Saturday was a beautiful crisp, sunny day, and Hirsh and I met Nick at the train station and then the three of us took the train down the coast to Muizenberg, one of the Cape’s oldest Dutch settlements which used to be a seaside resort town for the wealthy. It’s truly beautiful, and we were dropped off right on the beach by the train. There was this really cool row of little colored beachside houses, and the rocky hills rising above the coast were just incredibly beautiful.
Then we walked down the beach through St. James to Kalk Bay, which is this gorgeous fishing village with lots of craft shops and cafes.
We went to this restaurant that this guy on the train had recommended to me called the Brass Bell, which has two patios overlooking the tidal pools and the fishing harbor.
We had some DELICIOUS pizza there (one of them had avocado, cranberry sauce, a spicy sauce, and feta and was amazing) and then bought some of these really cool animal figurines made out of beads and wires by a local woman. We continued to walk down the coast through Kalk Bay and came to a pier with a daily fish market and some people selling artwork. The best part about the pier was the family of sea lions swimming around right next to the pier. This little boy coaxed the “mother” sea lion out of the water and onto a rock to eat some meat, and then told me that her name was Rose (which I think is a very good name for a mother sea lion).
Then we took a quick bus 5 miles south to Simon’s Town, where we walked about a mile down the famous St. George street (which has a lot of very old colonial-looking guesthouses, pubs and houses).
We finally reached Boulders Beach, where we saw the famous wild colony of African penguins! The beach is so cool- it's a small area with a bunch of huge boulders (hence the name) and the penguins kind of run around and cross your path and hide in bushes. I even found one with two furry little babies!
On our way back into Simon’s town, we saw a random group of American tourists getting into a minivan and we asked if they were heading to Cape Town, thinking it was a public minibus taxi. Turned out it was a private charter, but they let us catch a ride with them back to Cape Town for something like 2 bucks each, which meant we didn’t have to deal with public transportation on the way back! They were really nice guys and are staying in Camps Bay, which is a really upscale area on the western coast of Cape Town. The most eventful part of the ride back was when the driver stopped short, and I, who was sitting in the jump seat, went flying forward and landed in a heap on the floor of the minivan. Awesome.
Hirsh and I were pretty exhausted (especially Hirsh, who had gone with a girl he met at work to this club in a neaby suburb the night before and had gotten 2 hours of sleep) so we didn’t end up going out, but we did have a nice dinner with David at a Thai place called Sawadee near our hotel (there was something on the menu called a “Fashion Sandwich,” which I was intrigued about).
Today was another beautiful, sunny day, so Hirsh and I (after I successfully avoided a run-in with CARL on Kloof street by our hotel) took a cab up to the base of Table moutain and took a cable car up to the top. Truly beautiful views; we were 167 meters up! It was pretty windy and chilly up there even though it was a very nice temperature at the bottom. We also got to see a “dassy” which is a little creature that looks kind of like a bunny without ears and whose closest relative is apparently the African elephant (who knew?).
See the dassy sleeping in the sun in the bottom left of this picture:
Hirsh and I explored a bit and then after an overpriced lunch at the restaurant at the top of the mountain, we headed back down.
Now I’m relaxing for the rest of the day because I’m exhausted from such a busy weekend!
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