Angie and I moved into our new place on Wednesday, it's right in the middle of the CBD on Adderley St. It's part of a plaza complex on top of a ten story Office block. It's a swish 2 story 2 bedroom 1 study apartment with stacks of balconies, a pool in middle of the plaza and a communal gym (it's a bit like a modern Melrose place). We've got the beautiful company gardens at the end of our block and we're five minutes walk from all the cool bars and restaurants. it suits me perfectly because as i don't have a license it's walking distance to the city bowl, gardens and the waterfront - where i can gather covers most of the production agencies are...
One of the things i love about Cape Town is it's the kinda place where you can drive for 10 - 15 minutes from the CBD and have so many different things to do..
Within 10 minutes drive you can be on top of signal hill 350 metres above sea level with incredible 270 degree views of the city -the ocean and devils peak and table mountain, the two mountains that sit between the cbd and the beach, Love it!
Segway to the beach - So far Ange and i's pick of the beaches - Camps Bay. To us it feels like a mini Bondi with a corso more like Balmoral - ( I love the killer sunsets on one side, and the very dramatic table Mountain 3km's away on the the other. And it's ten minutes drive away.. But the real estate prices are pretty expensive there, we were seriously considering a 3 bedroom place two blocks up (literally) from the beach with killer views but at R12,000pm after we got them down from 15,000 we realised that it was more expensive than where we were living in bondi - so started looking else where - but i have to say this is my favourite part of town.
Overall i find Capetonians friendly, vibrant and relatively happy - crime in the city and the suburbs that we're likely to visit is relatively low, Angie and i are feeling quite comfortable in our day to day wanderings - (but we still remain vigilant.) We've been told by a few people that crime statistic wise thanks to the 24hr security patrols make the cbd the safest place in cape town..
I can't believe we've been here a month already and we're only now starting to settle down... the majority of our time has been spent running around (we've hired a little VW citi) getting our bearings, doing shopping for our necessaries and trying to find a place, though don't get me wrong i'm not complaining - we've both enjoyed exploring, it's just we haven't really had time to see the sights as much as we'd have liked..
The Weather on the whole has been cracking! Although we've had our fair share of rain and wind, the weather has been great - not too cold and overall fine day with blue sky! the temp has even reached 22 - 24 about 5 times since we arrived..
The following is a list of where we've been so far;
Table Mountain - pretty clear day - You can be ontop of the wolrd in twenty minutes from the CBD? Fucking Awesome!!!!! I love this place - Angie and I have Bought a book of trails of getting to the top. We're going to use this to train for our trip to Kilimanjaro.
The Coast Road to Chapmans Peak; A road that's made for Car commercials - they wind around cliffs that range from 10m to 60m above sea level -but the pass around to other side is closed at the moment - they're reinforcing the mountain side against avalances or something so we couldn't take it all the way around..
Contantia - South Africa Oldest Wine Region (and a suburb of Capetown (20 mins drive from CBD) Reminds me a little of Bowral or the streets of the Blue Mountains - with much much much much MUCH better houses... wow it's really starting to hit me just how rich alot of people are in Cape Town. I mean you have Lamborgini and Ferrari dealerships!!
Muizenberg / St James / Kalk Bay / Simons Town: Nice - Great seaside towns on the other side of the penninsula (different Ocean warmer water), we drove down to Boulders Beach where they have a penguin colony of these braying jackass penguins, vey cute and you get very close. played mini put put at Muizenberg and had dinner at the Harbour House in Kalk bay on an almost full moon - special. And all this only 45 minutes away - niiiiiiiiiiiice.
Signal Hill - love it see above about being above the city...
Century City - man this is weird - it's kind of where Jules lives Zetland/Waterloo where all those towers of flats are being built but times it by about 15 - no kidding, they basically took a massive section of swampland - and built these apartment communities and themed a bunch of them like Venice - Knightbridge - the Colosseum - and then they've added an incredible long and massive shopping centre right smack in the middle - then to top it all off they've created a fake lake linked the lake with canals and created a wetlands conservation area for birds and other wildlife - why do i get the feeling that this is more and more the way of the future? - fascinating/ bizzare/ very scary/ but lots of shopping.
Atalantic Seaboard: This is the Coast that runs around and terminates at the V & A waterfront (sort of like Darling harbour) It goes Bakoven - Camps Bay (Where we were staying while we tried to find a place) it's quite beautiful, very very dramatic coastline - it's sort of Bondi Beach - Vaucluse crossed together wedged between a beautiful beach and a rather large 1000ft mountain (Table Mountain)., Clifton ( the most expensive real estate in Africa - not that impressive really) - Bantry Bay - Seapoint - Green Point, Moullie Point (where the new Football stadium is being built for the world Cup.)
We walked from Bakoven to Moullie Point. The seapoint promonade reminds me of the northern part of St Kilda as you drive from the docklands - nice place lots going on - but unbelievably condensed population.. (it make Pots Point look roomy)
We also went on a wine tour of 3 of the near by wineries (they are all about 45 minutes away). The area's are very very nice, quite beautiful - originall settled by dutch and then french hugenots so the place has a real european colonial air to it - very quaint .. We're going back there on the weekend for Bastille Day celebrations..
anyway brother my brain is about done.
I'm finally pushing hard for work and hope to have news on that front soon.
we've also got given a number for a great immigration agent so we're hoping to find a away to stay longer than six months!
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