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Hi everybody!
Apologies for the time passed since the last update, we have been very busy having fun and frolicking (!) and unfortunately Africa seems to have very few internet cafes!
Since the last update we have actually changed country but we will fill you in with what happened before then.
Hermanus was beautiful and had very high potential to be a place we could retire to, though we are only 22 so thats not top of our agenda (maybe it was the nightlife which inspired us!). The beaches there were beautiful and we had a picnic whilst watching the whales which came in really close to the shore. Unfortunately, many of the activities which we wanted to do in Hermanus became unavailable. The wine tour was fully booked and the sharks had a cold or something (according to Debbie) so shark cage diving was off the cards too (for now...)! We decided to move onto Cape Town.
We arrived at CT on Tuesday (3/10) and stayed in a room reminiscent of a mental institute (white walls, white sheets, white monkeys dancing, always dancing for me). After we both decided that we could (and should) beat up the guy who recommended the room, we moved onto long street which is a really long street in the centre of Cape Town. This hostel was much nicer.
On wednesday (after moving to the new hostel) we decided to climb table mountain (thats right, I said "climb" not "elevate' in a cable car as certain members of the party would have liked! im looking at you debbie). 2 hours and 1000 vertical meters of moaning later, our relationship was suffering but the wonderful views and slight euphoria brought by the lack of oxygen brought us back together again. Seeing cape town from 1km up was pretty amazing. We got the cable car back down and then headed to the Waterfront (a bit like the Quayside but without the geordies) where we had a lovely italian meal and some drinks in a live Jazz bar. Rumour was that Carlos Santana was supposed to perform with the band that night but he didnt turn up, they were amazing anyways. After a few too many Gin martinis, we zig zagged back to the hostel.
On thursday we went beach hunting and found ourselves at Camps Bay, the nearest that Cape Town has to a sunset strip. This was a nice lazy sunbathing day so not too much to report except that the beach was beautiful as were the people who were using it (we fitted in well with our pale skin and cheap suglasses)
On friday we wanted more beach time so we ventured to Clifton, which is an area famed with the locals for having the nicest beaches. There are 4 beaches in clifton and somehow we managed to end up at the gay one (we were told which one to avoid but managed to forget! again, Im looking at you Debbie) After a couple of hours of tanned men skimping about in speedos (Alec doesnt appreciate that you need to LIE DOWN to get a tan) we visited Robben Island, a former Jail where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years. This was a very emotional tour as we found out the conditions in which the many political prisoners lived and how they were treated. Our tour guide was an ex convict who spent 7 years there during the end of the apartheid where the conditions were at their worst. When asked about his treatment, he said he had been told not to show tourists his scars but they would tell the story better then he could.
On saturday, we met up with Lee and Gemma again and visited the markets in the town centre and Cape Town's world famous botanical gardens (this was Alec's suggestion, I think too much time on Clifton's third beach affected his decision making skills)(in my defense, it was very pretty). We then moved from the noisy hostel to a peaceful guesthouse owned by Gemma's mum. We were treated to an evening "Braai" (an African BBQ) cooked by Kim and Dave (Gemmas mum and stepdad) and retired to our en-suite room fully stuffed - who ever said backpacking was supposed to be hard?!
On sunday we went on a tour of the cape peninsula which involved seeing many places along the coastline south of Cape Town. This included a penguin sanctuary (see the pics), Tom Cruise's house, the most South Western point of the African continent and a ligthouse. The drive around the peninsula was beautiful, with many of the roads cut out of the side of the mountains.
On monday, Dave kindly took us 4 kids through to the wine town of Stellenbosch. We visited the Simonseg winery and vinyard and got to sample several wines including South Africa's champagne (they couldnt use the name since the French stole it!). I felt that the Pinotage had a very heady bouquet and a good sweet palette (debbie has just informed me that I have a palette, not the wine. Either way, it was nice and got me drunk at 11am)
On tuesday (dreaded tuesday as it is now known) we woke at 6am and awaited our transport back to Hermanus as Debbie finally felt brave enough to go shark cage diving (though she had now roped me in too!). We arrived at the venue at 9:30 and after a short breifing, got a taxi out to the main boat. From here, we were taken into deeper waters where we sat and waited for the sharks to smell the slurry trail which we were feeding into the water. After about an hour, the sharks arrived (AAARGH!), the worst being a 5m long black coloured great white. After the captain had managed to get a couple of sharks to circle the boat, we got into the cage (Debbie was brave and got in first, though she did hold my hand for a lot of it). The water was very cold but that wasnt worrying us too much, more the impending danger of the shark infested waters. The general process was that the captain would dangle a rotten piece of tuna in the water and then when a shark approached, pull it towards the cage and out of the water. This meant that on more than one occasion, the sharks would crash into the cage, generally at Debbie's end! We were in the water for about half an hour, by which time Debbie was taunting and even encouraging the sharks, quite recklessly if you ask me. I managed to get her out of the cage and dried off then we headed back to dry land (feeling a little queesy).
Since tuesday was our last night in SA, the four (Alec, Debs, Lee and Gemma) of us decided to go out for a meal to Africa Cafe. This is in the centre of Cape Town and is a lot of fun since the waitresses bring out a sample of each item on the menu for you to try and then if you want more then you can ask for it. Partway through the meal (feast), the waitresses all came into the room and sang traditional african songs for us (though we were dissapointed that tight fit's "the lion sleeps tonight' was not in their reportois - and they didnt do requests!)
On wednesday (11/10) we left Cape Town at midday for singapore and waved goodbye to our first country on the round world trip. We are both going to miss SA very much and all (most) of the people we have met there but we have plans to come back as soon as possible.
Thanks for all of your messages we will try to reply to as many of them as possible individually soon, all our love, Alec and Debs
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