Day 22: Aquarium, Llandudno & Chapman's Peak Drive

19th July 2019

Unfortunately, the weather this morning doesn't look much better. According to the weather forecast, it should stop raining around noon, but there are still a lot of clouds in the sky.

The weather forecast says it will improve around noon.

So what should we do in the morning!?

Actually, we didn't plan to visit the aquarium at the Waterfront, as we've already seen so many aquariums (Seattle, Sealife Queensland, Lost Chambers Dubai, and more). But we can't think of a real alternative, and the husband would prefer the aquarium over another day of shopping, hehe.

So after breakfast, we head to the Two Oceans Aquarium and are pleasantly surprised to discover animals here that we've never seen in other aquariums.

Right at the entrance, we are fascinated by the many 'Nemos' all lying on a glass plate and moving strangely - are they sick!?

No - the information about it is directly below the tank. The Nemos have taken the glass plate as their 'anemone'.

Exploring the aquarium

Otherwise, the aquarium is similar to the many other aquariums we have visited.

Shark tunnel, giant crabs, moray eels, etc.

What's new here is the section where only the animals native to the Cape in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are shown, including penguins.

When we leave the aquarium around 12pm, the rain clouds have disappeared, and the sun is shining! Yay!!!

We take a stroll through the harbor, where everything looks much nicer in the sunshine than it did yesterday in the rain

Oh, how beautiful! We are thrilled to be able to enjoy the Waterfront in nice weather.

After a snack, we drive along the coast towards Clifton, where we spot a whale in the distance from the shore!!!

Yeah! Just as I imagined it :-)

There are still a few rain clouds hanging in the sky here, but it gets nicer as we head further south.

Our next stop is Llandudno Beach

The beach is really amazing!

We are all alone here and walk along the beach, watching the waves and spotting a seal playing or hunting fish in the waves. We're not quite sure, but it shoots through the water and jumps out of the waves.

Unfortunately, too fast for my camera...

My daughter climbs onto a larger rock near the water and observes the waves.

As she makes herself comfortable on the rock, reminiscent of 'Ariel the Mermaid', it happens:

3 waves break far in front of the rock, and the 4th wave completely hits her and floods the rock - along with my daughter....

I managed to capture the first splash with the camera...

Unfortunately, she reacts differently than expected. She jumps off the rock and directly into the receding wave....

Now everything is soaking wet...

Pants, socks, shoes, and half of her jacket - and we DON'T have spare clothes with us.

Great....

We leave the beach and think about what to do now.

While my daughter sits on the front passenger seat, wrapped in a blanket, with the heater on full blast, wearing only underwear and barefoot, we decide to continue to Hout Bay.

Maybe we'll find a restaurant where we can have coffee and dry the clothes a bit.

Right on the beach, we visit the Dunes Beach Restaurant & Bar, where we enjoy delicious lattes and hot cocoa with cream for the kids.

We manage to dry the pants quite well under the hand dryer in the restroom, and the shoes and socks are on the heater. Luckily, we always have a fleece blanket in the car.

After the unplanned but very nice detour, we drive along the scenic route 'Chapmans Peak Drive' to Noordhoek.

There, we stop above the huge bay and see riders on the beach and kitesurfers in the lagoon.

What a beach!!! It's gigantic!

Since it's getting late and soon dark, we turn back and drive back along Chapman's Peak Drive, making a few photo stops and enjoying the view.

We were already impressed by this area in 2005, and it hasn't lost any of its fascination. It's beautiful here!

We head back towards Cape Town to Signal Hill, where we want to watch the sunset

After the sun sets, we drive a bit down Signal Hill and stop at 2-3 spots where we have a nice view of the city.

What a great day it turned out to be!