Epic Adventure -- Day 9 -- 07/09/2012 -- Cape Town

Waking us all up at 6:30 in the morning, Chantel was kind enough to drive us to Muizenberg before she had to go to work, so we could pick up our car. I say our car but really the car belongs to a very very kind and generous man called Alasdair who offered to lend it to us, as all our other plans for a car for this road trip fell to pieces around our heads. When I researched the logistics of getting a car for this honeymoon adventure of ours, a friend of mine was going through the same process and decided to buy a car in the UK and ship it over through SA to Botswana for their 1 month trip. It turned out to be a lot more complicated and expensive than I had imagined, which is when Alasdair saved the day! Buying a car in SA that we could count on being reliable was also too expensive for us so really, he and my godfather Doug are the reasons we are able to enjoy this adventure for the next 4 months :D

Doug is a very talented mechanic with a shop in Muizenberg and is the only reason that the land rover is now in brilliant shape to survive the long trip we need it to take for the next few months. Doug performed all the necessary repairs on the car, Alisdair paying for the work that was required for the car to be roadworthy, and we paid for the work to ensure the car would survive the journey we are about to take it on. We arrived in Muizenberg at about half seven in the morning and met Doug at his workshop. He told us that the car would not be ready until about 14:00, as there were still the back suspension to put in and a couple of test drives to take her on to make sure she was all good and so offered to drive us to Surfers Point so we could have a walk around and check out the local shops and small towns along the coast towards the Cape of Good Hope.

It is so beautiful there. The beach goes on for miles and is such a popular surfers hotspot because the waves develop perfectly on such a straight beach. It is also home to seal island, which has shark infested waters...... Not sure I would be such an avid surfer but they all seem to love it! Doug recommended we eat at Empire Cafe, owned by a friend of his. We ate upstairs in the cafe as it had great views of the beach and sea and a little sunny spot for us to park ourselves in. They do brilliant scrambled eggs there so we both had an eggy yummy breakfast, fresh orange juice and hot drinks each :) We also rang Jessie from the cafe as it had free wifi!

We then walked along the path that runs by the sea and stopped at a patch of rocks and sat down to watch some seals who chose to come say hi. The pathway is very beautiful and scenic, everyone who lives along that road must love to wake up every morning. We walked along to the next town, called Kalk Bay, and sat and had a fanta and an ice pop in a graveyard also overlooking the sea and mountains. Dan and I then pretended we had a real house to live in and went into all the furniture and antiques stores to browse around for things we couldn't buy :)

Along the way we found an art gallery. Popping in to have a look at all the artwork, I fell in love with a painting there. About 1m square, the painting depicts a woman walking home to her village after what you imagine to be a long day of work. The artist, Lazarus Ramatsong, has used materials on the canvas, such as actual corrugated iron, sticks and grass, rocks and cloth to make the painting three dimensional, and then painted over the top of it. I F
find it incredibly evocative and could stare at it for day's. Problem is its R24 995, so we will have to come back to that one :)

We then trundled up to a cute kitchen type vintage store, with old fashioned cooking implements and ice chests. Another place had a cat called Cosmo who was a great and really lying cat, but when she wanted to play her claws came out, and she managed to scratch Dan, but she was just playing so we couldn't be cross. There was also a really beautiful hand crafted copper bathtub which I really wanted, I think Dan is starting to realise what expensive taste I have, besides our juice box budget as he put it! :D
We then stopped in the back of the same shop, with great views of the sea, to eat pancakes. Well, what I mean to say is that I ate a yummy nutella pancake while Dan just had a coffee. It really was a great pancake, he missed out!

Walking back along the path towards Muizenberg, Dan then asked me if I had ever flattened a coin on train tracks before, which I hadn't, so we found a spot of track that we could just sit next to and watch the sea, while we waited for a train to come along and squish the two different (one old one new) R5's he put on the track. It was so cool! The train ran over the coins twice before they got bumped off, the older more plain one is very flat and oblong now but you can still see it was a R5 and the newer multi tone R5 looks great, half of it squished and half didn't, it's really interesting. Good thing the train came along just then as two train guards walked along the tracks checking the connections, and I'm sure they wouldn't have appreciated the coins on the tracks :D We ran into a group of teenagers who looked as though they wanted their picture taken, so I offered and they gratefully accepted, and then they asked dan to join in the photo too, so below is my own copy.

We walked back to a liquor store we had seen earlier and bought Doug and all the other mechanics who worked on the car, whose name is Snolly, a box of beers and some champagne to say a very big thank you for helping us! Doug took us over all the mechanical bits of the car we need to keep and eye on, like the coolant level and oil etc, and we were ready to go! I was a little (read - a lot) terrified of driving such a huge car in comparison to the small little lump I have become accustomed to, but I got used to it pretty quickly and the sat nav took us back home safely to Chantel's flat. After a quick shower, Dan, Chantel, Karl and relaxed on her balcony, each of us with a glass of J C Le Roux champagne amd stunning stunning views of Cape Town and Table Mountain.

Chantel dropped a bag of chips on the floor while we were sat outside, I think she had had a little too much by then ;) her friends, Nicola and Dries, came from Stellenbosch and we all went out to the Slug and Lettuce, Chantel ordered a snake bite for me (beer, cider and black current juice) and a beer for Dan. While us girls were chatting to one another, also now on the second round of drinks, the boys sneakily ordered everyone a jäger bomb! Our next port of call was the Saints Burger Joint for, you guessed it, burgers! Everyone but me also had 6 different beer tasters, Dan happily finished off all the ones that people didn't enjoy :)

We weren't in the last place long, long enough to have a couple of beers, then a taxi and off to bed!