The Sunrise Kids
The next day, we woke up early, as per usual, and only had a few interruptions during the night. That's the other thing about hostels: they tend to attract partiers. So we had people just coming in as we were getting up. The other clue was that they serve breakfast until 1pm at the hostel. Anyway, we were up and on the road to table mountain by 8am. The guidebooks and hostel employees said it would take 2-3 hours to hike up. We got to the foot of the mountain and started hiking by about 
8:45 and one hour later, we had run out of mounain. It was one of the hardest hikes I've done because it's basically just thousands of steps straight up, but at least it was short. And it was incredibly rewarding. The views from the top are incredible. And there's lots of other trails you can take when you get to the top as well. We added another hour and a half to our hike by hiking out to the very eastern border of the table to a beacon and then we hiked back RIGHT along the edge. It got so close in parts that we could look over and see straight down at least 100-200 yards. It's a great hike because it's right in the middle of this great city but it's incredibly beautiful and doesn't feel affected by the urbanization around it at all. 
get there since we had planned to hike the mountain in the morning. Instead, we had so much extra time, we were able to squeeze in the Two Oceans Aquarium in between the hike and the tour, as well as a leisurely lunch. The aquarium was amazing even though it didn't take too much time to get through that either. It appropriately focuses on the Atlantic and Indian oceans with a special exhibit for African penguins. We saw a ton of great species that I had never seen before: giant spider crabs, giant spotted eel, ragged tooth sharks, giant bullfrog, poison dart frogs, and abalone, which I have eaten and worn, but never seen alive. They are not very pretty, nice shells though. So the aquarium is certainly worth a trip for people traveling to Cape Town and it doesn't take long unless you have kids. The only other thing that might waylay you is the gigantic tanks they have full of different species of fish, turtles and sharks. It gets pretty real inside those tanks as well because we saw some fish who had bite marks on their backs that looked fresh, and we saw many with scars from the same types of injuries. I'm thinking those ragged tooth sharks don't play well with things they normally eat. Perhaps that's part of the draw for the tanks. But these tanks are hypnotic. They have 25 ft floor to ceiling viewing windows all the way around them and they have kelp that sways back with the fake current inside the tank. They also play calming music and I was pretty sure I was in a trance after standing in front of one for a few minutes watching the gigantic fish swim around in circles with the swaying kelp. 
ommon threads in all aspects of the tour though. The tidbits they give you are interesting, but they don't really fit together in the order they were presented. I still really liked the tour and would definitely recommend it. It's an important part of African history and something that everyone in South Africa has a strong connection to. I also found out that the Netherlands were the only team to take the time to come and visit Robben Island. That impressed me a lot. They were who I wanted to go to the final anyway, but that was a class move and they went up quite a few notches in my book because of it. After the tour, we took the ferry back and had a good dinner at a thai place then headed back to the hostel again. It was a full day but I was really happy with it. I grow to love this country and everything it has to offer with every additional square mile I discover.
8:45 and one hour later, we had run out of mounain. It was one of the hardest hikes I've done because it's basically just thousands of steps straight up, but at least it was short. And it was incredibly rewarding. The views from the top are incredible. And there's lots of other trails you can take when you get to the top as well. We added another hour and a half to our hike by hiking out to the very eastern border of the table to a beacon and then we hiked back RIGHT along the edge. It got so close in parts that we could look over and see straight down at least 100-200 yards. It's a great hike because it's right in the middle of this great city but it's incredibly beautiful and doesn't feel affected by the urbanization around it at all.
get there since we had planned to hike the mountain in the morning. Instead, we had so much extra time, we were able to squeeze in the Two Oceans Aquarium in between the hike and the tour, as well as a leisurely lunch. The aquarium was amazing even though it didn't take too much time to get through that either. It appropriately focuses on the Atlantic and Indian oceans with a special exhibit for African penguins. We saw a ton of great species that I had never seen before: giant spider crabs, giant spotted eel, ragged tooth sharks, giant bullfrog, poison dart frogs, and abalone, which I have eaten and worn, but never seen alive. They are not very pretty, nice shells though. So the aquarium is certainly worth a trip for people traveling to Cape Town and it doesn't take long unless you have kids. The only other thing that might waylay you is the gigantic tanks they have full of different species of fish, turtles and sharks. It gets pretty real inside those tanks as well because we saw some fish who had bite marks on their backs that looked fresh, and we saw many with scars from the same types of injuries. I'm thinking those ragged tooth sharks don't play well with things they normally eat. Perhaps that's part of the draw for the tanks. But these tanks are hypnotic. They have 25 ft floor to ceiling viewing windows all the way around them and they have kelp that sways back with the fake current inside the tank. They also play calming music and I was pretty sure I was in a trance after standing in front of one for a few minutes watching the gigantic fish swim around in circles with the swaying kelp.
ommon threads in all aspects of the tour though. The tidbits they give you are interesting, but they don't really fit together in the order they were presented. I still really liked the tour and would definitely recommend it. It's an important part of African history and something that everyone in South Africa has a strong connection to. I also found out that the Netherlands were the only team to take the time to come and visit Robben Island. That impressed me a lot. They were who I wanted to go to the final anyway, but that was a class move and they went up quite a few notches in my book because of it. After the tour, we took the ferry back and had a good dinner at a thai place then headed back to the hostel again. It was a full day but I was really happy with it. I grow to love this country and everything it has to offer with every additional square mile I discover.
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