Dear family & friends, hello from Cape Town!
We finally made it. And what a way to start 2012.
So, the question is, what to tell you? It seems that so much has already happened... and it's only been THREE days. So we'll do our best to share some highlights, but please bear with us as we get to grips with the backpacker-blogger-way.
The flight down was a relative breeze. The long-haul, in-flight entertainment included 5 films, 4 sitcoms and 4 meals between us, yet only a couple of hours of sleep!
Stepping off the flight, we had our first celebrity spot! Well, it's a celebrity not many of you will know perhaps... Natasha Loring, who played Kimberley in the recent 'hit series' on E4, Beaver Falls (hit series in Ben's eyes anyway!). Loved it. We're watching out for more!
We then proceeded to melt as we waited for our bus transfer to take us to the hostel, and our wintry clothes were not fit for the weather. It's been a mellow and lovely 25 degrees every day so far, with huge blue skies stretching as far as the eye can see. Then, on every horizon line, the beautiful Table Mountain, with its own white tablecloth of clouds atop (more of which, later).
The first evening was spent down at the V&A Waterfront in a trendy, traditional South African restaurant - steaks all round, Medium Rare, of course.
Our New Years Eve started with an exploratory walk of the city centre. But not before a 30-minute ritual plastering of sun cream! (We remain pasty white, hmm...). You could tell everyone was feeling the excitement of the night ahead; everyone in good spirits, African music spilling out of every street and live drumming providing lunchtime entertainment for diners (Dad/Phil, that one's for you!).
After feeling the heat we returned, put our faces on and stepped out and headed to a local South African 'Italian' restuarant on Kloof Street. Ben insisted on their version of the 'Sloppy G' (good, but not as good...) while Han was more focussed on the Creme Brule dessert! Yum! A few glasses of local vino later it was nearly midnight and we found ourselves further down into town, on the infamous Long Street, which we deduced to be the Camden of Cape Town. On the strike of midnight, music started blaring out of one African bar and hundreds of people started dancing in the street. It was our very own Notting Hill carnival, so, naturally, we wiggled our bottoms along with the best of them.
That brings us to today. Although exhausted, we set off on a city sightseeing bus tour. Well worth it. Halfway round it stopped off at the foot of the Table Mountain cable car. The perfect opportunity to head up to the summit. From the bottom you could see the whole of CT, from the summit, not a thing! We literally went walking in the clouds. Quite a way to bring in 2012.
Tonight's dinner consisted of a picnic of burger rolls, sliced cheese and ham slices and a very large bag of Simba crisps (African-special wotsits!) - so we're starting to watch the Rands, as well as making sure we DO everything we possibly can. Fruit and veg is sure to follow in good time, parents, we promise!
We hope you've all had a brilliant start to 2012 yourselves, and can't wait to hear all about it. Send us your news too please :)
Lots of love to all, and we'll be in touch again soon.
Until the next post...
Ben & Han xxx
P.S. The photo shown is not ours... the technology gods aren't being friendly to us just yet so we're unable to upload photos. They'll be with you ASAP though, promise!