Charlotte got cabin fever on Friday so we decided to go to Cape Town on our own by bus on Saturday. We missed the last bus of the day which was at 7:20am so had to get the mini bus to the next town Atlantis.
Atlantis is one of the list of rules - we must only go there with a local. I figured since we were just changing buses it would be ok. As soon as we step out of the mini buses I felt like a tourist and everyone could see we weren't from there. Everyone we spoke to before was unanimous that Atlantis was very dangerous. The previous group of volunteers were allowed to go, but two of them got robbed one day. They had their bags, phones and even shoes stolen.
We asked a Community Officer where to go and get the buses and then started walking in that direction. He then started following us I was very weary of him, but he escorted us to the bus stop and told us to be careful while we waited for the next bus which could be hours. I felt uncomfortable and asked him if it was safer to get another mini bus taxi to Cape Town (we had been told not to use them as the bus was safer)but right now it seemed like the best option.
He walked us back to station we had came from and on the way a man welding a club was coming towards us. I was so glad he had come with us and thanked him profusely. We got the mini bus taxi which was fine and felt very safe. In true African style we had to wait till it was full and am sure the bus would have never passed and MOT in the UK. It felt great!
Didn't plan on climbing table mountain but we wanted something to do and when we got to the base there were so many people climbing up. It was a cool, cloudy day which was great for climbing. I didn't realise how hard it was - so many huge rocks. It took 2 hours and I really straggled since I had just recovered from flu and had no breakfast that day. When we finally got to the top it was another 15min walk to shops. I had the biggest meal ever and we took the cable car back down as it had started to rain. Nice View. Glad I did it!
