We decided to spend our first full day in Cape Town heading down to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. This might not have been the best idea, considering that although the drive was beautiful, and all along the coast, there was a silly amount of construction going on. We stopped off in Muizemberg and walked through some antiques stores. Then drove through Fish Hoek and Simon’s Town where shortly after, we stopped off to oggle some penguins waddling around, before driving down to and stopping off at Cape of Good Hope + Cape Point.
In one of the antiques stores, a woman with a camera around her neck told us to stick around for high tide. With the lunar eclipse, the waves were bound to be even bigger than usual. We would have loved to, but instead we knew we had to make our way down to the Capes. It was fun meandering through the shops though before we left.
Our friends warned us that penguins have a mean bite, so I avoided petting them even when they got super close like this little guy did. On our way to the Cape of Good Hope, a few cars were pulled over off the side of the road. They were looking at wild ostriches. There were four of them in total. Gigantic. Just hanging out along the side of the road in between the beach snacking on the foliage.
The Cape of Good Hope was beautiful. It was also full of tourists. I think we arrived smack in the middle of a Chinese tour bus unloading. At least while we were sitting on the rocks admiring the view, an adorable couple decided to take a few pictures of each other directly in front of us. Normally I’d get all “C’mon… Seriously???” on them, but I thought they were so cute, I decided to snap a few pictures of them myself.
Posing for pictures in front of the Cape of Good Hope sign turned into a bit of a comedy routine jockeying for a spot in between the Chinese. All other tourists (non-Chinese) stood around dumbfounded about how to go about slipping in for a picture. If they handed their camera off, a Chinese tourist would hand them their camera to take a picture of them instead. During my attempt with the sign, I simply started photo-bombing any and all Chinese who couldn’t wait for their turn. The poor girl taking our picture was super patient, trying to wait for them to move, until finally I told her “Don’t worry, it’ll be great, we’ll just pose with him…” but she was a bit apprehensive, trying to figure out if I was being serious or sarcastic.
Having enough of the tourists at Cape of Good Hope, we got back in the car to head up to Cape Point. The peak above Cape Point is higher, and feeling a bit pressed for time, we decided to take the funicular up to the top. It proved to be another beautiful view, but one that was again, full of other tourists jockeying for their own photos. We didn’t stay long.
We had planned on going on an evening climb up Table Mountain with a group organized by our hostel when we got back from both Capes. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic again. We skipped having a late lunch due to time constraints, so by the time we got back, we were starving, and again, after driving and sitting through traffic, I was feeling rather worn out. We attempted to go out for some quick take-out and then decided it simply wasn’t worth it. Instead, we canceled going on the climb and opted for burgers and beer instead.
Sometimes I feel like I’m being a bad traveler when I skip out on plans because I feel worn out. I should sleep when I’m dead or at least think something along those lines, right? But then Andrew reminds me it’s ok to take a few steps back, and I am usually glad when we do.
