Sunday, February 12, 2017

Day 13 - Cape Town - Helicopter and HOHO bus

Still in Cape town, well,  we started the day by waiting to be picked up for an excursion, the problem was that there was the Cape town triathlon taking place and a lot of the roads were closed so the travel company could not get to us, we rang them and said we would get to them ASAP. Thankfully, our host, Earl, said “Jump in my car, I'll get you there” and as good as his word he drove “hell for leather”  to get us there.

I forgot to mention that the excursion was a helicopter flight over Cape town and the surrounding area. Well, we arrived at the helipad ( that sounds posh ) and the company apologised so much that they upgraded us to a private flight with a full DVD and photo package, that was a lovely gesture.
We had our pre flight briefing and then met our pilot, a young, blonde, South African girl named Sammie who I would estimate was about 14 years of age, well she looked it to us. 















Sammie could not have been friendlier or more professional, she put us at ease and had a easy going attitude and sense of humour. We lifted off at the V&A waterfront and slowly climbed to 2000 feet giving us truly spectacular views of the City and a back drop of Table mountain.












We then flew South towards the Cape of Good hope, I cannot stress enough how dramatic we found the views of the coastline. We then turned back toward the City via Long beach and headed towards the Port. A truly memorable experience.







South Africa continues to surprise us with its diversity of people and landscape.
After the helicopter experience we took time out to have a coffee and relive the flight and come back to Earth, so to speak.











We then boarded the Hop on Hop off bus that took us through the City and out into the hinterland, as we drove through a quite densley wooded area, then we suddenly and quite surprisingly came to the white sands of Hout’s bay. This again, was a beautiful bay surrounded by high mountains. 

The resident seal was in the harbour and enjoying being fed by a local as the kids splashed around next to it.











We decided that this would be the ideal place to have lunch, so we chose “The Wharf” restaurant and had a superb fish lunch washed down with a nice bottle of white wine. We continued our trip visiting Camp's Bay for a stop off for a well deserved ice cream before heading back to Sea Point. 

That evening we walked up to Jerry's bar to watch the Rugby, the less said the better, but the did serve really good home made burgers and a very nice pint of ale.....

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