We spent the day getting into the day to day details of the trip. It is so surprising how much time you can spending just planning a few days.

First off is always the important arrival. You are jet lagged, tired, needing a shower and you have to negotiate the airport. I googled around for information on the Cape Town airport and struck out. No maps but most of the information said that there were ATMs and exchanges. We are transferring in Jo’Burg so we may end up getting some cash there. Of course, I have to find a blog on someone getting their ATM card snatched in the airport. ATM crime seems to be pretty rampant. I’ve come across several entries detailing fake ATM fronts that take your card after you enter your pin and other items. The Lonely Planet guidebook has a section on how to prevent ATM crime. Great.

The options to town seem to be a shared shuttle and taxi. The shared shuttle doesn’t seem to be that much cheaper. Some of the shuttles have a high fee for the first passenger and cheap for others. The taxi looks to be about 150 rands ($25US). As usual, there is an official taxi company, Touch Down Taxi.

We won’t arrive until the afternoon so I doubt that we will do much after arrival. It would be great to go for a walk but I’m not certain about walking after dark. It is spring and will probably be dark early.

We will probably eat in the hotel the first night. Fortunately, it has a good restaurant.

After the 24 hours or more of flight, who knows what we will be like on Saturday. We’ll breakfast in the hotel and ask them to make reservations for Mama Zingara. We decided to take the topless bus (on-off). If the weather is good, we’ll head for the Table Mountain Cable Car. Otherwise, we’ll take in the museums (District Six, Gold, etc). After the cable car, we’ll ride the bus on to see the Atlantic coast area of Camps Bay and then get off at Victoria and Albert Waterfront. This is a favorite tourist area with lots of shopping and restaurants. They have a flower show going on so we can’t miss that. We will need to check out Baia and other restaurants at V&A since many of the other restaurants are closed on Sunday in CBD.

Sunday, we will probably take a taxi out to Kirstenbosch. If we can get up, we’ll do brunch in the garden. Otherwise, just lunch. For dinner, we’ll go potentially to Baia.

Monday, we pick up the car. It is about 6 blocks away from the hotel. And we head out to Clanwilliam. The drive is about 150 miles or 3 hours. There is a spring wildflower going on in Clanwilliam so we’ll stop and see the show and have lunch. We will also stop at Ramskof Nature Reserve.

Then it is off for Bushman’s Kloof. These two nights are full board.

On the 7th, we head for Springbok. Along the way and in Springbok are many items of interest. Skilpad and Knersvlakte. I’m not certain we will have much time since we will probably stay for the late morning brunch at Bushmans. Where to eat in Springbok seems to be a little of a mystery. The Springbok Lodge and Restaurant seems to be the place. Oh well, we will see where (if any) the flowers are blooming. We may take a late lunch in Kamieskroon.

After Springbok, it is on to Nieuwoudtville. We will try to stop in VanRhysdorf at the succulent nursery. After we check in at Papkuilsfontein, we will check to see what are out options but possibilities is the Aloe Forest, Knersvlakte drive back to Van Rhyns Pass. We will also have our tour with MacGregor.

On the way back to Cape Town, we will drive back through the Biedouw valley and over Pakhuis Pass. We will be back tracking some of the way that we came to Bushmans Kloof.

Once in Cape Town, we will have 5 days. First day may be off to Worcester and Paarl. Sunday may be to Harold Porter’s Garden. One day to Stellenbosch or Franschhoek. One day to the Cape Point. Of course, one day to Darling Flower show and the flower areas around the cape.

Whoa! I’m tired already.