Today’s originally scheduled itinerary included a visit to Table Mountain and Robben Island. However mother nature decided not to cooperate, so both were cancelled. There is no hope to go to Robben Island as the next available tour would not be until Thursday and we fly in the morning to Durban. We will attempt to visit Table Mountain tomorrow.
We left the hotel at 07:30. We went directly to Table Mountain – upon arrival we learned that they were not operating the cable cars due to high winds. We were able to take a few photos at the base of the cable car (which still offered a very nice view).
After the Table Mountain visit attempt we went to Signal Hill, which had a nice view of Robben Island as well as the city, Table Mountain and Lion Head Mountain.
We drove down to the Bo-Kaap area which has many brightly colored houses.
We then walked past the parliament building and through the Company’s Gardens to the Iziko South African Museum. The museum had some amazing wildlife photos and some ancient rock art.
We then went over to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. We had an hour of free time to find food.
We went to this food market which resembled an Asian Hawker market. I had a crispy pork belly burger (more like pork belly on a hamburger bun). It was amazing.
When we got back to the clock tower the Robben Island tours were cancelled for the day due to weather. We then proceeded to the backup plan highlighted in the itinerary – the District Six museum. Apparently the goverment essentially levelled the entire District Six area in the 1960’s to force relocation of “non-whites” to wasteland. The museum was in a small church and had some old news articles as well as stories from some of the former residents. It was interesting, but I would have preferred to visit Robben Island.
After the District Six museum we were dropped off at the hotel. I went to Spar (grocery store) and got some water and coke. I then walked to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (more to explore than to save $). It was very close by the hotel. We wandered through the Water Shed which had many interesting handicrafts including some interesting guitars made from olive oil tins.
We walked through the modern mall, but did not see anything appealing. We walked back to the hotel. For dinner we took an Uber back to the Waterfront. This time I had a very nice hamburger and chips (fries) as well as a beer. The Uber was only 20 ZAR – which is like $1.50 each way.
Tomorrow is a free day, but will attempt to visit Table Mountain (if it is open), otherwise I will go visit a few other museums here in Cape Town. The optional shark diving was cancelled due to weather as well…. I didn’t sign up for it because it is a long drive and you leave the hotel at 4 AM.