Hiking Table Mountain’s Skeleton Gorge, touristy fun at the Waterfront and Christmas 2016

As we’ve been on leave for exactly a week, you can expect a double dose of the usual amount of pics below…

Friday, 23 December 2016: Brother airport collection, Spur breakfast and my first Dunkin Donut

First thing on Friday, our first day of leave,  we headed off to the airport. Next step, the brothers reunited! This scene was all the more touching as we’d just watched the ultimate ‘Christmas airport reunion’ movie the night before, Love Actually. I also liked the pretty tree of light on the right.

First stop, breakfast! We went for the Unreal breakfast at Canal Walk’s Spur.

We ran a few errands at Canal Walk that morning, and I finally got to try a Dunkin Donuts’ pastry. All cost R14, so you pay for quantity then select the one you want. They didn’t have yellow smiley faces so tried a ‘snowman’ – and was pleasantly surprised when I bit into a rich chocolatey centre.

It was a rainy afternoon but we were happy to spend it at home, catching up by playing Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, blogging and braai-ing.

Saturday, 24 December 2016: Big Bay morning, Woodbridge afternoon

Saturday was sunny and we had lots and lots to do, so we started our day with breakfast at The Daily Cafe in Seaside Village – that’s my cappuccino and Nutella flapjacks on the left, with Husband’s bruschetta and brother-in-law’s breakfast wrap on the right.

I couldn’t say ‘no’ to trying a Slo-Jo ‘Coffee in a cone’ when we passed Village Place Cafe in West Coast Village while running a few errands on Saturday. You down the coffee before it can melt through the chocolate and cone, then munch through the shell. I’ll be back! 🙂

View of Table Mountain from Big Bay, where brother-in-law dunked his feet in the sea for the first time during this visit as it had been raining the day before.

Husband and his brother in the yellow Nat Geo picture frame of Table Mountain from Big Bay.

That afternoon we did a very mild hike from Woodbridge Island, across Lagoon Beach and back. We rewarded ourselves with chilli poppers at Woodbridge Island’s Ilha.

We gave the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit another bash later that afternoon. I came last, even with Bassie’s help.

Sunday, 25 December 2016: Christmas lunch at our house

Cheers, Merry Christmas! Pose of all attendees at this year’s lunch, doggies are at our feet so sadly not in this shot.

But the doggies had lots of fun moments. Bertie tugged his new stuffed toy and his Mickey Mouse Christmas stocking, while Bassie sat on my lap and admired the view from her granny’s shoulder. Most of all they looked at the Christmas lunch spread.

Christmas lunch! Look at all the lovely baked potatoes, turducken, corned beef, gammon, ‘salad wreath’, trifle and mojitos.

Hills also treated Bassie and Bertie to these personalised Christmas stockings, each filled with a can of tasty age-appropriate stew for their Christmas dins.

After all that attention and all that food, the doggies nodded off happily.

Monday, 26 December 2016: Road trip to Langebaan

We had a busy day ahead so decided to fill up on the buffet breakfast at Doodles on the Blouberg beachfront as it was a public holiday. There are my three courses, and note the couple photobombing me and brother-in-law in the bottom left.

Duckies and geese all on patrol at the Vyge Valley farm stall on our road trip to Langebaan.

Finally there, we popped into Husky’s to wet our whistles and for a bite to eat. See my very pink strawberry shake and the samo basket once we’d eaten all the ‘samos’, chipolata sausages and tiny chicken wings (see how small in Husband’s wrist).

Brothers examining the sea at Shark Bay just outside Langebaan.

Some of our Langebaan seaside activities. See if you can spot Husband and brother-in-law, the tiny dots in the sea on the top and bottom left!

Tuesday, 27 December 2016: Skeleton Gorge hike up Table Mountain

Tuesday was hiking day. We’d dithered over tackling Lion’s Head or Table Mountain, eventually opting for Table Mountain through Skeleton Gorge – we parked the car at Cecelia Forest, then hiked into the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens and started the trail. It looks very sunny in these pics but quickly became overcast.

Once in Kirstenbosch we ambled across the slightly swaying Boomslang canopy walkway before the heavy hike began. Quite the view.

We were completely exhausted by the time we reached the top of Skeleton Gorge. Some of us literally lay down to nap among the flowers, some gazed at the view.

Success! We reached the rock cairn of Maclear’s Beacon, the highest point of the Table Mountain park, after a good six hours of hiking.

After trekking across the top of the mountain we finally reached the upper cable station – there’s no way we were hiking back down! See some of the cloud and sights from the top, and how unimpressed Husband looked after 9km of hiking.

Wednesday, 28 December 2016: Touristy things at V&A Waterfront, dog walkies in the suburbs

We had an Entertainer voucher to use on Yacoob Yachts’ Ameera before the end of the year, but got to use it on the slightly larger Tigresse as Ameera wasn’t running that day. No seasickness in sight, but we got a little sunburnt. Spotted a few dolphins and other sea life and felt a little more like we were on holiday after.

We decided to use another of our 2016 Entertainer vouchers while at the Waterfront, for a two-for-one trip around the Cape Wheel. Another touristy thing to tick off the to-do list.

We stuck with our nautical theme for the day by lunching at Panama Jacks in the harbour. I felt like a plate of chips while the boys went for the fettuccine marinara. We had to hold onto our hats as it was really windy.

It was too windy for beach walkies that afternoon but the doggies were keen to stretch their legs so we went a few blocks around the house. They loved it.

Thursday, 29 December 2016: Mussel morning, Cape Point afternoon

Thursday morning was for mussel collecting as it was the best tide for it. I read under a beach umbrella while Husband bravely ventured into the sea to collect a bag-full.

By then we all had rumbling (and rambling) tums, so stopped off at Village Place Cafe in West Coast Village. I had a delicious cappuccino with a shot of toffee syrup, so yum.

There’s Husband with my cappuccino, my banana-peanut waffle, brother-in-law’s big breakfast on top and Husband’s pesto breakfast below.

Next stop, Cape Point! We saw the most beautiful ocean views and smelled delicious sea air the whole way there.

We didn’t follow all the cars on their way to Cape Point, instead turning off before then to reach the not well-known tidal pool.

Venus Pool is only accessible by short hike, so short hike we took. The pool was pretty empty and just right for my first swim of the summer.

Husband had a wonderful time splashing about and gazing out at the sea from the sea wall.

That’s all for now, folks! Brother Spec is with us for a few more days and we have another week of leave to look forward to, so expect another image-heavy post next week (make that ‘next year’… ) 🙂