Day 17 - Monday 29th JUly

When we arrived at Cape Town airport last night, we'd noticed that the ground was wet. The ground outside our hotel was still wet when we went downstairs for breakfast at 8:30am and the sky was cloudy.

This was the first wet weather we'd encountered on our holiday so far. However, the forecast is for the cloud to clear for a sunny (but cool) remainder of the week.

The hotel's breakfast was very good - a wide selection of buffet and hot food together with prompt and courteous service.

The breakfast area is at ground level overlooking the waterfront. In previous locations recently, we'd been able to look out and see elephants, giraffes, storks, baboons, etc while having breakfast. Naturally, we didn't expect to see these in Cape Town but we did see a seal swimming in the harbour just outside the hotel.

At about 10am, we went for a walk to explore the waterfront, stopping first at the tourist information office. Suzy wanted to go into various shops but I managed to convince her to come back later after the walk.

One of the attractions on the waterfront is a seal spotting area in the harbour outside the aquarium. When we got to this location, there was a big, fat, lazy seal sunning itself on the platform below the boardwalk. Scores of uniformed school children were looking over the handrail at him.

The driver who brought us to the hotel from the airport last night assured us that Cape Town is completely safe. He said it was OK to walk around at any time day or night.

I guess everything is relative. Although we did not encounter any problems, there were security people at the entrance to every hotel, along the streets and within the shopping malls. Many hotels had boom gates and security people at the entrances and some hotels were surrounded by electrified wire fences.

At the end of our walk, Suzy went off to look at the shops and markets while I went to the nearby ASBA bank to sort out foreign currency. It was a long convoluted process to convert our US currency to the local currency after which I used the ATM to withdraw more money that we would need during our time in Cape Town.

Originally we had planned to go to the top of Table Mountain today. This morning, it was shrouded in cloud and we were hoping it would clear as the day progressed. However, when Suzy asked the hotel travel desk about it, they informed her that the cable car is currently closed for maintenance for several weeks.

The only alternative way to get up there involves a hike of 2 hours 30 minutes in both directions - which is not practical for us this week for a whole lot of reasons. The travel desk suggested an alternative of driving up to Signal Point which gives a 360 degree view of Cape Town including Table Mountain.

Mid-afternoon we went for another walk along the waterfront. This time we went to the clock tower and then found the wharf for the ferry to Robben Island. Next we went to several shopping malls and looked for suitable places to have dinner tonight.

The main shopping mall is quite impressive. It is a large modern structure with a nautical theme. It has numerous interconnecting corridors lined with upmarket shops.

On the way back to our room, we stopped at the hotel bar for a pre-dinner drink. We noticed that most of the cloud had now lifted from Table Mountain.

For dinner, the hotel travel desk had recommended a restaurant called Baia in the nearby shopping mall. We had noticed it earlier while we were in the mall.

We went there at 7pm and were give a table on the terrace overlooking the harbour. It was a nice setting and an excellent restaurant. Their speciality is seafood but there also have poultry and meat alternatives.

There was an extensive selection of South African wines. We settled on a Cabernet Sauvignon that we thoroughly enjoyed. So far, we have been very impressed by South African wines and we are looking forward to our tour of the local wineries tomorrow.

The food was exceptionally good and service was outstanding. The waiter's description of the food, such as tonight's specials, made our mouths water. I had a kingklip fish and Suzy had a mixture of seafood dishes and we polished it off with a delicious semi-freddo chocolate dessert and coffee.

In our two weeks in this part of the world, we have had some excellent dinners. This was the best so far. When the bill arrived, the total was just 770 rand (about $80) which seemed like incredible value to us. The dinner was a perfect experience. You couldn't fault the food, the wine, the service or the location.