Day 1 - Arrival in Cape Town

Well this is it. Today is the day that we leave London and head off to South Africa for 2 weeks holiday. We flew out on the same Emirates A380 that we flew to Dubai on last year and again arrived at Dubai again in the dark. After nearly 4 hours idle time at the terminal (Which was super air conditioned and freezing cold btw) we made our way onto our next Emirates aircraft (an A330) for our 9hr 50mins flight to Cape Town. On this flight we were both very tired and after having an airline meal I fell into a cramped disturbed sleep.
I woke up with about 3 hours flight time left. Parts of Africa were visible below and looked sparse, red and rocky. I also noticed a lot of dried up river beds that only held sporadic areas of water. Later as we descended towards Cape Town, we approached some mountains and it started to get cloudy. It was strange as up to that point there was not a cloud in the sky, but the area between mountains and the sea seemed to be holding all the clouds.

 

Our aircraft headed out over the sea then turned back towards the land lining up to land on Cape Town airports runway. We arrived at the gate 10 minutes ahead of schedule but we didn't get out early as the pilot said we seemed to have caught everyone by surprise and there as no-one to manoeuvre the airbridge into position to allow us to leave. I found this kind of funny as it always amuses me how some people are unfastening their seatbelts the second the planes touches down on the runway and they rush to grab their bag from the overhead locker to make a fast getaway, only to have to stand around for ages whilst the doors are opened and everyone leaves in front of them. This time they had to hang around even longer this time. Us, we just stay seated and wait until everyone has cleared off....

The airport was very quiet and we cleared passport control fairly quickly. We then went to reclaim our baggage, Whilst waiting at the carousel, we saw 2 small sniffer dogs climbing all over 2 czech guys and their bags. It was at that moment that Erika reminded me that I still had a pack of ham in my handluggage (just in case we got hungry like). Needless to say I quickly disposed of the offending meat into a nearby bin very quickly before the dogs got the scent! Outside we we met by a taxi driver that our hotel had arranged to pick us up. Our first impressions were that the weather was good, the roads were empty, in good condition and clean. We did however get a closer look at the shanty towns that were either side of the motorway. We had also seen some of these from the air as we flew in.

View of shanty town on approach to Cape town airport.

After checking in, we did our usual thing of forgetting any tiredness and going out to explore. After a quick shower we walked down to the nearby Victoria & Alfred waterfront, which was a dock area that had converted/new buildings turned into shops and restaurants. This place has a great view of table mountain, lions head and signal hill. We also got a first glimpse of cape fur seals in and around the water. We walked around the very busy area and saw lots of security guards around the location, but not a hint of trouble. Although I did keep my camera hidden in a my manbag when not in use.

Victoria & Alfred waterfront.

All the walking around made us hungry so we stopped at a restaurant and had steak and salad. I was also looking forward to having some Braai and bunny chow during our stay! The whole journey from our flat to Cape Town took 24hours and was beginning to take its toll on us so it was early to bed for us. The weather was good on the first day (about 20 degrees) and we hoped it would continue. Oh, and we also got excited about being in the southern hemisphere for the first time and seeing the water go down the plughole in the opposite direction to what we normally see. Unfortunately, it was a bit of an anti-climax. The idea sounded better than the actual event itself....

View of Table mountain from V&A waterfront.