The Big Five: Waterfront, Table Mountain, Robben Island, Cape Point, and Wine lands.-Part 2

Cape Town, South Africa continued...The next morning, Saturday, February 21st, Kristina and I woke up early to meet up with our friend Mike and his other friends Rachel and Karen to hike Table Mountain (a mountain which overlooks Cape Town). We also picked up our friends Sarah and Jana who joined us later in our hike. It was a tough route for me but others found it a little easier. After about two hours, we made it to the top and though it was a little foggy, we enjoyed the view of the mountain and the city of Cape Town. It was beautiful and felt as if you were walking in a cloud. We did see some SAS kids repealing down the side which was pretty cool, but that cost 900 rand…so I didn’t think it was worth it. We ate lunch at the Table Mountain Café and tried a Briochstadt? It was like a hot dog but with sausage and it had a tomato sauce on top (but no ketchup really) and sweet chili sauce. I didn’t order that, but I tried Kristina's and it was good. I had a plate of different combinations which included curry chicken with potatoes, a Greek Salad (sort of), a mushroom like risotto, lentil type mixture of something which was delicious.
To celebrate the accomplishment of making it to the top, I bought a bottle of South African Champagne and everyone helped pitch and shared it in celebration. That was a lot of fun and it was good champagne too. We then took the cable car down and our cab driver we had hired for the day was waiting for us. Some of our group went back to the ship and some came with us. It ended up being Sarah, Kristina, Karen, Jana, and I who went first to Simmonstown to see the South African penguins. There was a ton of them and we were able in one part to actually stand in the water right next to them. They were pretty cool but I honestly felt like I was in an aquarium. A lot of people really liked the penguins but I just didn’t think they were that big of a deal. We had also seen them on Robben Island too, so perhaps that’s why I wasn’t as excited about it. There was a few little shops there we looked at and eventually got back in the car, drove through Kalk Bay and then we headed towards Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope was beautiful, it was as if you were in a movie and the entire world was at your feet. You could see all around the edges of South Africa. It was so beautiful and truly breath-taking. I will try uploading some photos but it is hard to describe it if you weren’t there. Guess you’ll just have to visit South Africa now. We then went to Cape Point, which is the lowest tip of the African continent which was pretty sweet and we took a picture of the sign. It was nice to know I have literally been to the edge of Africa. :-)
We eventually drove back to Cape Town which took a little over an hour and the scenery was beautiful. We had an interesting conversation with our cab driver about women’s rights and how it was like to visit and live in the townships. It was interesting to hear about things which in Cape Town was considered normal. He had two wives and we were so surprised he asked us if we were married and our husband asked to marry another woman why we wouldn’t oppose the idea. In his community, it is seen as weak to refuse.
It was an interesting conversation and I learned a lot from this one man who felt it would be fine if women had more rights, but he said not all of his friends felt that same way.
Eventually we thanked him, returned to the ship and cleaned up for dinner. This was around 7:30-8 pm already and we were all exhausted and hungry. We ended up just walking around the waterfront and ate at a place called Meloncino. I was a little tired and frustrating for being with the people I had been with all day to spend dinner with as well, but I also was very low on sleep. I also was waking up early the next morning as well, which you’ll read about it in a bit. The restaurant we had dinner at though was fantastic. I tried an oyster which I really enjoyed! We also had the best calamari ever. It was light, crispy, flavorful, and tasted so delicious! I could eat that calamari for the rest of my life. No dipping sauce was necessary what-so-ever. I had a delicious pizza with this crust and all kinds of interesting things on it; I just asked to have the waiter’s favorite. It was amazing.
We then all ordered this INCREDIBLE dessert. This literally was better than…well lots of other things in life. It was absolutely amazing. It had this chocolate cover thick shell on top (not hard or liquid, soft enough to cut through easily) of this two layer little thing a little larger than the size of a cupcake. The top layer was this vanilla crème like texture, almost like fudge or ice cream but it didn’t melt or taste like fudge.
It was a perfect contrast with the bottom which was chocolate and a little richer and it was similar to fudge like texture as well. All together with the chocolate coating the two layers tasted amazing. I literally ate the entire thing. We all ordered the same thing and it was even more amazing to experience it all together. I literally wrote an entire page about this dessert in my journal. One day I hope to find out what it was and somehow make it. Man, was it sensual. We eventually walked back to the ship after figuring out the bill and went to bed around midnight.
At 4:45 sharp my alarm went off and I met my friend Chris outside at 5 am for the van to pick us up for…WHITE SHARK CAGE DIVING! Yes I did it! We drove for two hours had some breakfast and filled out our forms at their office and then got to the harbor to get on the boat. We all got on just fine and went out about twenty minutes to a good spot. The way it worked was the cage was attached to the boat and we would have five people in the cage at one time, we all wore goggles and would hold our breath and duck underwater when the shark came close. We were all in wetsuits because the water was about 53 degrees. The actually shark diving was awesome, even though it was FREEZING. We saw a total of four sharks! It was low season, so that was pretty good for one day. We saw a 12 foot male, a 5 foot baby male, and two 8 foot female sharks. They literally came right up to the cage when you were in the water. It was sooooo cool!! I’m really glad I did it. I really wasn’t nervous at all, mostly because when I wasn’t in the water, I was seasick the entire time. It was pretty bad, most people got sick and I have yet to get sea sick on this trip.
On the ship it can get pretty rocky, but hasn’t really affected me at all. I have taken dramamine a few times just as a precaution, but never wore the patch (some people are addicted to it) and it’s fine. But, that day it was not fun to be seasick. It was worth it and I’m glad I did it, but I was happy to get off that boat when we were finished. Afterwards we headed back, watched our video and had a little lunch at the office before driving back to the ship.
As soon as we got back I really only had a little over an hour to get anything else I wanted in port before I returned to the ship for good. The line can get pretty long so even though we have to be back by 6, you really get in line around 4-5 pm just to be safe. Otherwise if you’re late, you get dock time in the next port, which would SUCK. I ran to the grocery store and as per request the girls I met at Shabbat dinner and they told me to take back as much candy and chocolate I could find because I can’t get it in the US. So, that’s exactly what I did (Emily you would be so proud, I will try to bring it back to the US for you to enjoy). $400 Rand or about $40 US later, I had bought candy, snacks, chips, nuts, and other snacks I knew I could bring on the ship (it just has to be sealed, so not fruits or alcohol). I stopped at Melissa’s to try their hot chocolate to go, which basically is nutella spread around the lining of a cup and a milk and chocólately mixture poured inside it. It was pretty good and I discovered I actually really like nutella. Then I decided last minute to race over to the restaurant last night and nicely asked the manager (who I had met last night) if I could get a calamari order to go and I had to be on the ship in twenty minutes. Ten minutes later I was out that door with a smile on my face and a paper bag in my hand. It was totally worth it and I’m pretty sure I will never forget that my last moments in Cape Town were spent scarfing down delicious hot calamari. It was amazing. I enjoyed every moment I had here and there are so many places and things I didn’t have a chance to do. I loved South Africa, but I had wished I was more exposed to the poverty that happens there in the townships and other areas of town. One day, I will visit these places and hopefully they will be in a better state than when I left and perhaps just don’t exist anymore. This was an amazing place and just like everywhere I went, I want to go back more than ever. Someday perhaps, anyone else want to come along?