Camps Bay Saturday July 16th 2011

I woke up early Saturday morning, headed down to the Longstreet café like I’d done on so many mornings in Cape Town had a delicious espresso and a brie, tomato, mushroom sandwich. Got back to the hostel waited for my dorm mates to wake and eventually accompanied them to “Yours Truly” for more espresso and another bite. Yours Truly was the perfect example of the kind of café I’d like to own if I ever went that route. The place had great local artwork on the walls, delicious coffee, fresh pastries and amazing sandwiches. They also had an amazing assortment of magazines you could read while you were there and purchase if you wanted, including Monocle. Tasteful décor with comfortable couches and classy music really completed the environment. The girls indicated they had planned to head to Camps Bay, JJ and I didn’t have anything solid planned, we thought we might stroll down the waterfront and take in some local street buskers and try some more locally brewed beer. Since the weather was optimal for beaching, we asked if we could tag along, the waterfront wasn’t going anywhere.

We took a Minibus to Camps Bay, fantastic way of getting around town –if you know the route. 6 Rand will get you to Camps Bay, but don’t expect the driver to tell you anything more than: “Yes, I go by there at some point during the day”. The minibus system is also the sketchiest form of transportation I’ve ever experienced, some of the drivers don’t have driving licenses and text/drive or talk/drive on their cells. There’s anywhere from 10 to 15 Minibuses in Cape Town that are registered and part of a co-op. The rest of them are illegal minibuses, private drivers who are poaching customers from the co-op. It’s very difficult to tell them apart, they are all just super dodgy. Unfortunately, I think we took a minibus that went all over Cape Town before ultimately getting to Camps Bay. 6 Rand is still much cheaper than a 70 Rand cab ride, and on the bright side, we saw the town a bit more. Another added benefit to taking the Minibus is brushing shoulders with some locals, taking in some of the local language and culture. Cape Towners or Capeys, all take the Minibus; or have at some point in their lives.

Arriving at Camps Bay, I got a smell of the ocean and glanced over my shoulder at the Lions head, I knew this was a great choice. We’d arrived around 1130 and the beach wasn’t too busy yet. Luckily it’s the Cape Town winter and not many people go to the beach, otherwise we might not have had such primo real estate on the beach.

We set up shop and I busted out the disc JJ, Nele and I threw the disc around and almost lost it in the ocean a few times, Cybil sat smoked a cigarette and watched us. Great start to the day, eventually we got hot and went for a dip in the ocean.
Swimming in the Indian Ocean at Camps Bay was very refreshing, the water was just a touch over 10 C and the waves were just shy of 2 m. I swam out, until the waves turned to big swells and my toes started to go numb, turned around and just let the ocean carry back to shore. The others didn’t understand how I could stay in the water for so long without a wetsuit, I explained to them that the water was just right for a 30 C day at the beach with no wind and no clouds in sight.

After drying off listening to the Strokes, lying on the beach chatting with my new friends; JJ, Nele and I went over to a duo tossing a red Coca-Cola sponsored unofficial disc and offered to play with them. We attracted a few more people with my Discraft MEC disc and had fun laying-out. The initial guys we went to play with turned out to be an odd pairing of Australian and Cape Towner, they told me about some great bars the locals go to and where the good local bands were playing that night. I was stoked I had something new and exciting to do in Cape Town, finally getting off the tourist strip of Long Street.

We joined Cybil back at our home base, sat and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Table Mountain behind us Lions Head beside us and the Ocean cracking some serious waves in front of us. We discussed dinner plans and thought we’d try and find a spot on the patio of one of the bars behind the beach. We walked by at least 3 different bars that were packed beyond capacity. I guess, everyone had the same idea. We end up at a nice bar with a patio facing the ocean, watching the sun drop into the ocean over the horizon we glanced at the menu and realized why this bar was empty. Everything was way over-priced by S-African standards; but not Canadian standards, it was also an oyster bar! I got excited and thought to myself: “What a great way to end the day, nice white wine with some oysters watching the sunset”. I looked over at my friends and they didn’t seem to share the same opinion, I queried the group and concluded we should find somewhere else to go.

We walked up the street a bit and found a P n P (Pick and Pay) grocery store. We agreed we’d take a look inside and see if we could get some snacks and head back down to the beach and just watch the sunset there. I grabbed a tray of cheese with a wooden knife and some crackers, a 250g pack of Kudu biltong and an Appletizer (carbonated apple juice). I asked the cashier where the nearest LC was and she told me it was at Seapoint, which is the neighboring town! Not far, but we wouldn’t make it there and back for the sunset. We went to the beach and sat down to snack while we brainstormed. JJ suggested we just try and buy a bottle from one of the bars, we pooled our money together and he went and asked. The bartender was keen on selling a bottle of wine to us; then the manager came out and forbid it. JJ returned with the bad news, but it didn’t matter. We had great company, music, cheese n’ crackers, biltong and Appletizer; we watched the sunset together and quietly I think we were all glad we’d come to Camps Bay that day. In the end, not having oysters and white wine didn’t matter to me, the view, the company and the choice of music was perfect where we were.