SUNDAY, September 11, 2022

more waterfront, a world-class botanical garden, and the official kick-off of the trip

Day 2 started out a little differently than expected, as I had made plans with a couple of the other early arrivals to go shark cage diving early this morning in Gansbaai, a town about 2.5 hours away from Cape Town that’s known for its shark population. Unfortunately, we got the dreaded email the day before that the excursion would need to be cancelled due to weather, as it was too windy and chilly to safely go out on the boat. There was no other day to make it work, so we swallowed our losses and made other plans.

Honestly, that shark cage dive would’ve had us up before sunrise and back in the late afternoon, so while I was disappointed about the cancellation it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to sleep in a little and have a more relaxing day.

I came downstairs for breakfast and found Katherine, who was sitting with a random couple as the hotel was packed with people who were all in Cape Town for a rugby thing. We met up with Harps, and decided to leisurely walk the V&A Waterfront as they hadn’t really seen it yet and I had missed a lot of it the day before with my beeline to the Watershed.

Like a moth to a flame, I took this same picture every day through the window of the hotel while waiting for the elevator. The view never changed, but was always begging to be photographed.

These statues are of South Africa’s first four Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: Nkosi Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, former State President F.W. de Klerk, and former President Nelson Mandela

After sitting down with a coffee and enjoying this band, we headed back to the hotel to meet a bunch of other new Flash Pack arrivals and head over to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

This poor guy was handling the coffee shop while the main barista was on a break, and was totally in over his head 😅

Of all of the great things on our group itinerary, the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is probably the one big Cape Town attraction that’s not part of it, so a bunch of us wanted to make time to visit while we had some free time before the trip formally began. It really is a uniquely beautiful place, exclusively featuring plants that are indigenous to South Africa.

It was great to meet up with so many more Flash Pack arrivals, and I think it made us all excited that this trip we’d been anxiously awaiting was finally feeling real.

Leaving the hotel, we Ubered over to the Gardens and decided to grab some lunch at a cafe inside before exploring… which ended up being great timing, because it started to pour while we were eating. So we waited out the rain undercover and started to get to know each other before venturing out.

This walkway is called the Boomslang, which means tree snake, and is a relatively new addition to the Garden. It was fun to walk on, and caught us all off guard when it started moving around a little haha. Definitely thought it was a fixed structure. It is not.

First group shot, and the first time we’d learn that Britney would be our unofficial organizer. Thanks for the pic!

The stroll through the Garden was beautiful, and we finished with a legit mountainous hike through the woods, starting a theme for the trip that a “stroll” was always an understatement haha. It was also my first hint that the Covid I had had about a month before the trip, that I thought was in the past, was going to be a factor and rear its ugly head re: breathing. More to come on that the next day.

Getting back to the hotel, we had time for a quick rest and shower before it was time to meet the rest of the group for our official kick-off to the Flash Pack trip. We gathered downstairs in the hotel restaurant for a welcome drink, met our local guide Jamie Keenan who’d be with us for the whole 11 days, and did quick introductions before heading upstairs to the rooftop bar for dinner and drinks.