March 2020-Long Beach and the Cape Peninsula were meant to be a few relaxing days to finish out our trip. When we landed a day early, I was torn between disappointment that we may miss those sights and anxiety about just getting home. Looking back I can now say, as luck would have it, the United flight to Newark continued to be completely sold out. We booked an extra night at our planned hotel in Long Beach and decided to make the best of it.
And make the best of it we did; the drive from Cape Town to the Last Word Long Beach became more and more relaxing as we made our way out of the city. The Last Word (also a recommendation) was a little slice of heaven on earth. This was another boutique property with only six rooms that felt like it was a million miles away from everything taking place in the world.
Long Beach was pretty much my dream come true; an incredible sandy beach with mountain views and dogs. So many dogs. There is something about listening to ocean and seeing dogs happy at play that instantly puts me at ease. All the anxiety I had been carrying around for days was gone. If I wasn’t going to make it back; THIS was the place I wanted to be.
The next morning we woke up to a beautiful blue sky and took a walk along the beach with all our new dog friends. (I actually looked it up and it is common for the dogs that live in the area to take themselves on a walk before returning home.) We then set out to explore Cape Point National Park. On our way, we stopped to see the penguins and check our the adorable shops in Simon’s Town.
We first set out to see the Cape Point Lighthouse. Social distancing gave us the perfect excuse to walk rather than take the funicular. And the views!! In every direction there was so much natural beauty. I had read that the area could be quite windy but we had a calm and gorgeous day. Once we made it to the top, we took another walk out the Lighthouse Keeper’s trail. We ventured back and started on our way to the Cape of Good Hope.
The views were just a spectacular as they had been on the way to the lighthouse. And I couldn’t wait to climb the mountainous terrain at the end to get to the Cape of Good Hope sign; it marks the spot where the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean meet. Except when we got to the top, we realized the sign actually sat next to the road we could see below! This suddenly made a lot more sense as I’d seen a lot of tourist pictures and was surprised so many had made the hike. After a good laugh, we made our way back. We stopped to grab a celebratory beverage to toast a day of good hiking and wisely drove for our picture next to the sign.
One other unbelievable sight at the park is the baboons! They want food and are pretty aggressive about finding whatever means necessary to get it, including sitting on your roof!
The next morning we set out to complete the Chapman’s Peak Drive. It was another day of beautiful blue skies and another experience that exceeded expectations. This last stretch of the trip had been breathtaking and so relaxing; it was a lot easier to push all the unknown’s to the back of mind. But we did still slightly alter our plans; while South Africa’s virus counts remained quite low, we did decide to cancel our last dinner at Foodbarn and did takeout from the restaurant’s deli instead. We figured this would give us another good excuse to come back and try the restaurant in person.
We spent the last evening taking in the beach understanding that this would likely be our last trip for a while. And when the flight from Newark left on its way to Cape Town, we were grateful that we knew we would make it home but also thankful we had these last few days in paradise.
The trip home was fairly normal but also surreal. I was so relived for the crew working to bring us back and also feeling guilty that they had to be there. We often joke about how chaotic the New York area airports are, especially the always under construction, LaGuardia. But landing in Newark and walking through an empty airport and 6:30AM on a Friday made me long for the normal days of chaos.
Our flight back to Columbus was very empty so it was easy to spread out and spend two hours thinking about the next time we’d be able to fly. When we were almost back, I looked out the window and spotted this rainbow. I know that it is going to take a long time before things go back to any sense of normal. But I have to believe that the day will eventually come. There is so much beauty in the world; I’m already excited to see where our passports will take us next.
Read more about the other segments of our trip here!
Postcards To Mabel 