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South Africa
Our First Country
Cape Town
Did We Enjoy It?

Cape Town

We arrived in Cape Town planning to travel up to Durban and J-Bay to surf. Unfortunately there was no swell at J-Bay while we were there, so we ended up staying in Cape Town for the 25 days which we had in the country.

We stayed at Cloudbreak Backpackers Hostel, and spent most evenings in the bar, drinking the local beer and socialising with the other people staying in the hostel. We made a lot of good friends in Cape Town, including Sean and Leilani, Toni and Gillian, and James. We had a couple of nights out in Cape Town, the best of which was a trip to "Fat Boys" nightclub, where we all drank blue-coloured cocktails, and ended up getting back to the hostel in a complete mess.

Although we basically spent all of our days surfing, we still managed to see a lot of the area. We walked up Table Mountain and enjoyed the amazing view, and fed the Rock Dassies. Walking up is really rewarding, but if you can't be bothered with the hard work there's a cable car! We also hired a car for a couple of days, and went surfing up the west coast to Elands Baai. The scenery is incredible. Closer to Cape Town if you have a car make sure that you visit Chapman's Peak, a road which winds its way along sheer cliffs. It's one of the most beautiful roads in the world.

If you'd like to travel a bit further afield, you can catch the Baz Bus, which takes you almost anywhere you want to go, and picks you up from whichever Backpacker Hostel that you're staying at. It's a great way to see the country. Although we didn't take the Baz Bus, we spoke to lots of people at Cloudbreak Backpackers who had taken the Baz Bus and the general consensus was that the buses were really comfortable, and that the trips were good fun.

 


© 1999 Richard Bathgate.
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