Hello from Cape Town!
It took about 29 hours of travel but we finally made it safe and sound!
Our travel day started out on a positive note. Jun 1st was the inaugural double daily flight from YVR to LHR and we were lucky enough to be booked on this flight!
.@AirCanada launches London double daily service today from YVR: https://t.co/856cygZo9M pic.twitter.com/DgLw9eoeOf
— YVR (@yvrairport) June 2, 2016
Because of the celebratory nature of the flight we were treated to a departures gate full of snacks, music and a “London-esque” theme!
Festivities aside, I was excited to also fly on the Boeing 787-9 “Dreamliner” for the first time. So when we boarded and realized soon after departure that our flight was not full, my travelling companions and I were able to spread out and occupy different rows making for a comfortable Atlantic crossing. The trip had started out really well!
This is probably as good a time as any to introduce my two travelling companions! We’ll call them Muscles and Gimpy! Gimpy simply because she’s recently gone through a major knee surgery and is quickly on the road to recovery, she was the first one to jump on this idea of a trip to Africa with me and we’ve been planning this trip since. Muscles, because he’s very into the Crossfit scene and already has on his list of things to do in Capetown, to find a local Crossfit gym and pick up one of their T-shirts
The flight was non-eventful and we arrived at London Heathrow (LHR) nine hours later, and on time. We had a 7 hour layover, where we explored LHR’s Terminal 3, napped and killed time playing Plants vs. Zombies 2 before beginning the second leg of our journey towards Cape Town!
Unfortunately, we were not able to secure seats together, so we were spread out throughout the flight. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was able to meet a fellow Canadian (and Calgary Flames fan) who was a South African native, and a German father travelling to Cape Town to spend some time a few days with his daughter.
We arrived in Capetown 11 hours later, and our African journey was about to begin! The first thing I noticed, people are really nice! I know this is kind of cliche, but when the passport control officer reviewing your passport is telling you about his favorite seafood places in town and how you should stay the full 90 days of your visitors visa, you notice!
Having no issues with passport control, we were greeted by our G Adventures airport transfers driver with our names on a sign (It’s always cool to see your name on a sign waiting for in the arrivals area of an airport!) We got to meet 4 other travelers that would be with us on our Safari tour, they were a family of professors! We got along great so our next two weeks with this group should be an awesome experience!
We checked into our Hotel, unpacked and settled in. After a short rest and a shower we made our way to Table Mountain.
We chose to take the gondola to the top. Originally we had considered making the hike up, however being on the wrong side of a long two day travel segment, we were all completely fine with riding up! On our way to Table Mountain, many people warned us to have the appropriate clothing for the top of the mountain. Maybe it was the Canadian pride, the lack of sleep, or sheer ignorance, but we thought we were ready for what the mountain could throw at us. Sufficed to say, after about five minutes at the top, we had broken out the windbreakers or down jackets we had in our day packs and were shakily taking whatever pictures we could between lulls in the wind. It wasn’t that the temperature was incredibly cold, but we underestimated the amount of wind and windchill up there. We ducked into the Table Mountain Cafe with the bright idea of picking up some hot drinks to keep our hands warm while we walked the trails around the top. Some advice: If you plan to walk around the top for a longer period of time, keep in mind that there didn’t seem to be any garbage bins on the trails, so if you end up finishing your drink (like we did) you will need to hang onto the cup until you return to the cafe, shop or gondola station. All in all, the trails around the top are easy to navigate and the views are SPECTACULAR and well worth any momentary discomfort we experienced. People say its a “must visit” when you come to Cape Town and I would agree. Just make sure you prepare for the varying weather conditions at the top.
Dinner was next and we found a great restaurant directly behind our hotel: Fork.
It is a Spanish South-African fusion Tapas restaurant and we almost ordered everything on their menu! It was recommended that we order around two dishes per person, so for the three of us we ordered seven! Then another 3, then desert 🙂
The food was great! We enjoyed every dish and had we not been stuffed probably would have ended up ordering more!
All in all, it has been a loooong day of travel and we were glad to return to our rooms to turn in. We got a lot in today, and its only the beginning… So far this trip has already helped us make some amazing memories and we’re looking for many more!
The view from Table Mountain is AMAZE-BALLS!!! Can’t wait to read more posts and updates!
This might just be your best trip ever! SA is awesome! Enjoy the scenery, the food, the people!!