Camps Bay, Cape Town Day 7 and leaving😢

Thursday 13th

One of the things that Place on the Bay provides, that I would definitely include if I ever ran an Airbnb, is a folder with lots of local information included. We had consulted it for various things such as restaurants and supermarket ideas and for our final day we had decided to follow one of their ‘day trip with a car’ suggestions.

The day started badly with our route following one of Rob’s favourite cycling climbs up to Chapman’s Peak. It meandered up to the summit feeling like a white knuckle ride with a sheer drop on one side. Although I was on the mountain side on the way up I knew I had the sea/ sheer drop side on the way home – I couldn’t wait.After the stress of our journey our first stop was at Scarborough, a lovely beach where a walk and a coffee at the hub was suggested. We enjoyed the walk and the big waves but disappointingly were unable to find the hub (usefully we found it on our way back, late afternoon, when it had closed🤔).

We then proceeded on to the main (and most disappointing) point of our day, Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Throughout Africa, as you know if you’ve been following closely, we have visited lots of National Parks. All of them, without exception, have been really reasonably priced and worth every penny spent. When we arrived at Cape point and were asked for nearly £17 each to enter Table Mountain National Park we were astounded. Kruger had been less than £18 per day and we’d seen the big 5 there, what could Cape Point have that could possible rival that? The answer, nothing!

There were beautiful views and beaches and we did take a scenic walk between Cape Point and The Cape of Good Hope but neither the walk, beaches or views were any more special than many of the other views, walks or beaches we’d seen.I know Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope are supposed to be must see tourist attractions but it’s not even the southern most point, Cape Agulhas holds that title and we’d been there for free. In my opinion it’s not even the most iconic place to visit in or around Cape Town, that has to be Table Mountain and we’d climbed that the day before, for free. We went there, we made the best of it, had a lovely time (once Rob had insisted that I let go of my annoyance with the price) but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Last thing, I really had forgotten how much it was to get in until we arrived at the Two Oceans Restaurant. I admit I was feeling quite ‘hangry’ by now as we’d never found the hub and I like regular snacks but the hanger was fading as we were shown to a window table. We were especially delighted with this as we had been told how busy the restaurant got but had neglected to book. We remained at said table for less than five minutes. The prices seemed extraordinarily inflated, it was a beautiful view but not, as it would have you believe, the meeting of two oceans (I may have already mentioned that Cape Agulhas also claims this title). We instead had a lovely take away meal from the cafe next door and gazed at the very same beautiful view of the Atlantic, and only the Atlantic, Ocean. It was actually a better table than the one in the restaurant, after all, it’s not every day you get to sit on an ordinary chair at a giant’s table. That cheered me up greatly and after finishing our meal we set off happily to see the penguins.

As soon as Alice had told me that she’d swam beside penguins at Boulders beach it was one of the things I knew I had to do. When it was included as part of our tour I was delighted and very much looking forward to this final activity. We followed the vague instructions of how to get there from our day trip itinerary and were relieved and slightly amazed when we started to see signs for penguins crossing and saw a sign for Boulders beach. As we prepared to turn right we also saw a sign ahead that said penguin viewing. In our naivety we decided to follow that into a busy car park instead.

We parked up, got out and, with the encouragement of our friendly parking assistant to, enjoy the penguins, we followed the general direction of everyone else. Our path was littered with street sellers touting every type of penguin souvenir you could ever hope for. We carefully avoided them in our haste to enjoy the most highly anticipated part of our tour. As we neared the end of the road we started to see signs indicating that a payment was expected. I was initially astounded but when I saw this was also part of Table Mountain National Park it occurred to me that maybe that was why we had paid so much earlier – it obviously included two attractions, didn’t it? Sadly not.

The extra cost of more than £8 to go and see wild penguins, that lived on a beach and, as we had been warned earlier, crossed local roads, was too much. I stomped back to the car moaning incessantly to poor Rob who was swiftly realising that his, ‘just let it go’ comments from earlier were not going to work this time. At this point I really didn’t think the day could be salvaged.

Of course it could! 😊

As I stomped and moaned and we reached the car our parking assistant, obviously not adept at reading body language, enquired as to our enjoyment of the penguin encounter. Rob vaguely nodded but I, happy to have a new audience for my complaints, explained that it was too expensive so we’d missed out on the experience. The man was our saviour! ‘Just go down there and you can see them for free’ he said. The day was saved.As I lay on the beach watching their (infrequent) antics and waded and swam as close as I could to the rocks, I realised how very lucky we are and although there have been a few annoyances along our journey we are having the most amazing time. We travelled back to Camps Bay tired and happy and even the return journey over Chapman’s peak with me on the sheer drop side barely disturbed our contentment.

Our stroll to the Cod Father for an amazing fish dinner (I’d have liked to have said fish supper as it sounds better but Rob may have, on the spot, divorced me so I’ll stick to dinner) followed by an excellent performance of The Mousetrap at Theatre on the Bay rounded off another perfect day.

Friday 14th

After an early breakfast, a short swim in the pool and a goodbye stroll along the beautiful beach we packed up the car and left Camps Bay. Although we felt sad, especially as it was our last destination before leaving this amazing continent, we’re pretty sure we’ll be back. Xx