Day 10
Today sucked for the most part. Since I missed the connection to Cape Town last night, I was stuck with the busy Saturday morning holiday traffic. The flights were completely packed to Cape Town so I ended up getting pushed from 9:00 AM until 3:30 PM when I finally got on. The whole day was supposed to be spent in Cape Town, instead, most of it was spent in the Johannesburg Airport. South African Airways wasn't even willing to sell you a full fare ticket to Cape Town today, that's how full the flights were.

The airport viewing deck, where I spent most of my hours since I couldn't clear security without a seat assignment.


It was about 6:00 PM by the time I got to my Airbnb in Cape Town. That gave me just enough time to head out to the beach for sunset with Table Mountain as the backdrop.


My room for the next two nights.


Another filet for dinner of course.



Day 11
The plan for today was originally to visit Robben Island but the ferries canceled due to the wind. Instead, I decided to head over to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which are on the opposite end of Table Mountain. Then I did some more exploring around the V&A Waterfront and walked around admiring the $8m homes in Camps Bay.

Backside view of Table Mountain from the gardens.


Walking around the gardens.


The tree canopy walk.


I Ubered over to the Waterfront again and walked around. This ball at the top of this tower used to go up at 1:00 PM to signal boats to enter the harbor.


Some seals hanging out at the Waterfront.


These two were fighting. I guess they'd had enough of each other.


Some sushi overlooking the water. Ran me about $10 for lunch.


I took an Uber over to Camps Bay strictly to look at all the mega expensive houses that the celebrities rent out when they visit Cape Town. Note how no one really has a yard, just a big wall, a reminder of the security concerns present in South Africa.







Well, that's enough admiring homes I'll never be able to afford... It was around 4:00 PM at this point. I decided to skip sunset and head back to the Airbnb, relax and sort some final things out for the safari in two days.

I went back to the first steakhouse I visited in Cape Town and got the 14oz bone-in filet. All in, less than $20 for dinner.



Day 12
I flew from Cape Town back to Johannesburg today, that's about it. I picked up my rental car for the safari and also picked up the lens that I rented. If you're ever in Joburg and need a lens rental, hit up Peter at A Lens for Hire in Sandton, good guy, and fair prices.

I bought a ticket as it was only $8 more than the standby fee, so no headaches today!


I picked up my rental car from Hertz at the Joburg airport after landing. The rep offered me an upgrade from the economy car I reserved to an Audi for ~$30/day. Gas was more expensive than anticipated, so I declined the offer. Instead, he gave me a brand spankin new VW Polo (slightly smaller version of the Golf) with only 9km on it. My first call of action was to pick up my lens from the rental place in Sandton, about a 35 minute drive north of the city. That area of Joburg sort of reminded me of Atlanta; lots of clay and hilly. My hotel, the Holiday Inn Johannesburg Rosebank was about 10 minutes from the lens rental store.

My room for the night at the Holiday Inn Johannesburg Rosebank


Another steak for dinner of course.


The lens for the safari that I picked up.