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We woke up this morning to some sunshine so we packed ourselves up and took a trip on one of the big red special busses we had always swore we would never use. After a lot of giggling, a little drooling and possibly some window licking we were off.
Our first stop was the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. It had a great view looking back over the town and sits right at bottom of the mountains, so it was really picturesque but being the uncultured Bra girls that we are it didn't have much to hold our attention for long.
Our big red bus then took us to Constantia Nek ... a winery ... uh oh!! It so pretty around there and the buildings are heritage listed and blah blah blah, there was drinking to be done. For 33 rand, which converts to $4 aud we were given a tasting of five wines of our choice. The size of the tastings that she poured us were very, very generous so after tasting number two she had a couple of flushed cheeked, giggling aussies on her hands. We did nothing to secure the reputation of australians being able to hold their liquor I'm sorry to say. We were certainly not as organised as the Brazilian woman that came in not long after us, paid her 33 rand and then pulled out her Camembert cheese and salami to enjoy with her tasting. We could've stayed there for the rest of the day but the special bus was calling so we necked our last couple of glasses and ran for the bus with our a lovely bottle of bubbles under our arm.
The next stop. World of birds!! Anyone who knows me would wonder what the hell I was doing going to this place but the sign said there was also a monkey land there so we went in search of the monkeys. Well if you ever find yourself in this part of the world, have a completely irrational fear of birds but would like to see some monkeys, don't be fooled. There is not one monkey in the place. They send you off into a maze of cages with a map that doesn't really tell you where to go. There was a lot of girly squeals from me and shooing from Elstub and the closest thing to a monkey we came across was a crazy Scottish woman who was fascinated with a big black bird that said hello. Where is that bloody bus?!
We were then on our way to the Imizamo Yethu township. This is one of the black townships that are around the area and one of the people that live there take you through the community and show you how they live. It was such a sobering experience and I was now quite pleased that we didn't go there straight from the winery with a belly full of wine. It is such a contrast to drive through Constantia where the homes are huge mansions then turn the corner to the shanti town where people make their homes out of scraps that they find. Our guide told us that unemployment was really bad in the town. They are paid 100 rand a week in benefits which most of them waste in the pub on the day they are paid. I wanted to take so many photos, and she did tell me that we could take them, but I just felt it was really disrespectful for this white girl with a camera that is probably worth more than they will earn this year going through their town taking holiday pics. There was a group of little girls that were following us for a while and the guide told us they wanted us to take their photo so Elstub kneeled down and they all jumped on her, literally, and I snapped a couple of photos. They loved it.
We then headed Camps Bay which is a beautiful beach front town. While we were there we noticed that the clouds that had covered Table Mountain since we arrived had gone so we jumped in a taxi and headed up to the cable car. The mountain is so high that you can feel your ears pop when your heading up. Once up there the views were amazing!! We were completely unprepared though and it was so cold and windy and we only had our hoodies on so there was a lot of teeth chattering. We headed back down, jumped back on our bus and went home.
Phew what a day!!
Weather report - sunshine and a top of 18 today. It was beautiful around Camps Bay this afternoon so we are quietly confident that we'll be fine on Wednesday but I don't want to speak too soon.
- comments
Romy I look forward to reading your news first thing every morning when I come into work, and I wasnt disappointed this morning. I am only sorry that my computer system doesnt allow me to open up your pic's