Home for the next two nights is the Cellars-Hohenort Hotel in Constantia. The hotel is high on the hill above Cape Town, near Kirstenbosch Gardens. Set in 9 acres of gardens, it is a beautiful location, with the 19th century German-influenced architecture of the buildings complemented by the English country manor styling of the interiors.
The gardens are so large and landscaped, the hotel provides a map by which to navigate them. It’s still early spring, so the roses are only hinting at coming out into flower, but the rose gardens will be stunning in about a month’s time if today’s warm weather continues.
It’s a very restful place to stay after 16 days on safari – which works out to be 32 game drives over that period. The 5am starts become a habit after a while, but it’s an easy habit to break too :-).
After 18 days of travel, I need a pharmacy and an additional travel adapter, so I head to the V&A Waterfront as the easiest place to find both. The first surprise is the cost of parking. It’s R10 per hour, so after 3 hours, parking at the waterfront in an undercover parking garage costs the grand total of about $3. Equivalent parking in Melbourne would be about $30 or more at Docklands or in the city.
Capetown’s waterfront is a true hybrid – redeveloped for retail and luxury hotels, it is still a working port and marina in the same area, so there is always a sense of something going on, whether it be a boat returning to berth, a rusty old ship in the dry-dock, or cranes working on transforming an old storage silo into something new.
It’s such a gorgeous day, a trip to Kirstenbosch gardens is in order. I deliberately leave it until 3pm to arrive, after most of the lunchtime picnickers have left. There are still plenty of people around lazing in the sunshine, or trying out the new tree canopy walk.
The second surprise of the day is the cost of food. A burger and a drink at a waterfront cafe sets me back the equivalent of $10. Dinner at The Conservatory at Cellars (a 5 star property), comprising a 3 course meal of souffle, slow-roasted duck, chocolate ganache pudding plus drinks is about $45. The equivalent main course in Melbourne would be $35-40 alone. So it’s very easy to eat very well in Cape Town.
