All moved in - and the Point!

Another weekend down – and the sense of my time here running out is already creeping in; there’s so much to see and do! Saturday morning, Patricia and I met Neil to take a look at a couple of apartments for her, followed by coffee on the Camps Bay strip.

We then met Wendy, a woman who works at the client and was letting me into the apartment. Someone at the client put our team in touch with Wendy because she heard Wendy had a furnished apartment available to rent. While my teammate took Wendy’s apartment, Wendy checked in with her friends and found this apartment for me. After looking at a beautiful apartment for Patricia, I was hoping I made the right decision and as soon as I walked back into my new place, any worries flew away. While we haven’t seen too much of the sun since the first weekend, the winter season is definitely allowing us to stay in amazing places due to the seasonal prices.

After unloading all my belongings (2 suitcases), Patricia and I set out for a late lunch and found a place with amazing curry; I had the local kingclip fish. Due the rain, we decided to explore in the car. It was late afternoon and I believe the words were, “Well, do you want to just go see the Cape of Good Hope?” Appearing as a consolation due to the weather, it’s funny just how far off that statement is from how I feel. So many things each day paint a smirk on my face as I wonder how I ended up with this opportunity to be here. From the South Africans’ accents to driving on the left; from the gorgeous scenery to needing my power adapter to plug in my South African mobile, I am constantly in disbelief that I’m actually here.

The drive to Cape Point was amazing (the picture above)! From Hout Bay, the road winds along the coast, hundreds of feet above the water, but right along the edge. The cliffs above the road are lined with nets to catch falling rocks; at one point the road goes into the cliff like a half tunnel with a ceiling but no outer wall. It’s hard to describe but I’ll be returning and will get a picture because the national park at the very tip had just closed when we arrived. No worries as I loved the drive down – definitely would be a fantastic motorcycle route! Also along the way, we spotted a road sign with a penguin on it. I’d heard and seen pictures from Stephanie’s trip, but I was clearly not prepared. They are adorable! And they were so close to us and the car – it was unbelievable. I could have spent hours watching them waddle their cute little way around! However, we continued on to make sure we made it back before dark and came upon a car that was stopped right in the middle of the lane due to some large rocks being on the road (or so I thought). I slowed and started to overtake the stopped car – and then realized the ‘large rocks’ were actually 4 baboons!!!

Sunday was a little less exciting; we visited one of the local malls for Patricia’s first visit to the client’s retail store and some grocery shopping. We did make it to another of Cape Town’s attractions, the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Even during their winter season, it was beautiful; my favorite section was the ‘Useful Plants’ area – check out the one we found!

Following the gardens, I cooked my first dinner in my new place – butternut squash soup and asparagus. Ok, bedtime for me – miss you guys!! I hope you're realizing that the pictures are partially aimed to convince you to come and visit me!