Day 1: LHR to CPT

As I sit here in our apartment in Cape Town, there is no doubt the last 24hrs have been a bit of a whirlwind! We got to Heathrow in plenty of time yesterday evening for our night flight to Cape Town. The M25 was quiet and we could not have had a better run to Terminal 5.

We had a leisurely drink in Cafe Nero, checked our bags in, got through security quickly and then had a lovely meal. At this point, it was all a bit too good to be true!. We boarded on time for our 22:25 flight to Cape Town and all was looking good. Then Niger closed it’s airspace due to the military coup that was happening and suddenly we couldn’t fly over Western Africa!! A 2hr delay followed sat on the plane whilst we got rerouted and we eventually took off at 00:35. It didn’t feel it at the time but I think we got quite lucky as lots of other flights to SA were cancelled!

After 11 hours and not much sleep, we eventually landed at 12:55 local time after a very smooth flight (although it was slightly strange having our inflight meal at 02:35!) and proceeded seamlessly through immigration, customs and baggage reclaims to meet our pick up who was ready and waiting despite our delay.

A relatively quick transfer saw us arrive at The Crystal Apartments in Camps Bay in next to no time. It was amazing to take in our first views of Table Mountain and drive through Cape Town itself.

After we settled in, we took a walk down to Camps Bay beach and bought some supplies before heading back to ‘The Crystal’ and taking in the most incredible sunset from the balcony of our apartment.

In the evening, we had a reservation at ‘The Codfather’ seafood and sushi restaurant for supper. This Camps Bay institution has no menu so you literally have to go up to the fish counter and choose what you want to be cooked. After numerous sushi dishes to start, we then chose King Prawns, Sea Bass, Calamari, Salmon, Sardines, Sole and Kingklip, all served with potato wedges, rice and vegetables. It came in the most amazing platter and I have to say it was absolutely incredible!

With full tummies and not much left in the tank, we headed home for an early night ahead of what hopefully will be another exciting day tomorrow!!