have ever seen and I revel in the warm satisfaction that yet again we picked right. We all take some incredible photos and smile at what the day might bring. I pop downstairs to check on what Skip is doing and suffer a strong fall in the downstairs corridor as some clown has dropped water all over the tiled floor, and I slip and appear to break a toe or two, very painful!

We head south along the coast stopping off in Simon’s Town, a town heavily connected by history to England and the Royal Navy. We stock up with money, breakfast, mementoes and carry on towards the Cape of Good Hope, entering the national reserve to do so. We take some great photos, enjoy the visit, suffer several rain showers, and bump into Ollie from Leeds and a few other England fans that we know. Lots of photo opportunities later we make our way back towards Fish Hoeck but find time to stop at Boulders Beach and enjoy the penguin display. We make our way to the beach, climbing over the boulders as we go and then I suffer another painful fall, this time straining my knee joint as I go, not the best of days for me. Now I really do have reason to limp!

The trip back from the Cape is interesting as we round a corner and find about 20 baboons in the road. All the cars come to a complete stop but some bloke is daft enough to open his car door and the largest of the baboon family jumps into the car looking for food. Unfortunatley he has 3 kids in the back and he can't get it out until a local comes to his aid and uses a big stick. They can be quite dangerous and do attack adults and children alike.
A bit of shopping restocks the fridge with beer and other important items, like er, more beer! We keep being stopped as we walk down the street, everybody seems to want to talk to us and we have our photographs taken numerous times with locals and fans from Australia, Mexico, Korea etc. The only exception to the rule is a bunch of miserable Brazilians who object to us displaying the flag. However Simons Town is so British in its construction, architecture and history they may feel somewhat humbled, who knows. There is a market set up in the local square and we all take the opportunity to buy some overpriced local goods.

Eventually we arrive at the house, drop off the goods and then search out an internet cafe so we can update the blog. Afterwards we make our way to Kalk Bay and search out a restaurant that Penny at Kuilfontein recommended, the delightful Cape to Cuba, a delicious restaurant that focuses on Cuban food, a terrific setting overlooking Kalk harbour and wonderful service. Danny, our host looks after us, the girls are terrific dressed in their Cuban attire, and we are all taken aback by the quality of the food and drink. The beer of choice here is Cuban, Bucanneer, which is delightful. A few shots of English Shooter, a cocktail dreamed up just for the World Cup. We did intend to watch the South Africa game on TV but a 3-0 defeat is rather depressing for our hosts and the whole country is in shock, never before has a host country exited the World Cup in the group stages. We have a big day tomorrow, up early to visit Robben Island so we all eventually make our way to bed, apart from me, who sits here long after everybody has retired and write up what I can remember, and feel sorry for myself with my aches and pains! Oh well, tomorrow is another day.



Day 7 – Robben Island here we come.

A bright start despite the cold weather. Deano makes breakfast for everybody, egg and bacon sandwiches with a cup of tea to wash it down. Today we are attempting to get to the water front in Cape Town by using the local train, this should be an experience.

We park up in a dubious looking car park, buy 1st class rail tickets which cost all of £1.75 and settle back to enjoy the ride. We were told that the train goes through the townships that inhabit the Cape Flats but we don't see anything of concern yet again. On arrival we jump a cab and head to the Nelson Mandela Gateway where we catch the ferry. The sun is cracking the pavements so we head to the top deck. Once there we meet England fans we all know, including a couple we met at Kuilfontein 3 nights ago. As the ferry pulls away from the jetty and out through the harbour we see the wonderful skyline of Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background. We also get our first sight of the stadium which nestles in between the city and the waterfront.

We dock at Robben Island and make our way through the prison complex where we enter one of the large holding cells. We then are treated to a talk by one of the inmates and a good friend of Nelson Mandela who describes some of the horrific experiences he suffered during his 7 years locked up. We are then treated to a further visit of Block B which was the high security wing and where Mandella was incarcerated. We check his cell out and its the smallest of all of them.