Relatively speaking, Cape Town was pretty busy over the Christmas/New Year period. It never felt congested like it does in Kathmandu so much of the time, but getting a dinner table at a nice waterside restaurant got very competitive, very quickly. Cammps Bay is a popular destination for dinner and you need to score a seat early for an evening “sundowner” but, on the evening of our wedding anniversary, the weather turned stormy and the restaurant seats filled even earlier. There was nowhere left to sit, so we decided to skip the pre-dinner drink and drive further down around the coast to Hout Bay and have dinner at a large old-fashioned seafood restaurant we’d discovered earlier in the week.

Once they learnt it was our wedding anniversary we got a great seat next to the window overlooking the beach and bay. The wind whipped, the small window panes rattled and the sky threatened rain. I felt like we were back in Devon or Cornwall in the winter watching the weather come in. We saw dog walkers on the beach and watched kids playing in the freezing cold ocean, tossing huge clumps of seaweed at one another, and it slowly grew dark. I ate so much fabulous lobster I could barely move.

The stormy sky is the only clue to the bad weather. The wind blew hard, rattling the glass in the restaurant window. I felt like I was on the coast in England.

Kung foo kicks and seaweed throwing in the freezing water!

Full of wine and lobster!

Lastly, a few photos of Hout Bay in the day time:

It was an unassuming kind of place with warehouses to store freshly caught fish and kiosks selling fish and chips at local prices.

Hout Bay seals!…who swam over from seal island for a photo and a snack from the handful of tourists

I liked watching people interact with the seals and seagulls. This guy was clearly a regular.