Cape Town Trip: The Journey

I thought it could be fun to add to my Tour South Africa series with a few blog posts about my mini-holiday-within-a-holiday to Cape Town. I grew up in Johannesburg but to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the hubby and I took our parents down to Cape Town for a few days to catch up.

So we headed to OR Tambo airport, got on our plane and started taxiing down the runway. I decided to get some good shots of the beautiful South African landscape, so I got my camera out (I had the window seat. Yes!). We were leaving the approaching rain behind us.



We took off, and I got some great shots of the suburbs below, and some shots of mine dumps (if you don't know what a mine dump is, please follow this link - if you visit Johannesburg you will see a lot of them. They are basically leftovers from the mining process, and Johannesburg isn't called the City of Gold for nothing! They are now being reprocessed because there is gold in them still)





We lifted up above the clouds...



and then the Captain came over the speakers, quite unexpectedly. There was smoke coming from one of the restrooms. Yes, he's right, I had smelt something strange... and we were turning around, so that the engineers could check out what was going on.

Oh. Ok. The plane began to turn, and then hit a pocket of air. We dropped a few feet and a few people squealed. Super.

When we landed, there were four fire engines waiting for us. And some other emergency vehicles. Hmm.



And then the firemen came on board to check it out... with those giant helmets on.

How did they get into that tiny loo!?



We disembarked, and waited a couple of hours. We got on another plane (something about a faulty hydraulic system, so yep, I liked our new plane) and headed on our way. No trouble this time, but I had an aisle seat. No pics until Cape Town.



I hadn't been since I was about twelve so I was wondering what to expect - and the mountains we could see from the airport did not disappoint. Nor did the view from our rented house in Fish Hoek, either. Take big, deep breaths. Take it all in.





Then we headed off to nearby by Simonstown for dinner, where the South African Navy comes home to roost (and where the great Just Nuisance once walked). I ate my much loved and missed kingklip, and it was a meal from heaven. With a view to match.





We went for 6 days, and hired a car. With our rented house, air ticket, food, booze (but not a lot!), all our sightseeing, it turned out to be $500 a person. In peak tourist season. So if you'd like to visit South Africa, you should know it will be reasonable once you get there. And once you see the rest of my photos, you will want to go.

More to come.