The Beginning .... the best place to start. Well it has happened finally, the RTW trip of my life time has got underway. The start was not too bad either with an upgrade to Business on the 14 hour flight to Johannesburg so we could get some good rest and be fresh for when we arrived at our final destination, Cape Town. Did not work though, tired as when we arrived. The reason: could not miss the opportunity to enjoy all that Business has to offer, it really is the only way to travel (if you can afford it of course).
Cape Town is all about Table Mountain. It is on every tourist card, every bus, every souvenir t-shirt, hell even every other Mountain has something about the Table somewhere on it. Having said that it is really an impressive back drop to a city, probably the best I've seen so far, and it does draw you to it. So that is where we went to on the first day. We had the brilliant idea to take the cable car up to the top and then walk back down. It seemed at the time the easier option out of the two (than to walk up it) as anyone who knows me would agree that I have done Zero to None in terms of preparation for such an arduous climb. In hindsight walking down was just as much a killer. Even today, 4 days after the event, I am in fear of any and all steps, up or down. Currently they are my number 1 nemesis.
The Hop-on-Hop-off buses are a great idea to have a quick look at any city and lucky for us Cape Town has 4 different routes. They run every 20 minutes so you are never in a rush to catch the next one as the wait is only a brief drinks stop. However it is a hell of a long time to wait for the same bus to return on the round trip, especially if you are stupid enough to leave your wallet on the seat next to you. And no it wasn't Audrey that did that. The helper man at Stop number 22 was great. He phoned the Head Office who then call the right bus to grab the wallet for me and (luckily) it was then waiting for me back at Stop number 5. In the first 2 days I've left my wallet and glasses behind. There is no future in that let me tell you, as Audrey is telling me all the time (deserved though).
We left Cape Town for the drive down to Hermanus (The Whale Sighting Capital Of The World, or TWSCOTW for short). Very pretty place but we were only using it as a pit-stop for the night. The next morning we set out early to drive down to the Bottom of Africa, Cape Agulhas. Fair weather greeted us thankfully because I don't think that I would like to be there when the wind is blowing straight off the Antarctic. It's a very windy and open place already, forboding some may say, that has claimed it's fair share of victims out in the water. Next was a 5 hour drive to Knysna, a great place along the famed Garden Route. Here I want to personally thank Audrey for staying awake all the way, it was hard for her as occasionally I saw her head to the infamous "head fall down, jerk back up" move. Something that we have all done, but bloody funny when you are watching someone else do it.
So currently I sit here in the Home Base BnB in Knysna writing the first of many blogs. This is my first effort at this and I promise to get funnier as the weeks roll on. That's if I don't leave the computer somewhere and walk off without it ....
Cheers