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Jan
05
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Headed down to the Tourist Information Office first thing, followed by a window-shopping a few Car Hire places. We settled for a company called Global Car Hire which offered reasonable rates and allowed drivers under 23 years old and booked the car for Monday morning. Mindful of the epic journey ahead of us we managed to find a stationary shop and bought a proper road-map to keep us on the straight and narrow. I was very keen not to have to navigate with a tourist atlas, I wanted the kind of map a real South African driver would use. We returned to the hotel and tried to book a tour on Robben Island for Sunday but everything was fully booked.
With only a few hours left until I had to be getting ready for the wedding we headed to the Planetarium. We had about an hour to wait for the show so we lodged ourselves in Dros, a bar/restaurant at the near-end of Kloof Street, it was quiet at lunchtime but the service was good nonetheless. The planetarium show was good, the main benefit being that it provided me with a way to get my bearings in the Southern Sky and to augment my general knowledge of South Africa. Besides, when travelling through hundreds of miles of South Africa knowing how to find South could be handy!
After the show I phoned Brad to arrange a pickup time & place then we had lunch and headed back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel I realised that my semi-smart clothes had been packed at the bottom of my bag for over seven days, by now the creases had creases. I went to the hotel desk to ask for an iron and was directed to a creepy room just off the first floor, it was the kind of place you expect to find a disfigured relative chained to the wall (Re: The Goonies). In the end I got into the laundry room and frantically ironed my clothes so that by the end they didn’t look so creased – more gently undulating.
I was picked-up by Brad at 4pm outside The Purple Turtle, we then headed back to Brad’s place to pick up Tyra where I also met some of Brad’s family. Brad drove to the wedding to arrive for about 5pm, shortly after taking seats the ceremony began.
The service was conducted by a friend of the bride and was held in one of the loveliest places a wedding could be held. The couple were married against a backdrop of Constantia wine lands beneath two old & massive trees (a symbol of a long-lasting partnership). The cutting of the cake and speeches were done in the garden-area of the restaurant and were set against the backdrop of Table Mountain – you really couldn’t find a more perfect place.
A meal followed with plenty of time for socialising and meeting the odd new person, Justin was there, along with his sister and his girlfriend. After the meal & quick goodbyes to Karl (a very busy man with 140 guests!) I shared a taxi back to Cape Town with Justin & the two girls. The cab dropped us off in Gardens where one of Justin’s friends drove the others down to Observatory, dropping me off at the bottom of Long Street. The ride back was great – Justin and I were in the back of a truck with the wind rushing past us – an activity which really works in a nice climate! I walked back up Long Street, stopping at a newsagents for water (in-case James didn’t get the chance) and got back to the hotel to wake James up so I could get in.
While I had been at the wedding James sat around the hotel and went through the guidebooks for future reference and thought a little more about the route from Cape Town to Johannesburg. He then walked to Computaria to do a little surfing and emailing, bought some bottled water then returned to the hotel (no need for me to have bothered). For the evening James went to Kennedy’s Cigar Bar for bar-snacks and drinks in the company of a considerate and amenable waitress.