Robert's Travels

We were originally scheduled to go cage diving with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa today. Unfortunately, the diving was cancelled due to inclement weather - high winds were forecast and the dive boat was not going to be able to leave the harbour. We had learned this the previous afternoon, which gave us time to organize alternative activities to keep us busy. We slept in a bit and had breakfast at 8:00; we were showered and ready to go shortly before 10:00. The rain was not forecast to start until 13:00, so we decided that our first activity would be a hike up Lion’s Head mountain. We had hoped to take the gondola up Table Mountain, however high winds had closed the gondola for a second day in a row.

The trail head was a short, 10 minute Uber ride from our hotel, and we arrived at the parking lot at 10:20. We began the 5.5 km round trip hike in clear weather - the top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds but the trail we were on had great visibility. The trail began on the east side of the mountain, and took us on a clockwise spiral up the mountain. We were treated to some great views of Camps Bay and the 12 Apostles mountain range as we followed the trail around the mountain. As the trail looped west we began walking into the clouds, and we were able to snatch a few views of the Atlantic and Bantry Bay through the fog but we weren’t able to get a clear view. We continued walking up into the clouds; about two thirds of the way along the trail changed from crushed gravel to stacked rocks and things got a bit slicker. We had to climb a metal ladder secured to the rock, and then reached a junction - we could either continue hiking on the rocks or we could use chains and ‘staples’ to ascend in a more vertical fashion towards the peak. The ‘staples’ were U-shaped pieces of metal secured into the rock to act as hand and foot holds - so named because they look like staples that have not yet been used. We elected to take the more direct route and climbed up on the chains and staples. This was not as difficult as we initially thought it would be - there were roughly 10 staples spread across 2 separate spans. We then had to scramble towards the peak and reached the top after climbing up rocks that were roughly in the form of a staircase.

We reached the peak just after 11:30, and were unfortunately greeted by heavy fog. We were unable to see much of anything. We walked around the peak and got a few photos at the summit sign. We waited for a few minutes and were treated as the winds from the Atlantic temporarily blew the clouds away and we were able to see Camps Bay and the 12 Apostles, as well as the Atlantic ocean. I took some photos, and while I did this the winds continued and cleared the fog from the north side of the peak. We were able to see out to Green Point and Robben Island, and I got some good photos of Todd with this view in the background. Unfortunately the clouds had rolled back in by the time he came to take a photo of me. We decided that we were done at the top, and headed back down towards the parking lot about 20 minutes after reaching the summit. As we descended the clouds had cleared on the western side of the mountain and we had much clearer views of Bantry Bay and the Atlantic coast. We reached the parking lot shortly after 13:00, and then took an Uber to our next destination, Truth Coffee Roasting.

We arrived at Truth Coffee Roasting about 10 minutes later in the pouring rain. Shortly after we got into the car the skies opened up and rain came pouring down - I don’t believe that we could have timed our hike better. I had chosen this particular coffee shop as it had been selected as the best coffee shop in the world by the Telegraph newspaper several years prior, and I was curious to see why. Stepping indoors we were greeted by a waiter dressed like an elf from World of Warcraft - the coffee shop was Steampunk themed and the serving staff are all dressed in the Steampunk aesthetic. It was an interesting introduction to the venue! I ordered a long black with their house roast; Todd had a hot chocolate. We also ordered lunch; I had their breakfast ravioli while Todd had their croque madame. Our drinks arrived several minutes after we had ordered them, and I thought that the coffee was quite good. Todd also had good things to say about the hot chocolate. It probably was the best coffee I’d ever had - I am hardly a connoisseur but it was definitely better than Tim Horton’s. Lunch arrived shortly thereafter and the food was also quite good.

After finishing lunch the rain had stopped and we proceeded to walk to the Castle of Good Hope. The castle was only a few blocks from Truth, so the walk took only a few minutes. We arrived about 14:15, luckily the 14:00 tour hadn’t left from the entrance yet so we joined up and followed the tour guide. The Castle of Good Hope was one of the first colonial buildings constructed in Cape Town, originally built by the Dutch to secure their position in South Africa and to establish control over the cape. This castle was really more of a fort than a castle - royalty had never lived there, so technically they can’t call it a castle. It had similarities to other colonial forts I had visited before, such as Fort Henry in Kingston, though this fort was much larger and had not seen battle. The tour guide gave us a good overview of the structure, and once the tour was done we went through several of the buildings on our own and explored the ramparts. We ended up spending close to two hours at the castle, leaving shortly after 16:00. We hailed an Uber back to the hotel.

Todd took a short nap in the hotel while I investigated dinner options. I ended up settling on the Royale Eatery, a restaurant right beside the Company Garden we had visited the day before. The Royale Eatery was notable for its wide selection of burgers and its famous milkshakes, and we both decided to see why their milkshakes were famous. I had a delicious peppermint and chocolate milkshake while Todd had a lemon cheesecake one. The burgers were fantastic, and it was a great treat to have on our last evening in Cape Town. We Ubered back to the hotel and arrived shortly after 19:00, where we did some light pre-packing and got organized ahead of our early departure for Durban. I worked on this blog and Todd watched some TV, and we retired to bed shortly after 21:00.