Cape Town Peninsula, Scaling Lion’s Head, & Magical Madame Zingara’s - South Africa

The next morning we decided to head out for a takeaway coffee and scout for some Saturday vintage markets, in luck we found a few okay ones to scavenge around and I went home with a new dress! After a quick lunch at home with a view of Table Mountain, my friend Cristina whom I met in Bondi had organised for her boyfriend Charl to drive us around the peninsular as she was away in Italy! 

Jumping in the nice Audi we hit the road and to my excitement I was seated next to a giant, drooling chocolate Labrador named Bullet. We took Bullet all the way to Simonstown to meet some friendly, intrigued penguins before stopping off in the afternoon at the Workshop - ‘The smallest pub in Africa’ for a few beers. 

Working up an appetite we curved further around the beautiful coastline, via their house to drop off Bullet and further inland to a suburb called Observatory. The rain was bucketing down and we were relieved to finally find our destination, disguised like a normal house, we entered a bustling, quirky and warm Italian restaurant; Ferdinando’s. Greeted with big smiles, Charl and Cristina are friends with the owners who fell in love in Ibiza in 2008 without being able to communicate due to differing languages. The pizza was scrumptious, the cocktails were tasty and the limoncello was a treat as we clanged our glasses and set back off into the rain to find home. 

The next morning, being Sunday and sunny Charl collected is from the house at 11am and we drive around the cape’s coast until we reached Hout Bay market. A creative market with with food, wine, music, crafts, jewels and vintage goods! A few Bloody Mary’s later it had reached the early afternoon and Charl dropped us back home for a hot bath, a delicious home cooked meal, a bottle of red and bed! 

Monday morning sprung around quickly and we were well rested and ready to hike up Lions Head. The walk up took us a little short of an an hour and rewarded us with spectacular 360 views of Cape Town. We spent some time up here breathing in the fresh crisp air, soaking up the sun’s rays & and taking in the serenity before descending back down the mountain and home again. We then ordered an uber, drove about 20 minutes around the city side of Table Mountain until we reached Kirstenbosh gardens. We spent the next hours frolicking through kilometres of gorgeous gardens and green grass at the foot of the mountain, until the rain started to fall and sent us home. Heading back to Ricks for dinner and to meet Jess, we devoured a few cocktails and shared some tapas plates.

Our last day in cape town was spent packing, with a brief break to head out to Latitude 33 for a tasty coffee and a browse along Long St. We also walked to the suburb of Bo-Kaap, a colourful display of houses that highlights the cultural contribution from the 19th century Muslims.ct

That evening we treated ourselves to a show which was said to be very impressive; Madam Zingara’s. Arriving at 6 we were served tasty fish canapés, bubbles and vodka slushy cocktails. We were then seated around 8, with a table of strangers we soon made friends. The acts were quirky, funny and entertaining. We were presented with a 3 course meal whilst midgets made jokes and a strong man held up a bicycle while his partner was riding it like a hamster. The show finished around 11 and we ubered home and into bed.