Cape town part one: city tour, V&A waterfront, shark diving

Last weekend me and the Boy left Heathrow airport, bound for South Africa for a three week epic adventure, starting in Cape Town. We only had 4 nights in Cape Town but I am pleased to say that the place didn’t disappoint! We loved it there.

Friendly people.

Delicious food.

Cheap wine.

Picture worthy scenery.

Camps Bay 

A great start to our honeymoon. 

With such a short time here, we certainly managed to cram a lot in! From shark diving to enjoying the views from cable mountain to generally eating my body weight in great food. 

Camps Bay beach front 

City tour

We only had three and a half days to do Cape Town so thought the best way to kick start our whistle stop stay was to take one of the hop-on-hop-off red city buses. Personally I have never done one of these but it is actually a good way of seeing the city in a short amount of time. You get taken to the city’s main highlights plus get an in depth history and insight into the main attractions plus can hop on and off at any time!  

On our bus route, we were taken through Camps Bay, down to the V&A waterfront, the city centre – including district 6 – then to the base of table mountain.

enjoying a green smoothie in the sun

V&A waterfront

I love a good waterfront and Cape Town’s working harbour didn’t disappoint. Contrary to popular belief, the V&A is not Victoria and Albert  but actually Victoria and Alfred, as it was originally named after her son and not her husband. 

the V&A is South Africa's most visited
tourist destination 

The V&A harbour is situated between Table Mountain and the Somerset hospital (the hospital of the worlds first heart transplant). The place is hustling and bustling with over 450 shops and 80 restaurants! We wandered around for a couple of hours, stopping  for a red velvet hot chocolate and caramel popcorn milkshake at Mugg and Bean, before grabbing some fish and chips and a mixed salad from the indoor market and hoping back on the sightseeing bus.

caramel popcorn milkshake on the V&A

red velvet cupcake in  a hot chocolate!!!

Shark cage diving

One of the main reasons the Boy chose south Africa s our honeymoon destination was to satisfy his mentalness need for trying shark cage diving. So Tuesday that is what we left the hotel at 7am for. After a long 2 hour drive, and a crazy bumpy boat ride over the choppy waters, we donned our wet suits to get in a cage and popped into sharky waters. It seems even more mental now I am writing this. 

Whilst in the cage, two mental crew, cock teased the great whites with bait, coaxing them to come towards the cages so we are practically inches from these killing beasts! This has to be one of the most surreal things ever. Surprisingly though I wasn’t actually scared. Although, the Boy was a little worried an about me cos he thinks that I don’t have full awareness of my limbs and was worried I was going to accidentally dangle a limb out the cage!

wrapped  up in my fishermans jacket and ready to set sail

warming up with hot soup after our shark dive

We went with Ecco tours who delivered this trip perfectly. They really understood the logistics and comfort factor of this trip. We were served brunch before we left, could help ourselves to sarnies and snacks on board the boat, and were warmed back up with hot soup and a watch of the days video. This is not the kind of activity that you want to be scrimping and saving on, so I would definitely recommend going with Ecco tours. You’ll also be helping protect the great white sharks, who are sadly in decline, as profits go back in to the conservation project.

the internet where I am is pretty slow atm, so more photos to come shortly! Hoping to get my shark ones up!

X x X 



read part two here & read about our  amazing  hotel here