Cape Town - Day 2

I slept reasonably well considering my late night and the amount of rum I drank during and after our meal. I did still wake up at the frustratingly early hour of 6am when I didn't need to, and got up at around 7.30am. After a shower and some light breakfast at the hostel, myself, Lauren and English Brian set off on our planned bus ride on the 'on and off' bus to the cable car which would take us up Table Mountain. We walked to the bus stop and caught the same red route bus we caught the previous day. I followed the audio tour on headphones again as we drove through the city and up to bus stop by the cable car. We joined the long queue for one of the two cable cars. We got on the cable car and I stood by the rotating window and took in the amazing views over the city and surrounding bays. We could also see over Lion's Head mountain. We arrived at the top of the mountain, departed the cable car and looked out over the amazing views from the top. The weather was ideal with light cloud protecting us from the sun and really good visibility over the surrounding landscape. The path around the mountain was well designed and easy to walk with good viewpoints along the way. We looked out over Lion's Head mountain, across the city, and out into the large bay areas. In the distance I could see large, dark violet mountian ranges topped with white clouds. We walked along the path which skirted the sheer edges of the mountain and took many photos along the way. The flowers and bushes which covered the interior of the mountain were beautiful and unique with strange and primitive looking red flowers. We slowly made our way around the edge of the mountain with changing views of the surrounding lanscape. We walked out towards one end of the mountain and were rewarded with views over the far side of it. We returned to the main path which moved around the other side of the mountain and looked out over a series of huge buttresses known as the 'Twelve Apostles'. The views again were wide and beautiful. We eventually returned to our starting point and got back on the cable car back to the bottom. We got back on the red route bus and continued on the same route as the previous day around to the V&A food market. English Brian decided to remain on the bus at this point to head back to meet his two sons who had just flown into Cape Town for a joint trip up the Garden Route. We said our sad goodbyes as Brian had been a wonderful travelling companion with an innate enthusiasm for life and a joyful clap of the hands when he was particularly pleased with something like the arrival of a good meal. Lauren and I then had some vietnamese fresh spring rolls and different flavoured samosas in the food market. I was not previously a purveyor of food markets, but discovered that these are great places to try out different foods from around the world. Lauren has been very good on this trip at encouraging me to try new things and this was another example.
We then headed over to do the harbour boat tour which had been cancelled the previous day. The boat did a leisurely tour around the harbour with an audio tour. It was amusing to see that seals had taken up residence in the large tyres that acted as buffers for incoming ships, but we agreed that the tour as a whole was pretty underwhelming.
We returned to the bus and had a long trip back through the rush hour traffic to our starting point. We walked to find a recommended hardware store only to find it was closed due to a recent fire. We returned to our hostel to rest and shower. I said goodbye to oir fellow traveller, Monica, who was now leaving our trip. Monica had been a singular and determined character who didn't take prisoners if she was challenged, but was also very kind and likeable. We went to eat some dinner in the hostel bar, but the menu was poor and we decided to get an Uber taxi into the city to Long Street to find a better option for dinner. We walked up and down Long Street looking at different menus in different restaurants including an Ethiopian and traditional African style food restaurant. After not really finding what we wanted we settled on a Kashmir food restaurant and ordered what the restaurant owner recommended. We had settled on the right place as the food was delicious, varied and some of the best Indian style food I have ever tasted. It went down all the better with a glass of Pinotage red wine. Fully satiated, we returned to the hostel. Lauren had moved into her own room, which meant that her and Monica's absence in our dorm room had left space for three French men and a woman to take to spare beds. This proved to be a nightmare as they proceeded to come in and out of the room noisily for most of the night, making any sleep very difficult.Read more