Day 3 - Hermanus... Ah... Cape Town

Everyone except Vera slept well. Vera has a room facing the pedestrian zone and there must have been a lot of noise last night. Also, she has a room with a connecting door and could hear her neighbors all night. How unpleasant. Despite all that, we were all in a mood to go. Today we were going to Hermanus to see whales. So we packed all our belongings again and wanted to check out with our suitcases packed after breakfast. The lady at the front desk looked at us somewhat confused. We still had another night. Huh!? We quickly checked the travel documents. Indeed! The journey continues tomorrow. I think we looked pretty foolish. At least the lady from reception almost fell under the counter laughing. :-D. Well, then we'll just stay longer. So we took back our room keys and went back up to our rooms with our suitcases. The lady from reception was still laughing when the elevator doors closed behind us. But we also had a good laugh. Well, what should we do with our newly gained day in Cape Town? We still wanted to go to Table Mountain. And we actually wanted to take the cable car up today, enjoy the view from the top, and then come back down. But with our newly gained time, we decided to simply hike up Table Mountain. So off we went in our hiking gear, to the base of Table Mountain by car, and with strong strides headed upwards. However, the path was not as easy as initially thought, and so we needed a solid four hours of scrambling, panting, and sweating until we finally reached the top. The two other girls unfortunately also struggled with acrophobia on the way, so everything took a bit longer. But in the end, we were up there and had a wonderful, awesome, astonishing, amazing, splendid view, to quote all the English-speaking hikers. Up on the mountain, we once again encountered our cute dassies, blue doves, and fat crows, and a view that was truly worth it. Fortunately, the mountain was completely free of fog, only a few veil clouds over the sea. Nevertheless, you could actually see the curvature of the Earth, as far as the eye could see. It was really great and I'm really glad we went up there. But we took the cable car down. But even then, we were treated to full entertainment in the form of a cheerful cable car guide. Now we're back at the hotel. We're freshening up now and going back to the great restaurant from the first evening tonight. Maybe we'll stay longer tonight and dance to live music. Who knows...