South Africa Adventure #5, Camp's Bay, SA

Our room @ South Beach, Camp's Bay was bright, cheerful & modern, complete with an efficiency kitchen & a fridge stocked with breakfast makings, wine, beer - not bad! The hotel was yet another boutique, with just 9 rooms and an underground garage, but with another 19 under construction to its left. The hotel fronts on Link Rd., a short street intersecting the M6 beach road @ both ends. Along the beach road there is a string of restaurants, and across the road a park, a wide sandy beach and the Atlantic Ocean, which is too cold to swim in. After breakfast Thursday, October 29, we embarked on a bit of a mystery ride, heading south toward Cape Peak and along a winding road full of hair pin turns and dropoffs to the ocean, all with a noticeable deficiency of guide - or, guard - rails. We reached a treacherous lookout at the top of Chapman's Point, where we stopped to lose our sweat, take some photos & prepare for more angst in negotiating curves & turns while driving along the left side of the road. Pinky said not once but at least a dozen times that this was the last time she'd be vacationing with me where I'd be driving on the left side of the road.

We finally made our way to the west side of Cape Peak to an amazing spot just south of Simon's Town called The Boulders, where there were hundreds of penguins lounging about on large rocks & sand. We never figured out why the penguins picked this spot, but they seemed to really like it there. We backtracked north along the easterly shore to the Harbour House, where we had lunch reservations. However, getting through the village of Kalk was beset with a long delay due to road construction, and we arrived :45 past our reservation. Non the less, our table next to the window was waiting for us, with spectacular views of the surf breaking over the boulders and even a couple seals sunning themselves there. After another great lunch, we trekked south to Cape Point Drive, which led us through a national park to the end of the road where we were transported by van to a precipice with a lighthouse and overlook at the southern most point of the cape. (But not of Africa, which is a 2 hour drive east.) Again, we were treated to outstanding views on a fortunately clear day.

Our return trip to Camp's Bay had no less drama than did our trip down, as we had more twisted roads with extraordinary dropoffs as we made our way up the west side of the cape. To avoid Chapman's Point we took an alternate route that extended our twisted route at least an hour. Nevertheless, we made it bank in time for our 7 pm dinner reservation @ The Bungalow, where we enjoyed sundowners to a wondrous sunset and a fine dinner. (Note a plug for Uber: using Uber for the short ride to The Bungalow cost R 23, or $1.70, but using a taxi for the return trip cost R 70, or $5.15.)

Friday, we did nothing adventurous, taking the day off to enjoy our hotel and explore Camp's Bay waterfront, and enjoying sundowners & dining Italian at one of the restaurants along the beach road. As all good things come to an end, so did this Amorous Adventure, necessitating our taking a noon flight Saturday, connecting in Jo'burg to Dulles, arriving @ 6:30 am on Sunday.