more Cape Town adventures - day 2

Well, a couple of these pictures are leftover from day 1, but I like them so they made the cut. The first two are still from our cape tour, from Hout Bay. The boat ride was surprisingly wet...we tried to sit in the front and they warned us about getting drenched. They were right. I should probably have kept my fancy camera in its bag...but then how would I get awesome close ups of seals??



This monkey was BAD. He was sitting on tops of all the cars, trying to break in and find food. Luckily they were all locked. Some Chinese tourists in the car right next to this one kept their door open to take pictures and we were all screaming in English for them to SHUT THE DOOR! Because you don't want that hungry baboon up in your biznass. Finally they did, but goodness they were slow.

Okay, here day 2 starts in earnest. We got off to a really late start (wanted to sleep in, wash clothes) but then we had this FANTASTIC meal. I will have to live off memories of this meal for months, since Ugandan cuisine consists mainly of rice and beans. And matoke. That langoustine you see there - a cross between a prawn and a lobster - made my food week. Not to mention this meal was eaten on a boardwalk-type street near Camps Bay Beach, and it was completely beautiful outside.


On the red bus tour, the tour earphones pointed out that even though real estate agents advertise this as a "wind free zone," there is clearly wind in this area that is strong enough to tilt the trees over.


I took this magical shot from the top of the red bus. Looking back over Camps Bay Beach.


Well, you're supposed to climb Table Mountain when you go to Cape Town, or at the very least ride the cable car to the top. We somehow failed to do either (mostly because of poor planning), even though it was the only thing we had planned to do before we got there. Super fail. But here's a shot of me from the spot where the cable car line starts! Obviously I'm still on the bus.


Since we failed at doing the most iconic hike Cape Town has to offer - we resolved to go up Lions Head at sunset and have a picnic at the top. Unfortunately, when Cape Townians write their guide books, they call this hike "easy" and "fast." As two relatively out-of-shape hikers with a bit of a fear of heights, we found this hike neither easy or fast and actually didn't even make it to the top, since some guy on his way down told us "....it's getting dark, you guys need to head down." I guess we looked like n00bs from the word go. To be true, everyone else on the mountain was running (or hopping, more like) up and down it, which is bizarre because there were seriously points at which you needed handholds or chains on the rocks to keep climbing.

But check out the view! (Sorry, I can't get this underlining off. It's driving me nuts.)

This really looks like the way to check it out, if you're willing to jump off a mountain.

Once again, it looks like we're at the end of the world.

As high as we got. You can't tell, but I'm terrified here. This is where I put up the big fancy camera and get serious about getting off this mountain. Haha.


At least I did get a few beautiful pictures of the sunset with my smaller point and shoot.

And finally we reached the bottom, right on time:

San Francisco is beautiful, but Cape Town may be the most beautiful city I've ever seen. Everywhere you go there are views and more views, and when you're down in the city you're surrounded by mountains. I am very envious of those that get to live and work there.