Cape Town And Doug’s Wedding
Finally, its arrived…a trip to the Cape for Doug Marvin’s wedding. YEEHAA!!
Although Sharon had lived there for several years she hadn’t done any of the touristy things, so as well as the wedding we planned to take in the sights and sounds of the Cape.
We arrived on Thursday night and had dinner at a local Thai restaurant This was quite an event for Sharon who’s not known for trying new foods. By the end of the evening she had tried spinach wraps, duck, some sushi, and most importantly, prawns…this was to be her training for the upcoming Mozambique trip.
Friday was spent with my dad since he was leaving for Kruger the next day. This involved a trip to Blue Peter for a brunch. Although its a lovely location, they’ve possibly got the worst service I’ve ever seen. I’d recommend it for a drink, but not a meal. It took well over and hour to get our food, after which we discovered they had lost our order and only noticed half an hour later.
Saturday was Doug’s wedding so Sharon was stuck in the house while I drove out to Franshoek for the ceremony and reception. The wedding got off to a bad start when the power failed as the bride stepped into the church. This meant no organ for her walk down the aisle, and more embarrassingly, no organ for the hymns. The ceremony was short and sweet, and we all headed eagerly to the reception which was held on a wine farm nearby.
A great surprise was that the photos were short and Doug and Ruth arrived shortly after us. After some champagne and a beautiful sunset we sat down for a fantastic 3 course dinner. I had a seafood salad, followed by springbok with an oyster sauce, and finally chocolate brownies and ice cream. WOW!! The speeches were good and not too long which is always a plus. Then it was the cutting of the cake followed by some serious dancing. Sadly I was far too sober for the event, having to drive 45 minutes home through road block heaven. A taxi was out of the question when I found out it would cost in the region of R800. AAaaaagh!
Sunday was busy with a trip in the cable car up table mountain, followed by a cruise to Robyn Island and a tour of the prison. We were lucky and had good weather on the mountain, avoiding the table cloth which appeared shortly after we got down. We ate a large breakfast on the mountain which was surprising cheap, and then did a 45 minute walk before coming down and heading for the waterfront and the ferry to Robyn Island.
I’d done the Robyn Island thing before but it was just as interesting the second time round. After the 30 minute ferry ride we all got onto buses for the drive around the island. Our guide was a fantastic guy who thought he was rastafarian. The first thing he said to us upon getting onto the bus was “Welcum to da island”. For a brief moment I thought I’d ended up in Jamaica. The island tour was fascinating and was followed by a walk through the prison including a visit to Nelson Mandela’s cell. What makes that part of the tour so interesting is that you get guided by a former inmate, which means he has lots of stories to share of what life was really like in the prison.
Sadly after that I got a case of the flu and was bed ridden for the rest of the trip. Luckily this was only a day and a half but it did mean missing out on a trip to the wine farms.
Oh well, maybe next time…