BootsnAll Travel Blogs

well, Gilly stayed for 2 weeks – we had a ball!

shame was the weather was pretty dodgy (the garden route had 12 inches of rain in 3 days……meaning floods and lots of damage: we stayed at Plettenberg Bay at a beautiful hostel with a near deserted beach which is reputed to be one of the best…it was a fab beach, except it had a massive 20m wide line of driftwood right along its length from the storms!..and a nearby beach which cordons off a salt water lagoon completely disappeared!!! we had some good weather too though (and Gilly managed to burn and peel a bit just to prove it!)

best place we stayed was BuffelsDrift which was an airconditioned TENT with en-suite bathroom right up against a lake, i.e. we had a small deck which actually went out over the water. we also had the best meals: one at CapeTown Fish Market, which is a chain of restaurants…beautiful meals on both occasions that we went there.

basically our route was Cape Town, Bettys Bay, Oudtshoorn J-Bay, PE, Plett Bay, Cape Agulhas, Cape Town again. we went White Shark watching from a boat, safari drive at Buffalosdrift and Addo reserve, beach walking eating, drinking, went to the southernmost point in Africa went to the penguin colony, had a boat trip out of CT on a beautiful catamaran (where the crew did there best to get us drunk on sparkling wine …no idea how much we had…but it was a lot!) climbed Table Mountain….OK we climbed it in a cable car, so what?! ;^) and watched the sunset at Signal hill in CT

a great trip…just too short a time with Gilly!

Air con fixed and a nice cool drive thru into Cape Town. bit of a laff getting in as it was rush hour and I hadnt a clue where I was heading!…but I got to the Backpack hostel without crashing or killing anyone, so that was good.

nice hostel underneath Table Mountain: I had a beer (LOW ACOHOL , MA!) while watching the clouds literally pour down the mountainside. Met a couple of girls I met at J-Bay (nurses from Edinburgh) and had a beer with them and their smashed ozzie mate (they’d been on a wine tour) then an early night.

Sharp up next morning and got to the cable car an hour before it opened. but at least I was first on – and off at the top of Table Mountain . BEAUTIFUL view over the tops and down to the city and Camps bay. a quick brekkie at the top and I headed back down. down to the V&A harbour area where I took a trip on IQ: a beautiful modern catamaran which took us out and around the bay for a couple of hours….for 7 quid!. then a walk around the shops and a drive over to CAmps Bay, wher I plodged in the surf and walked the beach for a couple of hours (I needed the rest!) then back up to Signal Hill to watch the sun set…along with a whole load of couples and groups, which made me feel a lot like Billy No Mates! but it was nice sitting and chilling with the clouds milling around the mountain and Robben Island (where Mandela was held prisoner) in the distance.

Anyhoo, then it was bcak to the new hostel (CapeTown backpackers) and get a shave ready for the wife to arrive!!!!!

22:29 and the plane arrived……how good is it to see Gilly?……DAMN good!…I forgot how pretty she was!

Sadly, she brought UK weather with her, so that night and the next day it CHUCKED it down with mega high winds too! ..so no mountain to see, no harbour walks or sails and deffo no sunbathing!