Road Trip to Cape Town I
- Ntombizodwa Luwaca
- Jan 15, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 30, 2020
After a long year of lectures, countless hours of studying and intelligence-doubting tests, I was eagerly looking forward to visiting the heart of the Western Cape Province, Cape Town. My family and I began our 1500 kilometer road trip on the twenty-second of December 2019. Unfortunately, I missed out on most of the journey due to malaise, so I did not manage to capture all the beautiful sites we passed on the way there. What I did manage to catch was the sunset's glow at 8PM!?, something that we do not get to enjoy in Gauteng.
Just before we reached our destination, my mom suggested that we stop at a restaurant and get some food for dinner, but my sister and my dad were determined to find our accommodation first before looking for food. We only had had one meal each on that day, I was starving, but too nauseous to crave anything.
THE HIDDEN GEM
After 16 hours of driving, we finally arrived at a beeeeauuuuutiful air bnb; Hidden Gem in Woodstock. It was truly a hidden gem with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, an open plan kitchen connected to a lounge and two balconies. Everything in the gem looked and smelt modern, fresh and classy. The walls, floors and furniture were predominantly grey with touches of bright colors to liven it up a bit. The upstairs balcony had a stunning view of V&A waterfront, especially at night when all the lights would be on.
You need to click on this link and see what it looks like for yourself. None of the pictures we took really showcased the gem's true beauty.
DAY ONE
23 December was the first official day of our vacation. I woke up feeling completely weak from hunger and malaise combined. I quickly reached for the Lindt dark chocolate that was placed on each of the beds as a welcome gift and gobbled it up in hopes of increasing my sugar levels and gaining a bit of energy. Yes, yes I ate it without brushing my teeth. I had no energy to pick up a toothbrush, let alone squeeze a tube of toothpaste and stand over the sink and brush my teeth. I did what I had to do, crucify me. The chocolate didn’t help much so I went upstairs and grabbed some fruit chutney flavored Simba Chips and began to devour them, ignoring their high oil content that would later worsen the malaise.
After eating breakfast, we packed ourselves into the car and headed to our first destination; Cape Point. Oh, and did I mention that I now had a huge white pimple on my upper lip? Yeah, it was ugly, uncomfortable and painful. Luckily my mom was sitting at the back seat with me. I put my head on her thighs and asked her to rub my back, something I would never really ask for from anyone else besides her, in fact, something I would never really ask for, even if I really needed it and someone was there to do it for me. Yes, I am advocate for self-sufficiency, I depend on only God. I kept on telling myself that I would feel better in no time because my mother was there to rub the sickness away. We stopped at the side of the road to take a few pictures using the deep blue sea as our background. I volunteered to be the photographer because I didn’t really feel like being in front of the camera.
Instead of taking the cable cars like normal people, we decided to hike our way up to the light house at Cape Point. My dad shocked us all because he successfully hiked all the way up despite his troubles with gout and arthritis. At some point he was even running ahead of us. It seemed like the allopurinol he was taking was finally working. I sent a quick prayer to God, thanking Him for the gift of healing. My dad’s relief was a victory to us all.
Please enjoy the slideshow below :)
After hiking down we decided to get some food to eat. Personally, I knew I couldn’t eat anything cooked, oily, baked or sweet. I had a quick consultation session with my stomach to figure out what we would be eating for lunch (besides water) and we decided on a fruit salad. Unfortunately it was not available at the restaurant we chose to get our food from, so I resorted to eating my mother’s leftover bitter salad leaves yuck!
BEWARE OF BLACK BIRDS?
There were signs all over the place warning us about how dangerous baboons were, especially when they see food but no one told us about this little bird that took a vicious bite out of my sister's bagel! Like a shark circling it's prey before it attacks, this little bird flew around us until it found the perfect moment to take a beak-sized bite out of my sister's food.
After two bottles of water, an apple juice and some bitter leaves, I was starting to feel better and it was also time for us to bid farewell to Cape Point.
V&A WATERFRONT
Cue the music, switch on the lights and get ready to enter a place that almost never sleeps (my mother was making fun of two old ladies who were making their way into the mall at 11pm as we were leaving). Victoria and Alfred Waterfront mall became our go to place. We would end up there almost every day, only leaving the place around 11 or 12 am, too tired to even talk to each other and craving satisfaction only our beds could fulfill. After our Cape Point hike, we ended up at V&A Waterfront were we had dinner I cannot remember the details of, all I know is that whatever it was, it was probably really delicious.
Please enjoy the slideshow below :)
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