theDIBB - Cape Town Capers - Day 8 Journey home and overall thoughts of the trip

Day 9 – Friday 18th January 2019

Cape Town Capers
January 2019

Cast (it’s the usual one!)
Me: Shaun, 50’s, loves travelling, eating and drinking (not necessarily in that order!)
Alison: 50’s, ditto to the above!

Trip Report Index

There’s not a huge amount to cover in this section – just the journey home and then our overall thoughts.

For this leg of the journey we were on a 747 – and first class is in the nose of the aircraft. I think it’s the only aircraft where passengers are ahead of the flightdeck (as they are upstairs in the hump which is set further back!)

We were lucky enough to secure seats 1A and 1K which face forwards and have windows almost pointing forwards too which is amazing!

The seats do have an aisle between them but they are really close – the only thing ahead of them is a cupboard, where we promptly stored our bags. We were almost the first people onboard so managed to take some photos of the cabin, before changing into pyjamas.

We enjoyed a glass of champagne before take off

then drinks and nuts after take off

and then ordered soup and beef (me) and nothing to start and salmon (Alison).

After eating (food was very good!) we got our beds made up and managed to get a few hours sleep (me) and a mixture of sleep and dozing/films/games (Alison).

A couple of hours before landing we had breakfast

We landed on time at 4.35am (ouch!) and after clearing immigration, collecting our bag, clearing customs, we headed out to get the bus to the long stay car park. At this point we were really pleased that we’d left the car in the T3 car park rather than the T5 car park where we started our journey!

A bus arrived as soon as we got to the bus stop, and we were the only people on it so the driver took us straight to our stop – couldn’t have been better really.

So by 5.20am we were scraping ice off the car :erm: and heading home (and by 6.20am we were in bed for a few hours!)

Overall trip thoughts

Flying First Class – this was a fantastic treat, I don’t suppose we’ll ever do it again! We both preferred the A380 to the 747, although the cabin crew on the 747 were better

Concorde Lounge – loved this, unless we fly first class we won’t get to use this again!

Swimming with Seals – this was a real high point for Alison, I’m not so keen on swimming in choppy cold water as I’m not such a strong swimmer. Nevertheless it was a real one off experience

Table Mountain – Loved this, a real must do for any Cape Town visitors

Robben Island – another must do, quite moving

Hop On Hop Off bus – we always do a HOHO bus – it’s a great (although very touristy) way to see a city

Having no jetlag – the time difference of just 2 hours was great. No 3am wake ups!

Frankkschoek – this was a real contrast to Cape Town, and we loved it.

The weather – it was more changeable than we were expecting, but still warm and we do love a warm break in January!

Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope – we should have allowed more time here, we could have spent a full day in the national park

Would we go back? – Yes if we got a good deal, but would spend less time in Cape Town and more time elsewhere. We liked the False Bay area, so would look at staying there I think

Thanks to everyone for reading!