Day 122 Hout Bay

The pounding from the descent of Table Mountain had taken its toll, on our thigh muscles, so a short hobble to find a restaurant for lunch (an Asian fusion tapas restaurant!) was the sole activity of the day, except for lying on our balcony’s sun loungers and Ian finally getting his hair cut!! 

For New Year’s eve, we had decided to venture to the V&A Waterfront rather than staying in Hout Bay. The traffic along the coast was nuts but surprisingly we managed to find a parking place quite easily.

The party was already in full swing when we arrived with a number of stages set up around the Waterfront.  We stopped by one of them to watch the local acts – the man with the ukulele was particularly memorable.  His ability to take a beautiful, classic song and ruin it was quite astonishing.

We found ourselves positioned right next to a complete log jam with queues of people trying to get around the corner (blocked by the crowds watching the acts on stage) to a bridge over the another area – the bridge was also so narrow it had caused a massive bottleneck so hundreds of people were surging back again.

At one point there was a stampede.  Somehow no-one was seriously injured although we did witness folks having panic attacks – the security staff seemed completely overwhelmed.  Eventually a security guard realised some form of action was required, so he started to move people, including us, to relieve some of the pressure on the bridge. Luckily we managed to find somewhere else to stand which was an awful lot safer.

The main act of the night (and the reason for the complete chaos by the stage) was Jimmy Nevis who turns out to be Cape Town’s very own pop idol.  Midnight arrived with the countdown clock lasered onto the wall behind us and an impressive fireworks display.

That is when the fun started and our memories of the first few hours of 2016 will forever be one of total chaos.  It took an hour to escape from the carpark and then a further hour to get through the gridlock around the Waterfront – the traffic police were notable by their absence.  We finally made it back to the flat for quarter to three.  Ian had a beer to toast in the New Year – Greg and I just went to bed.