We were both a little tired when we got to the backpackers so lets just say we had no time for the stressed out manager giving us grief about not having a booking. Eventually she gave us a room and then invited us to join her on Long Street. Long Street became our second home, it is the backpacker street in Capetown loaded with pubs. Both Dave and I had some catching up to do for the dry and dusty traveling that we had been forced to endure for the last 2 months, so we drank and drank than drank some more!! I can honestly say that I have not drunk so much alcomahole ever in the 6 days before Dave left! We were staying in a dorm room and of course coming home at 5am to start a conversation about midgets doesn't go down too well. Funny though!! We had some grand plans for Capetown but instead its mystical charm (and the beers) drained away any motivation we had left. However one day we did manage to go for a trundle up Table Mountain which provides a stunning back drop for this beautiful city. It was a easy hike and we did manage to get some photos but it did make us thirsty so we met up with Dries (a south African doctor I used to work with in nam) and he introduced us to brandy and the national shot 'springbok'. It was a fun night however it did make us seedy for the shark dive the next day!
The shark dive was organized by an old high school friend who had a stop over in Cape
town on his way back to oz. His sole purpose of the stop over was to dive with the great white sharks, something which I also had an interest in. So after a flat white and a pie (yes you read correctly) I jumped into a van and slept until a gumbooted, chum smelling local gave me a prod with his scaly hand to inform me that I had arrived at 'shark alley'. I tried to act lively as I climbed on board the boat. I was much more lively when I jumped into the water. I have never been in water that cold before, freeze headaches and all!! It was soon forgotten when the first great white swam by. He was only a small tucker by jaws standards (3.5m) however it was enough to get the heart racing. We saw two more about the same size come up the chum trail. It was a great experience but unfortunately the weather was quite bad and we had to leave a little early. We finished the day off by having dinner at camps bay as we watched the sunset. It was a great day to be alive!
It was a somewhat emotional goodbye to Dave the next day. He was a great traveling buddy although he did manage to steal all of the 'reasonable looking, extremely talkative, volunteer chimpanzee carers' on the trip. I guess I saw the positives with him flying back to oz. Nevertheless it was the end of our trip and it was a little sad. Dries picked me up that afternoon so that i could stay with him for my last few weeks in Capetown.
Dries had purchased a few tickets to a cricket match at Newlands, arguably the best cricket stadium in the world!! It was a marvelous day watching NZ take on SA (and lose) whi
lst drinking full strength beer out of 1 litre bottles! I lost interest in the cricket by the end, I think it was the sun. The two Canadians, Kibbin and Danielle, also ended up in Capetown while I was there so they also popped into the cricket, a learning experience for them. I don't think i was the best teacher by the afternoon!!
I was lucky enough to have two good friends of mine from Australia be in Capetown for a wedding while I was there. I spent a couple of days with Nellie and Charlie, it was great to spend time with some friendly Aussie faces. Charlie, the little rascal, proposed to Nellie whilst in Capetown taking advantage of Table Mountain to persuade her decision. Yes was the answer! Exciting!
I became the third wheel of the exceptionally smooth machine that is Kibben and Danielle for a road trip down to cape point. It was an marvellous day (quite rare in Capetown) so we had to take advantage and go for a swim. Again it was in the Atlantic so it was bloody cold. The highlight was, apart from my testicles eventually descending, was swimming with a seal. Eventually the seal beached and I got a few photos. It was not until afterward that we noticed a dead pup on the beach. We wondered if the seal was the pup's mother trying to find her young one. It was a little sad.
I continued ticking the boxes of the famous attractions of Capetown. To the right of this tick was Stellenbosch, the wine country just 40 minutes out of town. I had an excellent guide (the wine connoisseur himself, Dries) to escort me through me the hundreds of wineries in the area. It is a great setting surrounded by mountains and I tasted some beautiful wines. Mind you they all tasted pretty good by the time I had the red smile! I thought to myself that if I lived in Capetown i would quickly become an alcoholic, as if i wasn't already!!
I had heard great things about the 'Garden Route' another box to tick. It is a drive along the southern coast with many beautiful towns along the way. Dries had planned to take me in his four days off, unfortunately this did not quite work out due to Dries's car playing up (dam
n pajeros). However lucky for me Danielle and Kibbin were planning to do the same trip so I tagged along with them, again. It was great fun however we all thought that it was a little overrated. I think we were expecting a great drive, similar to the great ocean road, but it was more about the towns along the way. The pick being Plettenberg Bay or Pletts. We arrived just at the beginning of the South African equivalent of schoolies and apparently Pletts is the Gold Coast. We went to a fat boy slim concert that night which was fun however we felt extremely old!! We drowned our uncomfortable feelings about our age and ended up having quite a fun night!! The three of us finished off the road trip at the wineries again before heading back into town to farewell Simon (the Aussie friend who had a miraculous habit of tracking Dave and I along our travels). I also said goodbye to the Canadians a few days later, which was a little sad as they all had become good traveling companions and great friends. A trip to Vancouver and Melbourne is now on the cards!!
I had been toying with the idea throughout the trip whether to extend the African adventure. Eventually I decided to postpone my flight to Ireland by a couple of months to explore a bit more of the continent. It was a tough decision as it meant that i would not be able to catch up with some very good friends in Ireland before they left but I figured that it would be a while before i returned to Africa!! So I booked a ticket to Namibia and took both Dries and Sarette out to dinner to thank them both for their generous hospitality. It was sad to leave Capetown but it was time to go (both my liver and my bank account thanked me!). New adventures await........
photo link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34253&l=bcc91&id=722635930
lst drinking full strength beer out of 1 litre bottles! I lost interest in the cricket by the end, I think it was the sun. The two Canadians, Kibbin and Danielle, also ended up in Capetown while I was there so they also popped into the cricket, a learning experience for them. I don't think i was the best teacher by the afternoon!!I was lucky enough to have two good friends of mine from Australia be in Capetown for a wedding while I was there. I spent a couple of days with Nellie and Charlie, it was great to spend time with some friendly Aussie faces. Charlie, the little rascal, proposed to Nellie whilst in Capetown taking advantage of Table Mountain to persuade her decision. Yes was the answer! Exciting!
I became the third wheel of the exceptionally smooth machine that is Kibben and Danielle for a road trip down to cape point. It was an marvellous day (quite rare in Capetown) so we had to take advantage and go for a swim. Again it was in the Atlantic so it was bloody cold. The highlight was, apart from my testicles eventually descending, was swimming with a seal. Eventually the seal beached and I got a few photos. It was not until afterward that we noticed a dead pup on the beach. We wondered if the seal was the pup's mother trying to find her young one. It was a little sad.
I continued ticking the boxes of the famous attractions of Capetown. To the right of this tick was Stellenbosch, the wine country just 40 minutes out of town. I had an excellent guide (the wine connoisseur himself, Dries) to escort me through me the hundreds of wineries in the area. It is a great setting surrounded by mountains and I tasted some beautiful wines. Mind you they all tasted pretty good by the time I had the red smile! I thought to myself that if I lived in Capetown i would quickly become an alcoholic, as if i wasn't already!!
I had heard great things about the 'Garden Route' another box to tick. It is a drive along the southern coast with many beautiful towns along the way. Dries had planned to take me in his four days off, unfortunately this did not quite work out due to Dries's car playing up (dam
n pajeros). However lucky for me Danielle and Kibbin were planning to do the same trip so I tagged along with them, again. It was great fun however we all thought that it was a little overrated. I think we were expecting a great drive, similar to the great ocean road, but it was more about the towns along the way. The pick being Plettenberg Bay or Pletts. We arrived just at the beginning of the South African equivalent of schoolies and apparently Pletts is the Gold Coast. We went to a fat boy slim concert that night which was fun however we felt extremely old!! We drowned our uncomfortable feelings about our age and ended up having quite a fun night!! The three of us finished off the road trip at the wineries again before heading back into town to farewell Simon (the Aussie friend who had a miraculous habit of tracking Dave and I along our travels). I also said goodbye to the Canadians a few days later, which was a little sad as they all had become good traveling companions and great friends. A trip to Vancouver and Melbourne is now on the cards!!I had been toying with the idea throughout the trip whether to extend the African adventure. Eventually I decided to postpone my flight to Ireland by a couple of months to explore a bit more of the continent. It was a tough decision as it meant that i would not be able to catch up with some very good friends in Ireland before they left but I figured that it would be a while before i returned to Africa!! So I booked a ticket to Namibia and took both Dries and Sarette out to dinner to thank them both for their generous hospitality. It was sad to leave Capetown but it was time to go (both my liver and my bank account thanked me!). New adventures await........
photo link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34253&l=bcc91&id=722635930
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Originally the dream was about traveling and developing a job that would permit me to travel. And I decided to go into street performing because it was a traveling job; it would let me go around the world.
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