Cape Town!

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January 6, 2006

Our flight arrived in Cape Town right on time, and even after an eleven hour flight, we were pumped and ready to go. We got one of the backpackers’ shuttles into the city center and checked in at the hostel. Lucky for us, we were early, as the hostel had promised three groups a double room, and there was only one available. After snatching it up, we locked our stuff in the storage room, and headed out to discover Cape Town. We couldn’t get into our room, so we were still dressed in our Milan clothes, and felt grubby and hot. We were also still wearing our running shoes, and the blisters on our feet were not too happy. We walked down to the castle, which is the oldest building in South Africa. It’s nothing like an English castle, and was more like a fortress, but it was a really interesting (and nerdy?!) way to start our tour of the city. We watched the ‘changing of the guard’, which took two minutes and involved six guards and a key. Afterwards, we walked back towards our hostel, which was situated on one of the main streets in the ‘city bowl’, passing the parliament buildings. We walked through a really nice garden outside of the parliament buildings, and it was nice to get some shade! The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm, without the stifling heat that we had experienced in Dakar. The city itself was gorgeous. Table Mountain, the colourful buildings and amazing ocean views constantly surrounded us, meaning that every direction that we looked was breathtaking. The mountains are right in the center of the city, making it a bit difficult for traffic, but beautiful for the tourists! Even though it was already mid-summer, the vegetation was still green and lush, and the ocean was crystal clear. We understand why some people visit Cape Town and never leave!

We were hot and our feet were sore, so we decided to head back to the hostel and change. While there, we managed to polish off the entire jumbo pack of Maltesers (which were all melted from spending the morning in the storage room) before heading over to the V&A Waterfront. On our walk over John noticed the phenomenon that Capetonians call the “tablecloth”. The clouds were moving over the top of Table Mountain, and spilling over the sides. It looked like a tablecloth covering the top of the mountain. We wandered around the waterfront for awhile, looking for a place to eat dinner. We were overwhelmed with choice, and it took forever to make a decision. We enjoyed dinner, right on the waterfront, watching the seals lounge on the dock and play in the water.

Before heading home we decided to book our tickets for the tour of Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years. We were lucky that we thought to book it ahead of time, because there were only two tours available before we left Cape Town.

January 7, 2006

We woke up, ready to head up to the top of Table Mountain, and discovered that not every day in Cape Town is sunny and cloudless, like Senegal. It was beautiful out, but overcast, and definitely a terrible day to try to go to the top of the mountain. We changed our plans and head over to Kirstenbosch Gardens. It’s located on the other side of the mountain, and is a huge garden covering 36 hectares of cultivated gardens. It contains thousands of indigenous plants, and has outstanding views of the ‘other side’ of Table Mountain. The side of the mountain facing Cape Town is quite barren, while the side facing the gardens is lush and green. We walked around all morning, climbing quite high up the mountain to view the famous Cape flats. Because the weather was being less than cooperative, we decided to head over to the planetarium, which features a show on the stars in the southern hemisphere. The show ended up being more about the South African Large Telescope, and was a tad boring, but the information about the stars was interesting. Afterwards we went back to the waterfront, to go to the aquarium. By this time, the ‘southeasterlies’ were in full force. Apparently in the summer the wind can get quite strong, which is a nice break from the heat, but on a cloudy day, makes you want to stay inside. The Capetonians claim that these winds blow all the pollution from Cape Town out to sea, so they like them. We had read good things about the aquarium, so thought it would be a good indoor activity. It turns out, a bunch of the cool things that we were going to see were ‘gone’. We’re not sure what happened to the 120kg stingray, or the divers that were going to be swimming with the sharks, but they weren’t there. Regardless, it was interesting to compare the species that live in the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

That night we stayed close to the hostel and enjoyed surprisingly good Mexican food for dinner.

January 8, 2006

We booked a baz bus tour of Cape Peninsula for today. It was expensive, but covered a lot of territory that we wouldn’t be able to see without our own car. It started pretty early, picking us up at 8am. After collecting all the other passengers from their hostels, we drove past the famous Clifton Beach and Camp’s Bay. These beaches are gorgeous, more protected than the beaches in Cape Town, with beautiful white sand. There were hundreds of gorgeous holiday homes, and apparently many stars own property there, including Samuel L. Jackson and Tom Cruise. We stopped in Hout’s Bay, where we boarded a boat to go out to Seal Island. It’s a small rock island off the coast, and is literally covered with Seals. They swam through the water near our boat, and sunned themselves on the island. Afterwards, we drove along a coastal mountain road, clinging to our seats. The views of Hout’s Bay were fantastic, but the road was literally at the edge of the mountain’s ledge. We had breakfast here before continuing to Simon’s Town. After a tour of the military town, we went to the penguin colony. There were hundreds of penguins in this area, where they naturally migrated to long ago. It remains completely natural; the boardwalk going through is for people to watch the penguins without disturbing their habitat. The penguins could leave at any time, however, as they are not fenced in anywhere. It was amazing to see the penguins so close, and we took hundreds of pictures of them.

From here we headed towards Cape Point, into the National Park After entering the park, we hopped off the bus and biked along the road through the vast park to our picnic lunch. The bike ride was beautiful, it was impossible to think about peddling up the hills with such gorgeous views around us. We had lunch, then drove down to where the famous lighthouse is on Cape Point. The lighthouse was used in the late 19th and early 20th century, until they realized that it was up too high, and boats couldn’t see it because clouds always surrounded it. The walk up was tiring, and the wind at the top almost knocked me over. John figures the wind must have been over 70km/h. I could barely open my eyes at first, and my ponytail was sticking right out from my head the whole time. It had great views of Cape Point though, the most south west point of Africa. A lot of people think it’s the most southern point of Africa, but that’s actually a place a bit further east. While we were up there John spotted a springbok, camouflaged in the grass. After climbing down from the lighthouse, we headed out to the point. As we were driving up to the point, we saw several ostriches at the side of the road. We got a lesson in ostrich safety from the guide, who told us that if we’re ever chased by an ostrich, to lie down, because it kills you using a sharp claw on the top of it’s foot. If you’re lying down, then it can’t do anything to you. Thought everyone should know that.

On our drive up to the point, the guide told us that there were a lot of baboons in the park and that they’ve become a lot less afraid of humans in recent years. She told us that as long as we didn’t take food with us, they would leave us alone. As we’re driving up, on the top of the hill, we could see a baboon with a group of people. The guy must have had food in his backpack, or tried to take his camera out for a picture of the baboon (and the baboon thought it was food), because the baboon grabbed it from him. We watched in hysterics as this guy chased the baboon all over the top of the hill, trying to retrieve his bag, which most likely also contained a wallet and camera. Our guide told us that they often see baboons carrying Coke bottles (even though they can’t get them open). After walking out to the point, and feeling the water (it’s actually freezing right now in Cape Town. Apparently in the summer the current comes up from Antarctica, and the water is much colder in the summer than in the winter), we had a beautiful, scenic ride back to Cape Town. By the time we got back we were exhausted and so over our daily budget that we had peanut butter sandwiches for dinner and went to bed early.

January 9, 2006.

We woke up early, and walked down to the waterfront to catch our 8am ferry to Robben Island. Once we arrived on the island, we hopped on buses for a guided tour of the island. We saw the prisons, the new town, and a house that was used for solitary confinement. The island served several purposes besides a prison, and was also a strategic military spot during WWII. We also saw the limestone quarries where prisoners were forced to do physical labour, without much purpose. The limestone was used for roads, but we got a good example of how horrible it was to be there during the day. The white limestone was blinding when the sun hit it, and we couldn’t imagine having to be there for eight hours a day. After a forty five minute tour of the island, we headed to the prison where Nelson Mandela spent his time. There, each group was assigned a guide who was a former political prisoner. He told us all about the punishments, lifestyle and routines of being a political prisoner. We saw Mandela’s cell, and were able to walk through the cells of other inmates. We also saw the bathrooms and courtyards that were used by prisoners. The guide was excellent, and it was incredibly moving to have a former prisoner for our guide as he had incredible insight into the prison experience.
Luckily for us, our last afternoon in Cape Town was cloud free and beautiful. We caught a taxi back to Table Mountain and bought tickets for the cable car. It is possible to walk up the mountain, but after being in the cable car, I think it would be quite a hike. The mountain is one kilometer high, and once at the top, there are several trails that you can hike. We walked all around the top of the mountain, then hiked over to the other side, and got some great views of Cape Peninsula. We were prepared with our sweatshirts, after experiencing Cape Point’s gusty atmosphere, but it was calm and warm. The views were incredible, and of course, the camera just couldn’t capture the magnificence of the views. It was a great way to end our time in Cape Town, with beautiful view of the entire city.

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Photos

View of Hout's Bay
You can see the road that we drove up, on the edge of the mountain.

Windy Cape Point
This is the from the peak where the lighthouse overlooks Cape Point

Robben Island
The prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years

Comments

[nana]

Keeping up!
Have been watching the Lisbon-Dakar Race and now what should I be looking for -the Laura-John Rally? Glad you are seeing so much - it is minus 8 today, Dont you wish! Keep trekking on - love.