Cape Town, Oct 19 to 21, 2012

Both of us had a good sleep in Norma's condo, although John was up early to try and contact South African Air to get our luggage. Finally after several attempts he contact someone who said our luggage had been located and we would get it within the next two hours. So we waited and waited and it finally arrived at 12:30 - the joys of traveling! But of course it could have been worse and they might not have found our luggage!! Norma and her dog Pip came and explained about the condo and then decided to show us around the Parklands area of Cape Town. It was raining by this time but ended up having a nice breakfast/lunch at a little cafe by the ocean. Norma is a wonderful women who is so full of life! We then settled into the condo after going to the grocery store(Checkers) and stocking up on provisions. John finally got to cook a dinner and Shirley finally got to do our laundry! Oh the joys of having your own place!!
The next two days were filled with being tourists in Cape Town. Of course driving on the wrong side of the road with a standard gear shift that you change with your left hand takes some getting used to! Shirley has more problems with it than John although she is only the passenger! We drove to down town Cape Town which is about 25 minutes from the condo and went straight to the Victoria and Albert Wharf area. Walked around a bit and found the Ferryman's Pub and had some beers, then bought tickets for the "hop on - hop off" bus, which we have always found is the best way in a big city to get your barrings straight. It was a great 2 1/2 hour tour that included Table Top Mountain, Camp Bay, all of the down town sites. Table Top Mountain cable car was closed because of the high winds. We stayed on the bus for an extra half ride to take us to the craft market and Long Street where we wondered around, finally stopping for appies and beers. Shirley bought a lovely bunch of flowers at the flower market and then we took a cab back to our car and went "home" for a vegetarian dinner made by john.
Next day we drove along the coast through Camp's Bay and unto Hout Bay. Where we lucked into a Sunday craft market right close to Snoekies Fish & Chips. A place we had been told we had to go to for snoek & chips, by Steve Botha and others. We had the combination plate of snoek and hake and both enjoyed the hake more!! We then drove over Chapman Peak, what a fantastic drive all the way down to Cape Point and the Cape of good Hope. The weather was cool and rainy but we did get to the tip where we saw ostriches that walked unto the road right in front of our car! We then drove on to Simons town and had a coffee at an ocean side restaurant and then went out on the beach and played with the penguins. These are African penguins and are as cute as anything we have seen. From here we drove on a road suggested by Steve Botha called "Boyes Drive" and it is a wonderful scenic drive that would have been easy to miss if we hadn't been told about it.Although the day was cloudy and damp we had a wonderful day exploring and again to come "home" to our own place was great. A little side note so that you can get an idea of how great Norma is - we had gone to Checkers to get some wine and cheese when we got home here and we discovered they closed early on Sunday. When we got to the condo Shirley discovered that Norma had sent us an email so she responded with an email and noted that we missed getting any wine or cheese because the stores close early. Next thing we know Norma has brought over cheese and two bottles of wine and left them for us!!!