Once you get to Terminal 5 on a weekday evening everything seems to make more sense - the terminal is quiet and empty, checkin takes 30 seconds, no queue at security, and a quiet hush in the airport lounge. Bliss. Qantas is determined that I will once again be a frequent flyer. About 8 years ago I was doing a lot of travel for work, and ended up with a Qantas platinum membership. I managed to keep it a couple of years as once you are on the top tier, it is easy to maintain if you do some flying as you earn four times the credit of a regular traveller - makes no sense to me at all, except I suppose they want to retain the frequent flyers but keep the barriers to entry to the regular flyers as high as possible?
Our plane was a 777, and we were in economy seats 21E and 21F (in the middle 3 seats). We got an overhead bin to ourselves, and settled in for what turned out to be a very pleasant flight. Our special meals arrived promptly (Asian vegetarian - highly recommended as you get curry for every meal so SS is in heaven, and you get fed first so can get to the loos whilst everyone else is still eating so I am in heaven). We both watched District 9 which was actually quite good. As usual I watched it in half the time of SS as he does like to regularly rewind and rewatch bits when his attention wanders. Then lights out, seats back. I dozed mainly but SS did get some proper sleep, there is something about being in a moving vehicle that puts him to sleep very easily.
Our breakfast curry arrived on time with a yoghurt and satsuma - lovely breakfast. We landed on time in Cape Town at 12:20pm. Immigration was effortless, and the customs man was friendly, chatty and efficient. SUCH a change from the US where they are surly, grumpy and distinctly lacking in charm. We got our bags after literally having to elbow people out of the way, and then joined the interminable queue for the car. I think First Car must have had a BIG sale, as everyone was waiting there whilst the people at Hertz and Budget just looked bored behind their counters. Took us an hour in the queue, we got to the front finally and they had no record of the booking. Luckily a phone call later and it was sorted out, and off we went on the 20 minute walk to the car rental corrall. We were both a little excited as SS was so hoping we would get a VW Chico (the Mark I Golf basically). Alas we had been upgraded - to a Renault. Our chariot was black, plasticky, and called a Sandero (I promptly started calling it the Sombrero for the rest of the trip). Horrid car. We later found out it is made under license from Renault in Romania!
We settled into it, and this is when we found out that SSs GPS system had not loaded its maps after all. This was after a long evening in London of swearing, throwing, banging keyboards and finally calling my sister to advise over the phone, on how to download the silly maps. And for some reason the maps were on the laptop at home, but they had not synchronised across to the GPS.
Luckily, I had gone old fashioned and BOUGHT a touring map of the Western Cape.
This was enough to get us into Cape Town, then my blackberry and the written instructions enabled SS to guide me to An African Villa to check in.
It was hot and sweaty, we were still in our travelling clothes, and so we were very happy to be checked into our lovely airconditioned room by Louis,
particularly when we saw the view of Table Mountain out the window. Louis suggested we relax and then come down in 10 minutes for some tea and so he could give us maps, suggestions etc. He did not reckon on SS's tried and tested check in routine. The arrangements promptly became Louis bringing up green tea for SS to the room, and we would come down in about an hour to discuss maps etc.
So we showered, and I unpacked and read the guest folio (my part of the routine) whilst SS searched the TV channels for Bloomberg (his part of the routine). We had a lovely rest, and then went back down to Louis.
I hadn't planned anything beyond accommodation, so we were happy to have Louis' suggestions on what to do. We decided on a quick walk down to the local Woolworths Food, then Table Mountain that afternoon, and I had already booked us in for Miller's Thumb restaurant that night. The following day we would walk to the waterfront, and see the newly renovated Cape Coloured Quarter which was not all ritzy (ie full of gay bars and architects), and then on Sunday drive down to Cape Point and stop in camps Bay for drinks and dinner. I like to have plans. We were so exhausted by this that we went and had another rest!
We finally dragged ourselves up, and headed outside to the Sombrero.
The Cableway is an easy 5 minute drive from An African Villa, and I was pleasantly surprised to find parking really easily. We got out, took some photos of the view down over Cape Town,
and sauntered up to the ticket stations, looking at a cable car making its way down. We found the ticket counters, but ... none were open. SS asked a helpful man nearby and he told us the cableway had just closed because of high winds. Sigh. That explains the easy parking. SS promised we would come back again another day as he was very keen for me to do all the things I had done on family holidays as a child. I think he realised how lovely it was for me to be back in the country where I had all my childhood memories, for the first time in 22 years.
This gave us an excuse to have another rest before dinner, lying on the bed with the doors open, Table Mountain in the distance, and a warm breeze circulating. So of course, after our overnight flight, we both fell asleep. Luckily I woke at 7:45pm, we dressed quickly and headed out for dinner. Miller's Thumb was an easy 10 minute walk. There were evidences of the different sides of South Africa on the way, with two men lying on a mattress clearly not compus mentis with a halo of cannabis around them but still able to beg, just across the road from a buzzing bar full of people drinking.
It turned out at Miller's Thumb that we had got our booking time wrong, but the lovely woman who owns the place had kept our table. We settled in (me with a Castle Light, SS with a Carling Black Label), and chose our food. I had the spinach salad with rocket, peccorino and sundried tomatoes followed by kingklip malay style (chilli, ginger, soy) with fries. SS had the house salad with olives, snozzcumber, feta cheese, and tomato (no egg!) and then the bluenose wasabi style with friednoodles which was fantastic. There was also a lovely olive dip with the bread to start with. Whole lot came to R420 incl tip which was fantastic, huge portions and lovely service.
We were both sleepy again so headed back to the room and ended up watching a strange film with Ewan McGregor in it called "Deception". Lovely first day.
I do have one large confession now - whilst in South Africa the memory card in my small camera (the one that I take all the food pictures with) decided to corrupt itself. So unless my dear sister can recover the files somehow from my hard disk backup, I can't share them on here! All that embarrassment and furtive photographing for SS, and nothing to show for it! :-(
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