Tag Archives: Whale Rock

Corona Lockdown Journey Journal, Year 2 and 730th day of Lockdown, Day 178 of Level 1, 27 March 2022

 

Sunday 27 March, Year 2 and 730th day of Lockdown, Day 178 of Level 1 😷

Corona Lockdown Gratitude 🙏

#grateful for a beautiful 27C day, very relaxed yet writing four Blogposts for the week ahead; for a Bakoven walk; for a Vitamin D dose; for more than surviving two years of Lockdown 😷💙; for a lovely sunset walk to Camps Bay, still busy at 19h00 on such a gorgeous beach day, treating myself to a Gibson’s ice cream cone….. 🍦; and for being happy, healthy and free. 🙏💙

SA Corona Status:  3,713,252 cases 99956 deaths  33,405,701 vaccinations 

FitBit 7500 steps 5,5 km 👣

LovemylifeandloveGaryslife 💙❤️

The Corona Virus Lockdown (Level 5), announced by our President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier to commence on 27 March 2020 and to continue until 16 April, subsequently extended to 30 April, lowered to Level 4 from 1 May, lowered to Level 3 from 1 June, lowered to Level 2 from 18 August, lowered to Level 1 from 21 September, and moved back to Adjusted Level 3 from 29 December,  extended to 15 February on 11 January 2021, extended but relaxed on 1 February, and relaxed back to Level 1 on 1 March 2021, moved back to Adjusted Level 2 on 31 May, moved back to level 3 on 16 June, and moved back to Adjusted Level 4 on 28 June, extended by two weeks on 11 July,  returned to Level 3 on 26 July, returned to Level 2 on 13 September, returned to Level 1 on 1 October,  and the Curfew Curfew lifted on 30 December 2021 is an unprecedented event in my lifetime. I am posting my daily Facebook post to journal this Corona Lockdown Journey, perhaps to serve as material for a future Book.

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whaletalesblog.com www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide

 

Restaurant Review: Melissa’s Mantra Café in Camps Bay magnificent view, new concept!

imageAbout a month ago I bumped into the GM of the new Melissa’s Mantra Café in Camps Bay, which has a magnificent location above The 41 restaurant, overlooking the beautiful Camps Bay beach. The restaurant opened on Tuesday, and I went to try it out, knowing that its GM Ian Smith would be there. The new Melissa’s outlet connects original founder Melissa van Hoogstraaten to her Camps Bay origin.
Continue reading →

Chaotic Cape Town lacks infrastructure for Festive frenzy in Camps Bay!

Camps Bay beach 2Yesterday was the most chaotic day I have seen in Camps Bay in 20 years of living in the suburb.  We know that New Year’s Day is busy, and is a stay-away zone, due to the thousands of Cape Town residents who come from other areas and take ownership of the beach in the suburb, without the City of Cape Town sending any reinforcements to secure the suburb.  What was experienced in Camps Bay yesterday may be the deathknell for tourism in Camps Bay and Cape Town.

We warn our guests to stay away from the Camps Bay beach on 26 December and 1 January, but nothing could have prepared us for yesterday.  One should have known that chaos was coming, when all the restaurants on the street level of the whole beachfront strip, with the exception of health food franchise Kauai, were closed for business!  When I was advising my guests about alternatives of things to do and places to eat, I had to admit to them that most restaurants in Cape Town are closed on New Year’s Day, despite the city teeming with tourists!   I drove down Kloof Street, and was pleasantly surprised that about half the restaurants on this popular restaurant street were open for business, a few proudly Tweeting that they would be open until about 22h00 last night, which is a whole lot better than last year, when only the franchise restaurants were operating.   Manna Epicure, Da Vinci’s, Arnold’s on Kloof, Vovo Telo, Hudson on Kloof, Knead, Mozzarella Bar, and newly opened The Black Sheep are some of the restaurants that were operating, and should be commended for feeding the many tourists in Cape Town.  The restaurants in the city centre were all closed.

In Camps Bay I needed Bay Response at my guest house, but they had to cut short theirCAMPS BAY BEACH 1 JAN 2014 CAPE ARGUS service when they were called to assist Pick ‘n Pay Camps Bay, of which the front door was being broken down by unruly beachgoers!  We heard sirens throughout the day, especially early afternoon, when there was a near-drowning on Camps Bay beach, despite lifeguard services offered.  The beach is just too full, and often inexperienced bathers and unsafe rip tides can lead to loss of life.

I had driven to town for a quick coffee break in the early afternoon, and it took 15 minutes to travel 250 meters from Hussar Grill Continue reading →

New MyCiTi Bus Camps Bay route: whale of a good value, not running smoothly yet!

My CiTi Bus Camps Bay Whale Cottage PortfolioThe MyCiTi Bus finally started operating on Saturday, about eighteen months behind schedule!  Given that we want to inform our Whale Cottage Camps Bay guests about the service, my colleague and I went for a test drive of the Camps Bay – Civic Centre – V&A Waterfront Silo route yesterday.

The first step was to obtain our MyCiTi Bus cards, which one needs to load credit on to, for swiping when stepping on the bus.  It was announced that one could obtain a free card (a saving of R25) from the Camps Bay Library, where an official from the City of Cape Town sold us R30-loaded cards, the only cards one can purchase at the library this week.  These can only be bought for cash, and only one per person can be obtained, ID details being taken.  The City representative was uncertain about the other places at which one can load more credit onto the card, saying that Kauai was to be a point to do so, but that its system was off-line yesterday.  He thought Pick ‘n Pay Camps Bay would be another point, but he wasn’t sure.  There does not appear to be any place to purchase cards once the City’s generous offer of free cards ends on Saturday. One would then have to go the Queen’s Beach station, or to the Civic Centre to buy cards there. Each card comes with a pin, which one can change at a station, and is required to load more credit.   There was only one newspaper advertorial on the table, and no leaflets, saying he was waiting for more. When I asked for more information for the guest house, he gave me a pile of the newspaper copies from under the table!

We took the bus from the Whale Rock bus stop opposite Pick ‘n Pay MyCiTi Bus Whale Rock stop Whale Cottage PortfolioCamps Bay just after 14h00, and we were delighted to see the name choice.  The bus travelled alongside Victoria Road, up Argyle Road , into Geneva Drive, onto Camps Bay Drive, down Kloofnek Road (this seems to be a very dangerous stop, as we observed a tourist family getting on the bus, which had been to Table Mountain and must have crossed the very busy road without a pedestrian crossing to get the bus stop), connecting into Kloof Street (very long Continue reading →