4^th June - 10^th June – Days 248-253 – Cape Town, South Africa

So we'd done our loop around Western Cape and were back in the Mother City. First thing in the morning we made hopeful glances out of our windows to see whether Table Mountain would be clear to go and visit still before my parents were due to fly out. What we got was grey rain. Hence, my parents had the pleasure of spending their last full day in South Africa by circling around the Century City Mall in search of whatever they might want to take back (read: my mother was looking for something new for the wardrobe). Us youngsters managed to use the opportunity to replace our camera (the one that had left us after Victoria Falls) with a new one, the fourth one of the trip.

First picture with the new camera! We're back in Lumix-land! Cheers!

The next day me and T waved my parents off in front of the hotel when they jumped in a taxi to the airport under bright blue skies. They talk about the changing weather in Cape Town a lot, and by now I was sure that every word is true. What followed after that was a sunny day's pub crawl which started at 1pm and finished around midnight when we decided it was a good idea to get a taxi back to the hotel before passing out at Zula Bar. I have a vague recollection of meeting some Italian guys who invited us to come and join them in meeting the Italian football team at some banquet style evening. For some reason, these guys also disappeared rather quickly before we managed to sort out the practicalities. Hmmmm.

We're also back in the first world.

The owner of the hotel, or actually guest house, was kind enough to let us stay over for a couple more days at a reduced rate while we were going through our options and trying to sort out accommodation for the next five weeks. T needed a new passport as his old one was full (which with the French administration would take forever to get) and we were also days away from the start of the World Cup, so we needed somewhere to let our hair and bags down and just enjoy the show while it lasted.

A strange situation by the name of "No parents"

After a couple of more nights out in Cape Town with some interesting characters and several inquiries into lodging possibilities in Cape Town at any reasonable price, we called up Elma, a contact of Marlene's, to ask whether she'd propose a good deal for us. She rents out a holiday apartment in a beach town called Strand, not far from Cape Town, which would probably not be booked for off-season so we stood a chance of getting a five-week continuous tenancy. The only thing we knew about Strand was that it had been described to us as a dead-end beach town that got busy with holidaymakers in the summer and mostly retired people at any other time of the year. Elma made us the cheapest deal we'd heard, seen or been teased of. We took it and jumped on the “MetroRail Plus” confidently with our noses pointing out at yet something new and unexplored. Surely we could rock even the deadest town up and enjoy some beach living for five weeks.