Hindsley in Translation: Capetown

Tuesday, 7 August

What a day. I'm totally exhausted. We had an early start because Christna was picking us up to take us into Capetown. My phone actually rang at 6:30 in the morning. I didn't recognize the number and I couldn't think who would be calling me at that hour. It's too early in Europe or UK and too late in NYC. No message. I actually obsessed over it for a little while, then finally shook it off. I regretted caving into the need for technology.

After photo-op-ing FCH, we headed out for the day. Our first stop was to see the penguins at Boulders National Park. They are so cute, and so out-of-place here.

The Welcoming Committee

They used to call these guys "jackass" penguins because their call sounds like a donkey. But I guess the penguins got offended, so now they just call them "African."

"Who you callin' a jackass?"

Anne at Boulders.

Our luck with the weather held out a little longer as we headed out toward Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We took the funicular way up the mountains to get to the place where you hike to Cape Point. Once there, I was reminded not for the first time this trip how out of shape I am. We had to climb up a number of stairs to get to the lighthouse at Cape Point and I was sucking wind. Once I could breathe normally, I realized that it's kind of trippy to be at the tip of Africa.

Cape of Good Hope.
Total misnomer - loads of people died here on their way to the Cape.
They should have called it the Cape of Hope Against Hope.

Cape Point - most southwestern tip of Africa.

Pass the Dutchie.
These old Coke machines were in the funicular waiting area.

Yet another thing baboons and I have in common.

We grabbed a quick lunch and tried to make it to Table Mountain before the weather changed. But our luck ran out. Table Mountain is known for being covered with thick fog (nicknamed the "table cloth") which makes it impossible to see anything. We decided to go up anyway since we were there.

Yup. Can't see anything. And, it was cold!

Later on, as luck would have it, the fog started to clear.

We drove around a bit more and stopped for more scenic photo ops. I really wanted to buy a better camera so we headed off to the V&A Waterfront. Yes, a mall. Wonders never cease.

New camera purchased (contrary to my original belief that the strong dollar conversion would get me a great deal; I paid double what I would have paid in NYC. Bygones.) we headed to our hotel for the night, The Twelve Apostles.

It's a fabulous hotel in Camps Bay, which is actually not a very central location. We didn't care too much since we weren't planning on going out anyway, we had a really early flight out to Johannesburg in the morning.