We had a quick meal in the airport before boarding the plane. Ben and I were at opposite ends of a row, but negotiated with the two girls in the middle to move. This annoyed the air-steward when he brought my veggie meal, but no matter.
The flight took off around a half hour late, but caught up on-route and landed on time. It was fairly smooth, the food was okay (macaroni cheese for dinner, scrambled eggs with mushroom and hash browns for breakfast) and I managed to get a few hours sleep.
Once we’d landed we all made our way through customs and picked up the hire cars. I then followed Paul to the hotel – the Courtyard which is about 10 mins from the airport and about 15mins from the V&A Waterfront. The hotel is quite nice – it has more of a “motel” setup with two storey blocks of rooms around a central courtyard. The rooms each have a small “kitchen” area with a sink, microwave and fridge which might be handy.
After booking in and freshening up we drove in one car to the V&A and had something to eat at Cantina Tequila, a Mexican restaurant. They had a varied veggie selection which surprised me as SA is very meat oriented in its eating. I had a vegetarian combo which consisted of stuffed burritos, tortilla, wrap, peppers and beans and corn in a barbecue sauce all delivered on a huge plate.
While we were there two guys dressed as kangaroos “bounced” along the waterfront where we were sitting, performing a comedy routine, the highlight of which was one of the bouncing along with a large breasted girl while the other one shouted “Don’t look at the headlights!”
“I can’t help it,” replied the first kangaroo.
“No,” shouted back the other guy pointing up the road to an on coming vehicle. “The van!” The timing was perfect.
After finishing the meal, drinks and coffees (which for four of us came to less than £10 each) we made our way back to the airport to meet Ian, who had had to connect flights in Jo’burg.
After returning to the hotel, Ian booked in and I went back to the room for a rest before we all planned to meet up again for the evening.
Around 6.20pm Ben phoned me to say that he and Mark were going to go down to the club that was just down the road. We walked down there, passing the mental hospital that is next to the hotel and had a couple of beers, before making our way back to the hotel and its adjoining restaurant, the Wild Fig, where we were going to eat.
The menu at the Wild Fig has a couple of veggie options and I started with deep fried camembert served with a fig chutney followed by dolmades stuffed with pureed aubergine, rice and mushroom served with a pesto sauce. For pudding I had crème brulee – about a 7 on the scale. The whole meal was very pleasant – the others sampled springbok and ostrich – and it was all presented very well. For five three course meals, two bottles of wine and coffees the total bill came to around R800 (around £75) which is quite amazing. We then tried to get a nightcap in the restaurant and hotel bars, but they were closed up for the night (it was only 11pm) so we all retired to our rooms.
