As the title implies, today’s activities consisted of riding a bus, walking a beach and taking a boat around the harbour. And that concludes today’s blog.

Well, you didn’t think that you were going to get off that easy did you?

Being a Sunday, we started our day going to mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral about a kilometre from our apartment. The day was already hot as we walked to church but the church was quite cool inside. The congregation consisted of a 70/30 split between black and white. The 70 year old priest was black with an awesome sense of humour. The mass proceeded as most do but just before the final hymn and dismissal, the priest called on a couple of people to come forward and they actually did a raffle draw.  This took about 10 minutes as they raffled hair care products, fondue sets and dinners for two. I found this a little bizarre but it did not seem out of the ordinary here. People also seemed to come and go at will during mass. They say that Cape Town is pretty laid back and time is but a suggestion. I guess this applies to church as well. After church, as we headed for home, the backyard of the church was full of people laughing, talking and generally enjoying each other. This is definitely a community event here.

After a quick stop at home to change and pick up supplies for the day (water and money), we hopped on our first HOHO bus that would take us on a mini peninsula tour around the mountains of Cape Town. We rode by Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens which is nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain and is considered one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world.  We continued on past historical vineyards on our left and forests on our right. We passed very affluent neighbourhoods, complete with walls, fences and electric wire, tucked in beside tin shack townships that loomed off the hills accusing us all of our lack of compassion for their plight. We almost got off the bus at Hout Bay to take a boat to Seal Island to see some seals – of course. However, we realized the next boat did not leave for another couple of hours so we stayed on the bus and got off at Camps Bay – the beach that we drove by yesterday. We stopped for a bite to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were asked by you, our readers, to post some pictures of the food that we are eating. So far we have eaten nothing out of the ordinary here. We are trying to limit ourselves to one meal out per day and so far this is usually mid afternoon. We have had tomato soup, salad, chicken mexican rice, pizza, nachos, and at the Hard Rock an appetizer platter that consisted of chicken wings, onion rings, chicken tenders, spring rolls and brushetta. So, as you can see, nothing picture worthy yet. After our lunch, we wandered out to the beach. Being a Sunday and quite hot, it was very crowded with tourists and locals alike. As we walked closer to the water, you could feel the air getting cooler. This is because the water is freaking COLD!! I am sure that Richard will post the picture of me with my mouth wide open in absolute shock as the waves hit the backs of my legs!!

There are miles and miles of beaches in Cape Town so we only explored one little portion today. We got back on our HOHO bus and started our way through the traffic along the coast. Yesterday the ride to the wharf took about 10 minutes – today, a half hour. Even our Uber driver (who picked us up downtown at the end of the day) said that he avoids that area as much as possible due to the traffic. We got off at the Wharf and jumped on a catamaran that took us on a hour long Harbour cruise. It gave us some new views of Table Mountain and it helped us envision how the first European explorers first saw the Cape. (without all the buildings of course). After the cruise we decided to take the Cape Wheel (fashioned after the London wheel) as it was also included in our package. After seeing Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain, the views from the wheel were a little slack. But it gave us a nice opportunity to relax with the world at our feet (so to speak). HOHO buses stop running about 6:30 so we took an Uber back to our apartment. Another quiet evening at home and back out to explore tomorrow. I think maybe – wine country?

 

 

Yep, the Water is Very Cold as you can tell by the look on Col’s face….

 

 

On the Big Cape Wheel which was a bit Anti Climatic at the end of the day…

 

 

And last but least I present another local South African Beer.