Bus ride to Hout Bay and back

Scrambled eggs for breakfast. I worked on another website on my computer while Sue read her Nelson Mandela book. Another gorgeous day here at Green Point — lots of people here this morning. The annual Sunfoil Cape Town Big Walk was happening today and the route followed the Sea Point promenade. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people in red t-shirts were doing the walk. We could see them from our balcony, and smell the barbecues and hear the marching bands all morning.

What should WE do today? How about we take the Cape Town city bus down as far south as it will go, all the way to Hout Bay? We have the bus ‘cards’, it’s really very cheap to ride it, and it would be a great day to visit the beach towns along the way. We could have lunch in one of those towns.

The view from the Blues Restaurant overlooking the beach at Camps Bay.
The view from the Blues Restaurant overlooking the beach at Camps Bay.

We left our apartment at around 11:30. Caught the bus just down the road from here. The Sunday traffic along the one road that goes down along the beach slowed things down a bit, but we were in no hurry. Sue had a 2-for-1 coupon for a restaurant in Camps Bay, so we decided to get off the bus there and have lunch.

Sunday lunch at the Blues Restaurant in Camps Bay: Yellowtail fish for Rudy, prawns with risotto for Sue.
Sunday lunch at the Blues Restaurant in Camps Bay: Yellowtail fish for Rudy, prawns with risotto for Sue.

The Blue Restaurant opened at 12 noon, and we were there not long after that. It quickly filled up. The restaurant was on the second floor, right on the main beach road, and we got a table outside on the balcony overlooking the beach. The food was very good.

After lunch we wandered back to the bus stop and waited for the next bus to come along. The distance from our place to the beach at Hout Bay was just over 20 kms. It was the last stop on this bus run so when we got to the final stop we got off the bus. We walked down to the beach. There was a busy restaurant overlooking the beach. We went upstairs to the bar and sat down and ordered G&Ts. They were large! And the place was hopping here too. We spent about an hour there, enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine and looking out at the big surf rolling in on the white sand of the beach.

Dunes Beach Bar in Hout Bay -- G&Ts for Happy Hour.
Dunes Beach Bar in Hout Bay — G&Ts for Happy Hour.

The ride home was a little more complicated! First we found out that the bus station where we got off the bus was NOT the place to catch it going back to Cape Town. We ended up walking about a kilometre to another bus stop on the main road. We sat there for about 5 minutes until the bus showed up. We got on, and took the back seats. As we made our way (slowly) up the coastline the bus gradually filled up. By the time we got to Camps Bay, about halfway, the bus was packed and continuing to pick up more people! And it was moving very slowly — traffic now was just barely crawling. And the late afternoon sun was reflecting off the ocean and heating up Sue’s side of the bus pretty good. No air conditioning here! By the time we got CLOSE to the stadium in Green Point Sue had had enough. We’re getting off. We’ll WALK an extra stop or two just to get out of that hot bus!

We got home and showered. Whew! Then we watched a bit of the Sunday morning American talk shows. It didn’t take long until we were tired of that. Sue made supper. After supper we started watching a German movie I’d downloaded — but we both had trouble keeping our eyes open (and we needed to have our eyes open so we could read the subtitles!). We switched to a couple of episodes of Homeland and managed to stay awake with the help of a dish of ice cream and some chocolate.

By ten o’clock we were ready to call it a day. We have to get up early tomorrow for our weekly Monday morning golf game across the road — and the forecast is for a warmer day again tomorrow.