19 April: De Aar to Cape Town

This morning we woke at sunset, stopped at De Aar station. Got some gorgeous photos! The Trucker got his new S5 just before we left Joburg and it takes awesome photos.



Then we made the mistake of checking the schedule ... and discovered we were supposed to pass thru De Aar at 1:30am. Turns out our train was now running a whopping 5 hours late o_0

We had a lazy morning still bundled in our bedding reading and looking out the window. Well, I read ... The Trucker had brought along one magazine and no books. He got pretty bored. Also there was no way to charge our phones or tablets so he was even more bored than he expected. He dozed some more.

Someone came around to tell us that at 10am, when we got to Beaufort West we'd all be transferred from the train onto buses which would take us to Cape Town because they could get us there quicker.

We ordered toasted sarmies for breakfast and packed up our cabin and waited for Beaufort West. I chose to see it as a huge plus we got to enjoy the Karoo views that we'd usually have missed by sleeping thru it. But then again, you run alongside the road for a lot of it too ... probably I'd rather the train was actually reliable and on time :(

We got there a bit late and climbed onto a bus and started the 5 hour drive to Cape Town. Luckily we still had some snacks as there were some plenty annoyed people on the bus complaining about all sorts of things.

We even ended up stopping on the side of the road to let some people off because they'd arranged someone to come and collect them and then the bus driver hadn't stopped when he said he would and blah blah. It was all fairly tedious. I kept reading. The Trucker kept dozing.

We stopped briefly for a loo/lunch stop in Worcester and ended up arriving at Cape Town station only an hour after we were supposed to (but I supposed we did leave Joburg an hour late).

Mom collected us and we headed back to her house.

I'd booked dinner for just The Trucker and I for Saturday evening since we had a full day of family scheduled for Sunday ... and this trip for Cape Town was supposed to be more of a holiday for us and less of a family visit than I've ever done before.

Naturally, being Easter Weekend, I struggled to find a spot for dinner in Cape Town, when I'd booked 2 weeks before. So we tried something I'd only just heard about a few days before I made the booking. But it was fantastic!

We headed all the way back into town (considering my Mom lives at the other end of the M2, it really is *all* the way) to a little spot called Orinoco Flavours.

Shew. What a fabulous dinner. I was immediately thrilled when I spotted Pisco Sours on their menu. I haven't had one since I made them for Dad with the Pisco I brought back from Peru. Yum yum.

And then for dinner? We weren't too hungry, having had a fairly sedentary day traveling so we just shared a Tapas Platter for Two and a plate of Chili Poppers. The plan was to start with that, but we decided we didn't have space for anything more afterwards ... except dessert;) I think we tried their Flourless Chocolate Cake and some kind of special Almond Tart (?) Whatever it was, the special was by far the better dish :)

I'd definitely recommend you give this place a try. They have a fab little deli area too :)