Goodbye Darling, Who’s Simon? - Day 384
Goodbye Darling, who’s Simon? Can you guess where we are now? It's all go for the #GrownUpTravellers!
We said a very fond farewell with Janet this morning. It was lovely staying at her and Charles’ Airbnb. It was thoughtfully kitted out for us travellers. It felt like saying goodbye to a long lost friend. We have had a couple of stays like this in South Africa, Shirley in Ladysmith and Lyndsay with Peter in Hogsback. A common theme is that each has a separate area outside of their house, giving us privacy yet still connected; they were older than us (not sure if that is relevant), all very warm, friendly and hospitable people, we felt cared for and clicked immediately.
Our next stop was at Darling Wines owned by Charles. As we turned the corner, he was just returning to the house, so he jumped in the car to come down with us. What a delightful shop. The first thing we noticed was the fantastic candelabra made from 48 bottles neatly and equally around a steel metal circle, with two more smaller rings of bottles inside. Charles informed us that it was created by the talented Edmund Tango. The layout of the shop was well thought out, giving people both the space and the sense of a journey looking around the cleverly designed aisles of this small shop. We had come here to buy Charles’s Darlington Gin, which he made himself and ended up also buying a bottle of Chardonnay. Charles asked me to have a taste that was unwooded. To my astonishment, I liked it! It didn’t have that strong oaky green taste.
More farewells and we were on our journey to our next Airbnb in Simon’s Town. On the way, we had a fabulous view of Table Mountain with its iconic flat top. The photo doesn’t do it justice. We stopped off at Century City, a new business centre with a modern Mall, as we had decided to extend the hire of our car. It took us quite a time to find Hertz, it was in the Marriot hotel, but this gave us a chance to look around the canal area, very nice.
We were not sure whether to hire the car until 21st or 18th December as we are trying to change our flights, but sadly mytrip.com, who we booked our next trip with have not answered any of my 4 emails yet, apart to say that they have received them and will respond. When? However, going back to the hiring of the car, Tim discovered that we could extend our hire at the same rate, and if we dropped it off early, we would get a refund.
Time for lunch and we found a super salad bar, Sweetbeet, with fresh produce, very well laid out and friendly staff. I had a quick chat to the owner’s husband, complimenting them on the place, and discovered that it had only been opened recently. Wow, they got this place right, and it wouldn’t surprise me if this turned into a small chain around Cape Town reasonably quickly.
We finally arrived at Simon’s Town, via the coastal road, a lovely journey once we got out of the metropolis, through some attractive little seaside resorts. Kalk Bay looked especially appealing, quite “BoHo”. We may need to return there! No time to stop now, we needed to get to our Airbnb by 4pm. Our Host was away and had asked a neighbour to give us the keys. We arrived, and a lovely lady Sheri greeted us in the typical warm style of a South African and walked us around to our home for the next 4 nights. A garage? Yes, she opened the door of a garage and inside it had been cleverly converted to a delightful kitchen diner. Our host has quirky taste, right up my street. Sheri showed us around and gave us various instructions, such as making sure we keep the doors shut and locked if we are out as baboons have been known to visit! She opened the back louvre door with angel wings on the top, and we stepped out to a delightful small courtyard. Sheri pointed out some steps leading above the garage door, where there are a small table and chairs and a swing overlooking the bay. Another door was unlocked and inside were green wooded steps leading us to our bed with storage underneath and a small bathroom. A very cute little space.
Tim went to get the car while I explored the swing. He was obviously chatting with Sheri as I was on that swing for quite some time, in the end, coming down to put the kettle on for his return. I heard the car and opened the garage door to guide him into the narrow parking space outside when suddenly the wind caught the door and slammed it shut. Oh dear. We are locked out! I admitted my blunder to Tim, so he went to find Sheri for the spare key. After a time, I sensed that he couldn’t see her, but I had thought of a solution. Tim returned with another lady, who was making sure we were ok (what a lovely sense of community spirit around here). I suggested that Tim climbed onto the dustbin and clambered up to the roof garden. What I didn’t realise was that it was quite high. Thankfully Tim is strong and managed to leap up and, fully stretched, pull himself up. Gosh, I was proud of him. Shortly after, the garage door was opened by a smiling Tim, and I gave the lady a thumbs up that all was good. Phew!
We didn’t have long before we needed to leave as we were meeting Angela and Patrick for dinner. We met them on our somewhat drunken day in Stellenbosch, and somehow, through the haze of too much wine, discovered that we would be in Simon’s Town at the same time. We walked down to the Saveur Restaurant, and in a short while, they arrived with big grins on their faces. Hugs all around, we sat and heard about their adventures for the past week; whales in Hermanus, a helicopter ride over Cape Town, dodgy hotel with a cockroach. They are such a happy couple, so, I am sure you can imagine, there was loads of laughter for the whole evening. Conversations flowed from one subject to another, including Angela informing us of receiving rather too much inappropriate attention in Egypt when they were on holiday. Funny, I had no such attention, perhaps the Egyptian men aren’t attracted to blue-eyed women, or was it because I was with our` sons? I am relieved I didn’t.
We made plans to meet for tomorrow, and they kindly drove us back to our garage. Looking forward to spending more time with this lovely, fun couple.