Day 68 - Train Trip To Simons Town

After yesterdays lazy day, we were back to business and early starts today, but instead of working, we were meeting Joe, Lourens and Wasima for a train trip to Simons Town.

After a short walk, we met Joe and Lourens at the train station at 9, before we then met Wasima. We got our tickets, got some drinks and got on the train towards Simons Town.

About an hour and a half later, we arrived, and hopped off the train. We were here! To be honest, there wasn't really much in terms of big attractions, it was just a small, cosy town. After going for a short walk, and Martin and I having photos outside the British Hotel, we found a place that sold scones and had morning tea there.

It felt unbelievably British, and made me miss home a little bit, but it was nice to have scones with jam and cream, after 10 weeks without it!
The scones, to be fair, were huge! We got this decent sized saucer of jam, cream and butter. Being one of those that doesn't like butter, I didn't have that, but loaded my scone up with jam and cream. It was delicious. The scone was warm and spongey and the jam and cream just made it even better. Topped it all off with a nice sized pot of tea. Very British. It was fantastic.

When we were done, we jumped back on the train, and headed to Muizenburg, where Wasima wanted to go for lunch. It was only a few stops back down the line we came on, so we arrived after about a 10 minute train journey. It was a decent looking town, that was undergoing a fair amount of construction so still looked a little rough. The beach looked really nice though, shame its quite far away.

Being the gentlemen we are, we let Wasima chose the restaurant for lunch. She picked out this Italian place called Primi, which looked quite nice to be fair. I had a Peri Peri Pizza, with a beautiful chocolate brownie for dessert. Food was nice, but it took a while to get service, and for everything to arrive. Oh well.

After everyone was finished, that was the trip over, so we jumped on the train and headed home. I took the opportunity to have a quick nap, as I was a bit tired. Martin and Joe, the lovely fellas, took the opportunity by the hand, and took photos of me while sleeping, then started teasing me about it in the car after. Unbelievable. I have to spend another 2 weeks with these jokers!

Evenings plan is to chill out. We start our final coaching week tomorrow, which feels unbelievably weird as it doesn't feel like long since we started this whole trip. Its all starting to wind down though, and at the right time too, because the home sickness is starting to kick in, and I personally am missing home a fair bit now.

Before I wrap this up, I just want to make a special shout out to my girlfriends family, especially her mum. She's managed to raise an amazing £100, which she has sent over to us, so we can buy gear for some of the kids we coach. After a few chats with Joe and Martin. We've decided to put the money towards buying kit for the Ruyterwacht girls team we coach, who currently have nothing to play in, apart from the spare kit that the boys use. Hopefully we can use it to boost girls football out here, which is really lacking out here, which is a shame. But thank you so much to Lucy and the rest of the Mcgill family for raising that money for us. It's amazing how charitable everyone's being while we're out here.

Harry