Cape Town: Part Deux

After saying goodbye to Nina and Charlie (and hoping their car would start), we hopped in our Uber to head off to our next destination. Uber is very popular in Cape Town so it made it very easy to get around. Our new home for the remainder of our time was to be in Bloubergstrand. It turned out that not only were we right on the beach, we were across the street from where we had stopped on our final day of the tour! We were in the 9th floor looking directly out over the water towards Robben Island. We didn't have much time to take in the view as we had to make our way up the beach to get to our first kite surfing lesson. 

View from our apartment. Kite surfers were everywhere! It was very fun to watch.

Cape Town is very well regarded for kite surfing so we thought we'd join the crowd. Our instructor was Olly, a fellow Brit with Essex ties. Our first lesson was all about the kite. Setting up and taking down, how to steer and just getting comfortable with it. We took turns trading off until we were comfortable with it by the end of the lesson. It was very amazing the power you could produce with the kite and there was only one incident of note with Jess, who quickly learned about the power zone as she was suddenly dragged down the beach. Despite that, we were both excited for our next lesson. We stopped at the store on our way home (it was about an hour walk) and had a nice home cooked meal while we watched the kite surfers on the beach below which then turned into a beautiful sunset viewing.

Watch out! We're ready to learn.

One of many beautiful sunsets we caught from our balcony

The adrenaline was flowing the next day. We fixed ourselves a nice breakfast and readied ourselves for day two. Today we would get in the water! We changed into our wet suits and bright neon green shirts that read student. They were less for us and more for other people to know to stay away from the beginners. We practiced more kite control both on land and in the water before beginning to learn body dragging, in which you use your kite to drag your​self through the water. It was trickier than I thought but we both had successful drags before the lesson was done. We were exhausted after the lesson so we had a quick dinner and a chat with Jess' parents and called it a night.

 Friday was the day of us. There was no wind in the forecast so we didn't have a lesson scheduled. Our final one would be the following day. We had an amazing lay in followed by a nice breakfast. With this forecast, it would be a great day for Table mountain. We took an Uber across town to the base of the mountain. We felt guilty about not hiking up and instead taking the cable car, but it actually turned out to be quite a hot day. I was sweating just waiting in the ticket queue!!

A view of Cape Town from the base of the cable car

The cable car station blended in well with the rocks

The cable car was fantastic. People were queuing to try and get prime photo spots only to have the floor revolve so everyone got 360 degree views. The view from the top was spectacular! We saw the quickest way down, which was to abseil down. You could see the small side towns. Since the clouds were low, you could also see out to cape point on one end and up past where we were staying to the north.  After many photos, we took the cable car down and headed into the city. 

Looking down on Cape Town

Beautiful views from the top

Looking down on Camps Bay

Panoramic view of Cape Town

We stopped for drinks at the house of machines, a biker/hipster/music bar we had stopped at on our food tour to judge the quality of their old fashioned. The verdict was delicious!!! The best old fashioned I had tasted since Buenos Aires. After leaving very satisfied, we went around the corner for dinner at IYO Burger and had another great meal. We were gassed by the end of dinner so we headed back to the beach for our earliest night in a while!

Inside the House of Machines

Saturday was our last full day in Cape Town and this was our chance to finally put our newly acquired kite boarding skills all together. The three of us headed an hour up the road (90 min after we got lost) to shark bay (which conveniently contained no sharks) to try and get up on the board. After we got into our wetsuits, set up the kite and got out into the water, there was a puncture in the kite and we lost the wind. While Jess' spirit was deterred, I was still ready to go so we packed back up into the van and went up the road to the public beach in town. The wind was great and there were all sorts of kite surfers (of varying ability) out and about. It was a bit intimidating as I went out for my first few body drags with the board surrounded by those much more competent than I. Eventually I was comfortable enough to try and get up onto the board. Unfortunately the wind had picked up beyond my comfort level and I was fighting waves trying to get the board on my feet while trying to keep my kite stable above my head. I even lost the board at one point and had to body drag to get it back. I moved to shallower water to make the board easier to put on but in the end, I was unsuccessful in achieving a launch. Jess found a renewed spirit and got in some great body drags at the end of the day. You haven't seen the last of us attempting to kite surf. Just look for us in our neon green shirts and run the other way!! 

Getting a feel for the kite and wind

Attempting the start (it didn't work)

Jess takes the kite...

...and heads out for an excellent body drag

After cleaning up, we headed back downtown​ for our final evening. We headed down to the waterfront, an area we hadn't explored yet to meet some of our Nomad family members that were still in town. We had drinks and dinner at Den Anker. I had a glass of Kwak served in its special glass, but due to the popularity of the glass and difficulty replacing it, I had to give up my left shoe which was then suspended in a basket above the bar until I had finished and returned the glass. After dinner we had a night cap at Mitchell's Ale House where more folks met up with us. After saying goodbye for the second time, it was back to rest up for our travel day. 

The next morning it was a short flight from Cape Town to Joburg with a long layover before our flight to Dubai. Two continents down!

We thoroughly enjoyed Cape Town. It was a very cool city with a nice energy and great nature. It was the first place where we felt we hadn't spent enough time, so we'll surely be back at some point!

- Nick