On Friday, April 2, 2010, Ben and I awoke super duper early to drive to the Joburg airport. We allowed ourselves a little over two hours to park and get checked in, thinking that would be plenty. (We left before 4am!!) Ha! We drove round and round the various parking areas, unable to find a parking spot. Many of the lots had green lights on, indicating plenty of open spots. NOT TRUE! In fact, we saw tons of cars creating their own parking spots. I didn’t think that was a good idea, so we kept looking. Eventually we found a spot. In the regular daily parking. A little more costly than we had hoped, but we were out of time. We made a mad dash to check-in, waited in line and discovered we were on a different airline. HAHA! (I wasn’t laughing then…) Guess we didn’t read our boarding passes correctly. So again, we grabbed our bags and power packed it over to the correct airline, feeling a little sheepish at this point. We barely made the clearance, but it appears God was watching out for us. Then of course we stood waiting to board the plane for 45 minutes. They were running late. How does that happen at 6am? I really do not know….I guess this is South Africa.
Exhausted, we settled into our seats and awaited our next bout of excitement upon our arrival to the Cape Town airport. Of course the line was forever long to pick up our rental car. Why wouldn’t it be? And of course the guy didn’t record all of the dents and scratches on the car….so we had to track them down to correct our paperwork (we weren’t chancing the blame for those dents at the end of our weekend!). Finally, we were on our way to the Bed and Breakfast- De Noordhoek Hotel….who fortunately allowed us an early check in. As is usually the case when exhausted, we couldn’t relax…so we decided to explore the little village in which our B&B was located. Our hungry bellies were happy to discover a quaint little café with plenty of delightful options to satisfy our taste buds. My banana muffin was absolutely delicious. Love.
Since our tummies were happy, we decided to go lay on the beach for awhile. I felt a little self conscious in my bikini…and decided to keep my cover-up on. I mean, there was a lady in a thong and a man in a Speedo. How was I to compete with my baby bump? It never ceases to amaze me. People in their skimpy suits. This particular woman had no shame and cleaned out her…umm..bottom with her hand. I guess sand gets in there when you wear something like that to the beach…it was gross. I made a quick note in our baby journal that our daughter will definitely NOT be permitted to ever wear such a thing anywhere ever. That was pretty much the excitement of our beach day. The water was too cold for a dip and the sand and towels not too comfy for lying out. So we returned to our home base.
After washing up and changing clothes, we had enough time to drive along the coast and view the sunset. That was probably my favorite part of the day, watching the sun disappear over the ocean with my Benji.
We then hit up the “Blues Restaurant” in Camps Bay. I need to stop reading reviews because more often than not, they are inaccurate. The Blues had received great reviews on atmosphere, service and food. I discovered these reviews to be wrong, wrong and wrong. The lighting was too dark, the restaurant crowded, the music too loud, the bathrooms icky, the service poor and the food…NOT good. So if you are travelling to Cape Town and are looking for a place to eat, I say DO NOT EAT AT BLUES RESTAURANT. As we sat waiting for our food, my head started to pound. It was probably a combination of exhaustion, sun exposure, loud music, bad food and hunger.
Anyway, we paid our overpriced bill and made it back to our B&B. I was quite excited to return to our cozy bed and get a good night’s sleep. I tested the bed out earlier and it was super soft and felt just right. But, oh, my friends, the night got even better. Our B&B is situated right next to a little restaurant called “The Toad in the Village.” Boy, did they ever live up to their name! Their music and laughter croaked on into the wee hours of the night. Yeah. Not happy here. I have no idea how I was able to fall asleep, but I somehow managed. (I credit it to the comfy bed).
We awoke the next morning bright and early to the sound of vuvuzelas and cheering outside our window. ?? We quickly dressed and made our way downstairs to discover a marathon! Ok, so even though I was tired, I have to admit, that was pretty awesome. We watched the runners for awhile and I always find myself with tears in my eyes as I watch people run. I saw multiple people run by with t-shirts and signs displaying their love for Jesus. Older men and women, young men and women…even a couple men with bare feet ran by, pushing their bodies to the limit! It was awesome. It eventually became too much for me to watch (haha, I am such an emotional preggo!), so we went ahead and returned to our B&B for breakfast. The breakfast was so-so. Nothing special, but not bad either. Just your average breakfast with bread, eggs, fruit and cereal. I’m a syrupy breakfast and sweet roll kinda girl. Sure, I like eggs and fruit on the side…
After breakfast we spoke with the B&B manager and discovered that due to the marathon, many roads were closed. As a result, we would not be able to get down to Cape Point as we had hoped until later in the day. Thankfully, the manager was super helpful and suggested a close by cluster of trails: Silvermine. That worked out because I had wanted to visit Silvermine since our previous Cape Town trip. So we headed that way. Rain and clouds seem to be tradition for our Cape Town visits. We were covered in a cloud and mist for most of our hike and my headache chose that moment to kick back in. I also had to partake in many improvised potty breaks. Poor Benji. We decided to cut our hike short and return to the B&B for a snack, then try and make our way out to Cape Point. I couldn’t get that Banana muffin out of my head anyway…and I thought maybe that muffin might help me feel better. It did!
Headaches are no fun :(
(Poor Ben, wet after our sad hike attempt.)
We were pleased to find the roads clear, enabling us to spend the rest of the day out at Cape Point. With a baby growing inside me, we couldn’t begin our hike until I was well fed. I enjoyed some nachos while Ben ate a sandwich and then (after another potty break) we finally were able to start out on our adventure. Ben was quite glad to get moving as he had been waiting patiently to finally get in a good hike. The Cape Point is just an awesome place to hike, too. It’s right on the ocean and you’re just surrounded by cliffs, water, foliage and beauty. One of my favorite things is to get as close to the edge of a cliff as possible and take photos. Ben gets a little nervous…but I am always very careful. I don’t take (too) risky of chances and I always make sure my feet are steady before getting too close. I really enjoyed sitting with my feet just over the edge. I took some photos so our baby girl can see how daring we were. Ben eventually decided that the cliff pictures were enough and pushed us on to our next stop at the top of another cliff.
Look at how safe Ben is! hehehe!
On our way to our next destination, we got a glimpse of a beach at the bottom of a very long, steep staircase. “I heart U” with a cross beneath it was spelled out on the beach. I took a few photos, knowing that it wouldn’t take long for the “art” to either be destroyed or rearranged. And we continued on…saving that staircase for later. Nearing the top, I began to notice some intricately stacked rocks. At first it was just a few here and there…but then they started to multiply! Or so it seemed. The stacks of rocks were very impressive and I found myself laughing. Someone certainly had a good sense of humor to leave such a mark behind. I also found myself thinking of my Dad. My Dad would definitely be amused and he would add on. I decided to do just that and Ben, Baby and I built our own mini rock stack before we descended from the cliff. (I just wish I had been the one to think of it! I wonder how long those rock stacks will be there? I mean, I am sure between weather and crazy World Cup fans and tourists, the rocks will be knocked down…but they sure were cool!)
We made it back to the staircase and I noticed, sure enough, the “I heart U” message was being altered. That didn’t stop us from heading down to the beach anyway, we were eager to set foot on the sand and spend a moment watching the waves crash against the shore. Not before I had myself an improvised potty break of course. Haha! Baby Girl certainly dictates those. Anyway, those waves were amazing! They definitely didn’t look so towering from above and Ben had a blast running up to the edge as the water nipped at his heels. My husband’s so cute! He eventually persuaded me to give it a go, although I didn’t get as close to the water. Too cold for me and I didn’t want to jostle our little one too much in my mad dash to escape the icy tide! Leave it to me to make sure we took a moment to get some photos on the boulders. Ben’s favorite thing! Baby Girl soon decided it was time to head back; however. She was hungry. So we said goodbye to the beach and hiked back to the tourist center just in the nick of time to get some food and head on our way before the park’s closing.
As we drove out of the park, we spotted some baboons running down the road…and climbing on cars! We just had to stop and get some photos. (Don’t worry, Nick and Lori. I had my camera safely in the car with us this time!) As we were observing the baboon’s tirade, one decided to climb across our car and determine whether or not he could break in- he couldn’t do it. But man, it was so cool! Sunset was coming quickly though and we had to continue on to the exit. We watched the sun set as we drove back to our B&B to wash up for dinner at our favorite restaurant in South Africa: Harbour House! I’m sorry to say that I indeed have pregnancy brain and I do not remember what we ate…but I do know it was fish and that it was delicious.
We spent our last night in Cape Town without too much noise from the Toad in the Village and made sure to rise early for Easter Sunday. We were very fortunate to be able to attend a sunrise Easter service on the BEACH! We drove to the location, unsure if we would even find the church of people gathered there or not. Fortunately there were others parking and walking around the time we arrived and we just sort of followed the group to the beach. Ben did speak up and ask a guy if he was from the church and he responded in clear American English: “Yes.” Well, we couldn’t let the guy get away that easily with his American accent. We discovered he and his wife were from the States and came to South Africa as missionaries. So fun to run into fellow Americans on a beach in Cape Town at a sunrise Easter service!
The sunrise was lovely. The whole experience was lovely, really… sitting with a good 200 people singing praises and worshipping God on Easter Sunday as the waves rolled in and the sun appeared above the mountains across the ocean. We are so very blessed to be counted as His…and I never ever want to forget that.
After the service, we went back to the B&B for some breakfast and loaded up the car to drive to Knysna for the remaining half of our Easter weekend vacation. More to come on that half later, my friends!
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