C&L South African Adventure Oct 2018 - Day 10 - Table Moutain Abseil, Helicopter tour, Robben Island

[LN89]

Day 10

I feel like I need to start of this day by saying, this was probably one of the craziest days we have ever had but the weather in Cape Town can be a bit hit and miss and we were lucky so made the most of it !

I had booked to do the Table Mountain abseil for Chris’ birthday present and I had chosen to book it on the Tuesday so if it got cancelled there would be more time to fit it in later in the holiday. The weather was looking good though and we pre-booked the cable car tickets the night before so we wouldn’t have to queue as we needed to be up there quite early. These were 660RN for us both (about £35), morning tickets are more expensive than afternoon.

We got up early, had breakfast and left the house about 7.15am. The traffic gets bad in the centre so we knew it would take a while. We arrived at the cable car around 8.50am so it had been a slow journey, we parked and walked a little way up to the start of the cable car.

We were able to go straight up and found the abseil place.









There was still cloud over Cape Town, however the side we were abseiling it was clear.

We checked in and had about half an hour to wait after signing the waivers etc. I got a coffee and we nervously waited. I felt sick I was so scared !

We were harnessed up and had to climb down to the bit before getting to the start of the abseil, despite being harnessed and attached to a rope, I was still shaking so much!

We then were harnessed and started the abseil. It was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done! it was 112m worth of abseil and it looked like it was from one of the highest bits of the mountain – which is 1100m. Chris was nervous but absolutely loved it!

We posed for some photos, I was surprised I managed to take my hands off so easily but I felt secure and wasn’t going anywhere.







We were probably abseiling for a little over 10 minutes, I am not sure if it went quickly or felt like ages!



Managed to get these screen shot from the go pro! I was sooo scared!

The last bit of the abseil was an overhang. I got to it first (unsurprisingly was going down pretty quickly)! I was so nervous on the overhang as we were just floating there but I calmed down after a while and enjoyed the amazing view.

We were met at the bottom by another instructor, I was very unsteady on my feet so he had to help me haha.

There was then a trek back up, this was quite a distance and very rocky, climbing up and down over rocks. One of the instructors said that many people complain about the walk back up but we loved it.







We finished and wondered around the top of the mountain but then headed down. We stopped for an ice cream at the bottom , I don't think I quite got over the abseil yet!





We would have liked to have spent longer but we wanted to get over to the waterfront.

For my birthday present Chris was talking us on a helicopter tour over Cape Town 🙂 because of the weather we decided to wait and book it there as we had been told there would be plenty. As it was such a clear day and the weather wasn’t expected to be quite so nice the rest of the trip we were hoping to squeeze it in. To make the day even crazier we had also booked to do a Robben Island Tour at 3pm!

We went over to the V&A Waterfront where we could get helicopter tours, it was very easy to get there and we easily found the main carpark and we were there a bit before midday. We headed straight over to the helicopter stands and enquired.

There were a range of different options, we choose the same route we wanted to do online and then they offered us a discounted price to have our own helicopter as opposed to a shared one. We decided to go for this as we were restricted on time as well. This was about £260 in total.

We were taken by a cart to the helicopter pads and filled out the relevant paperwork and got weighed. We were in a small 3 seater helicopter, we met our pilot and were taken to our helicopter.







It was a bit nerve wrecking as we took off, the helicopter felt so tiny!



The views over Table Mountain were incredible. It was also crazy to think we were abseiling it just earlier that day!













The 15 minutes went very quickly and we were soon on the way back down. We were given some champagne when we got down which was a lovely touch, it was very nice too! We sat and relaxed with our champagne before being dropped back to the V&A waterfront.





We had time for some lunch before our Robben Island tour, we went to Tortilla and both got a burrito each and shared a coke. This was 140RN. We went around some of the shops and I discovered this – milkybar and jellytots! My new favourite chocolate 🙂







We booked the Robben Island tour for 3pm so around 2.30pm we headed over to the boat. It was 720RN for us both online (£40). It was already very busy and everyone was waiting to get on. We went through security and had our tickets scanned and then got on the boat.

If you aren’t aware Robben Island Prison is where Nelson Mandela served 18 years.



It was about 7 miles over to the island, it can be very choppy at times so the boat trips do not run when the weather isn’t very good.

We arrived on the island and got onto a coach, we had a tour around the island first.









We stopped for a break, there is also a colony of penguins on Robben Island.





We were then taken into the prison and given a tour around the prison by an ex political prisoner.









The tour was interesting and awful hearing about the way they treated the prisoners.

We got the boat back and went for dinner in the V&A Waterfront at an Italian Restaurant.





I had a carbonara and Chris had a pizza, I had a glass of wine and Chris had a lemonade. This was really good and came to 350RN.









We met C&M after our dinner for a drink in a bar, there was live music and it was very lively.



We drove back and got back about 11pm and went to bed.

Next - day 11

[CrispyA]

Nice splits! Looks like a really good day, am now thinking about a trip to South Africa

[Melbatb]

I was thinking exactly the same as Crispy!

What an incredible day! You packed such a lot in!