Around Cape Town

In Cape Town, we stayed at the Penthouse on Long Street, which is centrally located and, conveniently, has a rooftop bar. After dropping off the car and saying goodbye to Alex, we walked down to the Waterfront to do some shopping and have dinner. I was very surprised by the types of stores there: Prada, YSL, Mont Blanc, Gucci, and other high-end stores that are way out of my price range. I stuck to Woolworths.

The next morning, while we checked in the car, a very nice older couple offered us their Hop-On, Hop-Off bus passes. The tour itself was not all that exciting, but it was a good way to see all of Cape Town. Cape Town is located under the shadow of Table Mountain. On the other side, is the Swank Camps Bay, where all the celebrities shop and sunbath. It was too cold, though, for any sunbathing.

Instead, we got off at the District 6 Museum, which recounts the process of ejecting black residents from their homes in District 6 and bulldozing their homes to the ground in order to gentrify the area for white Cape Town residents.

That night we ate at the Ethiopian restaurant right next door to the hostel. It was so good and made us regret that we had not made more of an effort to find an authentic Ethiopian restaurant in Ethiopia.

The next morning, we picked up Regina’s sister, Alla, at the airport and headed to Hermanus, famous for whale-watching and shark diving. On our way, we stopped at the penguin reserve

and in Betty’s Bay to do a hike through the botanical gardens and the biosphere. The hike was much more fun than the one in Wilderness, but pretty short. It required three river crossings and ladder climbs. The waterfall was relatively small, but the red water was pretty and the overview of the ocean was pretty. We read later that this color was caused by the Fynbros, plants native to this area of South Africa.


In Hermanus, we walked along the rocky shoreline, easily spotting several Southern Right Whales. We had dinner at Lemon Butta, which was decent. It was the first sushi place in South Africa that we found that actually had eel as an option. Also, it had a true rainbow roll. In other sushi places, the rainbow roll is avocado and salmon. That’s it! Also, most sushi places had salmon, shrimp, and crabstick only. I was very happy to have the options of tuna and eel even if the sushi was only so-so. We finished the evening off with gelato, calling it an early night so that we would be well-rested for shark diving the next morning.