Here in Louisiana lockdown is due to end on the 15th. This has been an uncommonly beautiful spring. The New Orleans Jazz Fest, the Baton Rouge Blues Festival, our favorite festival held at this time of year the Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette would have been bloody amazing if we’d been fortunate enough to have them. But we didn’t, because we don’t want to die.
I am overweight and over forty-five which puts me in two vulnerable categories for covid19. Before I became a mom, I would have looked death in the face with a hearty laugh yelling hold my martini (vodka, shaken and not stirred) and watch this. I had lived a full and glorious life. Done things I had once only fantasized about. Seen things become reality that had once been science fiction. I didn’t want to die, but if death came- Fuck it. It’s been a wild ride and now for whatever is next, even if it is oblivion. (I don’t think it is, but another time.)
Now, I’m a mom and I need to live forever. This may be the best reason to have kids young. That and a theory I have about brain development…another time. Having kids young means staring your mortality in the face while you are young enough to make changes that will impact your longevity. I mean, it’s never too late. But if you get started young it’s a lot easier to reverse or prevent damage done. Midlife crises are also about facing our mortality. Which is why there is also something to be said in having a first kid at midlife. It’s a stark reminder that if you want to live to see grandkids (No pressure. Obviously, her reproductive choices are her own), you need to get your act together.
I would say all this time in isolation has made me philosophical, but I am not in isolation. As a matter of fact, getting a few hours alone is much more difficult now than it was before the lockdown. A toast to those introverts trapped with beloved family members. And a toast to spouses who get it and take the 4yo out for a couple of hours so you can get a little bit of something done. Which is why I can now write about our tour to the Cape of Good Hope (COGH)/Cape Point and the Boulder’s Penguin Sanctuary (the Sanctuary) outside of Simon’s Town.
We did them on a daytrip we booked with a discount through the city pass. I would not recommend this. While it is nice to have the transport taken care of, and transport is all this is, the whole thing felt very rushed. Each sites is worth a daytrip on its own. This is definitely another case where a car rental or a deal with your Uber driver would be preferable. The trip out to the Cape of Good Hope is about an hour and a half, another thirty minutes from the COGH to the Sanctuary, then about an hour back to Cape Town. From there you are dropped off at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront where you can transfer to another bus if you are based, as we were, out of Sea Point. So, you’re looking at a minimum of three hours on a bus and the whole trip was nine (or earlier, depending on your pickup point) to five.
The bus will drop you off at the parking area at Cape Point in the Cape of Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park. From there you have the option to climb up or down. If you climb down, they will not wait for your out of shape behind to catch up. This is more of a trail and it was not recommended for children. Going up the pathways are paved. If you go down the bus will meet you at the end of the trail. If you go up, you must come down in time to catch the bus down to the shoreline. In the COGH area you’ve got wild animals including zebras, ostriches, and baboons. We only saw ostriches but the group that made the climb down also saw baboons. Another reason I’m glad we went up. I fucking hate monkeys. I had a bad experience. Also, at Cape Point is a funicular that I can tell you nothing about as we did not look into it at all.
At Cape Point is a restaurant and café. Don’t take food on the trail because of the fucking baboons. The restaurant is called 2 Oceans and is a fine dining experience with spectacular views off of a wooden deck. Well, as fine as dining can be when you cater to shorts clad tourists sweating their way up and down a mountain. There is not enough time to both eat at 2 Oceans and walk any of the trails if you are doing this tour. You do have time for both a meal and the funicular, assuming lines are not outrageous. Reservations recommended for 2 Oceans. There is also a food shop with long lines and a couple of souvenir shops because of course there are. We were able to grab halfway decent sandwiches from the shop which we ate on the bus.
Cape Point is freaking amazing. November feels like it was simply the perfect time to be in Cape Town and the weather could not have been better. Not too crowded and the views from the lighthouse were stunning. If you choose to go up the bus will then bring you down the shoreline to meet up with the rest of the group and so you can all get your pictures taken by the sign. We were only given fifteen minutes or so for this and there is competition from tourists from the other dozen or so tour busses so get in and get out when it’s your turn.
I am already over a thousand words, so I’ll drop our visit to the Sancuary next week. Stay safe, stay inside.