A little bit of time in Cape Town

{This one's a little bit late, and a bit odd now with the change in circumstances, but I had written it before life blew up, and love reading back on my blog for the memories, so what the hell, here's some highlights of our trip to Cape Town- Em x}

Our last stop in Africa after our Botswana Safari (Part one, two and three) was Cape Town. Being totally honest, I really wasn't looking forward to Cape Town that much. We added it on to the end of the safari so that Drew could do a great white shark dive and we only had less than a day to explore it.

Unfortunately Drew's shark dive was cancelled, but I'd already booked a spa treatment that was too late to cancel, so we still lost out on some time. But, my spa treatment was totally amazing and the exchange rate being so good meant that I had a hot stone massage, a back scrub and facial for about £36, bargain.

My view from breakfast - love these doors!

I had googled a few things to do in our short time there and unfortunately we couldn't get the timings right to visit the prison that Nelson Mandela was at, Robben Island, which is probably the number 1 tourist thing to do.

We stayed in the V&A waterfront area which I can say hand on heart was gorgeous! It has a real San Franciscan feel to it, very similar to the Pier 39 area and with Robben Island on the horizon it just totally reminded me of Alcatraz and several wonderful trips to SF.

I'd heard some awful things about Cape Town before we went, there's a huge amount of poverty and a real divide between the city and the shanty areas. Several people had told us not to get cabs and if I'm honest, that made me unnecessarily cautious about being there. We didn't experience or see any trouble at all, we were in a really nice part of town and we didn't walk too far, but I did feel safe.

I *heart* Camps Bay

My favourite Cape Town meal, this stir fry was perfect!

A few days before we flew out to J'Berg I discovered Boulders Beach. Around an hour from Cape Town is this stunning beach where penguins have set up home. There's two parts to it, a beach that you can sit on and have a picnic and even swim with the penguins, and a second beach that only has a boardwalk as it's their breeding area. I LOVE penguins so obviously it was a no brainer that we were going there. You can't get to it via public transport (although our guide actually said there is a bus that goes there) so we booked a private tour for the morning before our flight.

Literally in heaven - PENGUINS!

We stopped off at some stunning places on the way, I actually think that the areas around Cape Town are better than the city itself! We had a great time seeing some of the smaller towns and the views from the coastal road were incredible.

The gorgeous hotel and my terrible pano skills!

When we got to Boulders we parked up and paid to go in, we went to the beach first but unfortunately there was only one or two penguins there and they weren't coming anywhere near me for a photo no matter how hard I tried to coo them like a cat, haha! We then walked around to the other beach where my breath was taken away. More penguins than you could shake a stick at, lots of mummies sat on eggs and lots of little fuzzy ones still with their baby coats. We were there for as long as we possibly could be, watching them waddle around and I had a huge grin on my face the whole time! It was Autumn when we went, so luckily it wasn't too busy, but it does get absolutely packed in the Summer, so you may have to be patient to get to the front where you get the best view.

Back to Cape Town, we did the tourist bus to see as much of the city as we could in our pressed time. We didn't go up table mountain as it was shut the day we arrived due to the weather and the day we did the bus it was looking pretty windy so we didn't fancy the cable car. We did really enjoy the bus ride and there's three different routes you can do (with one ticket) if you have the time. They also do a walking tour (with the same ticket) that would've been good, but unfortunately we just didn't have time.

We stayed at the Dock House Boutique Hotel, which was simply stunning. a small boutique hotel with the most attentive staff. We had a room with its own front door and stair case and a bathroom bigger than my bedroom at home, it was amazing! I'd highly recommend the hotel for its location and the service. It's right in the V&A waterfront and we had a lovely view of the ferris wheel. The only comment I'd make is that it does get quite loud at night, due to the bars around the area, but that didn't affect us as we were still so hanging from safari!

love,
Ems xx