Day Two - V & A Waterfront

Well, we may not have seen any birds yesterday but we certainly heard some. Our hotel is by the waterfront and all night long the gulls were squawking, but it only annoyed me because I didn't know exactly what species they were. Upon further investigation in the morning from our hotel room window, they turned out to be Hartlaub's Gull. Our first ever African birds.
Now, anyone whose prone to fainting better sit down. Today was a pretty cruisey day. Yeah that's right, I didn't try to see everything Cape Town has to offer in one day.

A big buffet breakfast to start the day then we went and booked our Cape Explorer bus tickets for Tuesday.
Spent the morning wandering around the V & A Waterfront, (named after Queen Victoria and Alfred her son, not Albert her hubby, because Alfred attended the ceremony when they began construction of the harbour), checking out the markets and sights like the swing bridge and the clock tower.

Went for a spin or four on the Cape Wheel to get a view of the city from above, including Table Mountain, Signal Hill and Lion's Head. This morning was a bit foggy so the top of Table Mountain was shrouded in mist, but we hear that is a pretty common occurrence.

We wandered around the shops at the Victoria Mall for a bit and then had lunch at a waterfront restaurant.
In the afternoon we did a short City Sightseeing harbour cruise, which cost only 40 rand (about $4).

Cape Town's tourist hub - the V & A Waterfront (Photo Credit: Travel Buddy)

We saw plenty of nesting Cape Cormorants and sighted our first African mammals; Cape Fur Seal. Our boat was only a small one so the skipper took us very close to a group of six seals which were lolling around quite lazily in the water, we got within a couple of metres of them.

After having a look at the old wooden Portuguese fishing boats, which are still used by tuna fishermen today, and the huge Antarctic research ship, we spotted some 'seals on wheels'. Big old tyres hang from the edge of the docks to buffer incoming boats, and the seals like to haul up in these to sleep. We got very close to these seals too which was pretty cool.

'Seal on a Wheel' (Photo Credit: Travel Buddy)

Cape Cormorant

After our cruise, we headed to Pick n Pay which is the grocery store. It's always fun to check out foreign grocery stores, and in this particular chain you can buy everything. As well as groceries, it has clothing and a café. We stocked up on a few essentials, stuff like muesli bars and Tim Tams (genuine Aussie made ones, yay!).

Headed back to our hotel around 4.30pm because jet lag is seriously kicking in for me (Travel Buddy is okay). 

On the way back the clouds had finally cleared and we had a perfect view of Table Mountain.

Big Sis

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