Exploring Cape Town| South Africa, Day 3

Monday, September 17, 2018
We slept until around 8:00 AM our first morning waking up in South Africa. That was a nice 11-hour rest that we definitely needed.  We were expecting rain today, but it wasn't looking too bad out when we first headed out.

Airbnb entrance mirror selfie

We went to Kauai for breakfast where we encountered a car guard for the first time. Thinking back now, I'm not sure how we didn't run into one the day before; nevertheless, as we stepped out of our car, we saw a guy ambling over to us.  Here is what Cape Town Magazine says about car guards: "[they] are a distinctly South African phenomenon. They are non-unionized people who assist you with parking and proceed to look after your car while you go about your business. The service is open to anyone who has the gumption to stake out a certain patch of parking territory, so you never know which type of car guard you may get. Use your discretion when dealing with these people, they are not employed to watch your car, nor will they be held responsible if anything happens to it – though they will swear blind that it is safe under their watch."

It's only recommended to tip R2 – R5 ($0.14 USD - $0.34) per parking experience. Francisco preemptively gave him a rand coin (and then another when we returned to the car), but I'm pretty sure the expected practice is just to tip when you're leaving. I'd read reports that the car guards might damage your car if you don't tip them. 

Anyways, I got a cappuccino, and we tried an Egg Hot Pot with a poached egg, sautéed mushrooms, rosa tomatoes, kale, pesto, feta, and parmesan. Then we walked across the street to the beach to eat breakfast.

The sun peeked out a little bit

It was a pretty area along the beach with the mountains in the background.

Royal View

We were hoping to beat the weather by making our hike at Lions Head our first stop.

This was about the best the view we got on the way to Lions Head.

Lions Head is a mountain between Table Mountain and Signal Hill, and we were enticed by the mention of ladders and chains that would be part of the hike.

As we hiked further up, we ended up having to call it on account of the clouds. We passed a hiker working his way back down, and I asked him about how much further to the summit. He said we weren't even at the base yet, and it would be another hour from that point.  He advised that we go a little further to where it was flat, look up, look down, and decide if we should continue. He also asked if we had any sugar on us to ward off a diabetic attack, so I gave him a mint.

We were disappointed to call it early shortly after that encounter, but it was just too overcast, so we realized we weren't going to be rewarded with the view we were hoping for - and let's face it, that was half the reason for doing the hike. 

We drove over to Signal Hill, a landmark flat-topped hill next to Lion's Head and Table Mountain. It was crazy windy here, so we didn't linger outside long.

There were some really interesting birds running around. This was our first time seeing the helmeted guineafowl, but we would definitely come across them frequently during the next two weeks. They are native to Africa, mainly south of the Sahara, and they are the best known of the guineafowl bird family.

The main benefit of not doing the full hike to Lions Head is we got to eat lunch earlier than planned. Y'all know how I feel about food.  We went to the Royale Eatery, which has the most expansive vegetarian burger selection in the country. Our burger was okay, but our Nuttikrust Milkshake really stole the show.  Nuttikrust appears to be a caramelized oat biscuit, but we didn't actually try this milkshake's namesake during our visit.

We pulled up to Bo-Kaap, an area in Cape Town formerly known as the Malay Quarter. The name means "above the Cape" in Afrikaans, and it is a former township known for its brightly-colored homes and cobble-stoned streets.

This was a residential area, so there were locals around as well as tourists coming to check out the neighborhood. Street parking wasn't in abundance; as we told the car guard we only planned to be there for a few minutes, he basically told us we would have to pay him the same rate regardless.  This was one of the few places where the guard actually gave us a specific price he expected to be paid vs. just accepting whatever tip we handed over.  I'm definitely glad that we read about the car guards in advance, or I would've been much more perturbed by this practice.

It was starting to drizzle as we left here and headed over to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Set against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, this is known as one of the great botanic gardens of the world. It was a remarkable location, and I only wish we had a clear day to better appreciate the setting.

Unfortunately, it started POURING as we were walking the tree canopy path. It was a few minutes of a windy, torrential downpour that subsided to just a steady rain.

We got up close with this Helmeted Guineafowl who had been smart enough to seek cover from the rain.

We still hadn't found a grocery store to go to - the main problem being that we were hoping to find a place with a designated parking lot, so Francisco didn't have to deal with street parking. That was proving to be difficult, but we wanted to make sure we stopped somewhere before we would leave Cape Town the next day.  After a couple of failed stops, we selected a Woolworth's as our destination, and I was thrilled to see that Unframed, another ice cream shop that I was hoping to make it to was very nearby our selected location.

It turns out that Unframed Ice Cream was the first place we ran into at the V&A Food Market. We had no idea that this food market was even here, but it made for a wonderful stop for the evening.  This was essentially a multi-level food court, and we completely indulged in ice cream, cheese balls from Tom &, Gourmet Samosas, and Italian pastries from Trecastelli Bakery. I'm sure we could've spent more time there. :)

At the grocery store, we mostly stocked up on junk food. We recognized the name Woolworths as there had previously been stores in the US that operated under that name, but the South African retail chain  has never had any connection with the American company. The South African location was originally modelled on Marks & Spencer of the United Kingdom, which I immediately picked up on. For a US-comparison, it kind of reminded me of Trader Joe's in that many things were Woolworth's-branded. The stores stock, fashion, beauty, home goods, and incorporate a premium food retail offering.

We broke the rule of staying out past dark again, but that was hard to avoid when it would get dark by like 6:30. The area we were in here had plenty of security milling about, and our car was parked in a garage, so we felt a little better about our late departure.

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