Our last day in South Africa started much earlier than expected – about 1AM as we were woken up by quite a raucous outside. We heard two men screaming very loudly, one of which was holding his head as we think they had just fought. The police quickly showed up and from my eavesdropping from the 5th floor we figured it was a taxi driver / client issue that turned into a fight and the client ran inside our apartment building. The commotion calmed once police got involved and we went back to sleep.

As we had seen plenty of runners and bikers throughout the week, Grant and I decided to do a quick jog along the beachfront when we woke up again. I forgot how great I feel when I start a day out with a run – though in some parts of Africa it’s been hard to get a good run in! We ran into building security on our way back and asked about the prior night. He was not present but in his hand-off he was told the taxi driver tried to charge the client more than he expected and when the client refused to pay they got into a fight. After our run, we grabbed a shower and rested (well Grant did while I worked on trying to finish the Kenya posts) before heading to breakfast. 

We had a few hours to kill before heading to the cricket match so we decided to visit Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. And it happened to be about a 10 minute drive from the cricket arena so it worked out perfectly! 

We grabbed an Uber and were off to navigate the traffic. Like I said previously, the city was prepping for the Formula E race and had started shutting down roads creating a traffic nightmare. Our Uber driver was crazy and would sometimes create his own lane kind of forcing people to move out of his way. We also almost rear ended a van ahead of us that was trying not to hit a dog running in the road. Aside from some fun driving techniques the drive was through a very scenic area that cut around Table Mountain and the neighboring forest. I was thankful to get out of the car by the time we got to the gardens. One thing we noticed in South Africa was how cheap Uber rides were – this drive was about 35-45 minutes and only cost ZAR264.00 ($14.23 USD). The equivalent ride in Los Angeles would probably be closer to $100 USD.

We grabbed a quick snack before taking a stroll through the gardens and enjoying the view of different plants and foliage known to South Africa and their coast. We walked along the tree canopy bridge and up towards the back of the gardens. Grant’s stomach hadn’t been dealing with the malaria pills too well, so we had to make a quick pitstop by the bathroom for him to hurl. While Grant was puking Tim and I had fun watching a couple that showed up with a huge reflector disc to shine light on her face and essentially have an Instagram photoshoot in front of all the flowers. We decided we had seen what we had wanted to and would head to the cricket match. As we were walking down the hill to the exit, Grant pointed out “nice charcuterie board” to an Indian couple having a picnic in the grass and the man promptly said to the woman, “SEE, he thinks it’s good!” We got a good laugh out of the trials and tribulations that all traveling couples have, regardless of where you are from.

We had no clue what we were getting into when we arrived at the tournament’s Semi-Final cricket match between South Africa and England, but from what we had gathered from the locals we asked, it was all about the crowd environment and participation. I quickly caught on to how the game worked along with how they were getting points and began to thoroughly enjoy the experience. South Africa had been up to bat first so it was up to them to play defense and keep England from catching their score. In the beginning of England’s inning, it looked like they had a strong chance of winning, however as the overs (basically a round of 6 pitches) quickly approached the 20 overs mark the game became tighter. The three of us began to act like locals cheering when they got a wicket and yelling when they prevented them from scoring more than 1 run. And we ended up witnessing history! South Africa won the match and ended up heading to the final! In the 12 times a South Africa cricket team has made a semi-final (both men and women), this was the first time they had made it into a final match. 

And to make the match even better, the three of us made it onto the big screen at the game! Our friends, Bhishma and Molly, gave us these floppy hats to take with us on our trip and send pics/videos as we travel the world. As the DJ played “Circle of Life”, we just happened to be sitting near a camera guy and called him over as we threw on our hats. It was just perfect timing though none of us were able to get a video of it happening. We tasked Bhisma into finding the video of us during the game and lo and behold, he pulled through! Enjoy the footage below! No better way to end our time in Cape Town than making it onto ESPN during the World Cup cricket tourney. 

We were kind of sad to end our journey in Cape Town as we realized there was still so much more we could see and do! But it was time to pack up and head to our last country in Africa!