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Published: March 16th 2014
Monday March 10. Most big cities we have visited have a Hop on Hop off double decker bus and I am here to tell you that we LOVE checking out cities on these buses. We have been on a few now and they are such a great way to see the sights that the particular city boasts as their best! Very touristy for sure, but the beauty of the bus is that you can take the bus tour, and just like the name says, if you find something you would like to explore further, you can jump off the bus, go exploring and then jump back on the next bus that stops, or the next, or the next. Also there is typically some sort of tour guide. Sometimes a live person, but here it was an audio that we plugged in. This way we also get the some history and some stories about the city......PeRFecT actually!!!
So that was the plan for this day. To spend the day Hopping on and Hopping off!! We first went to buy our Long distance bus tickets at the bus terminal. We are traveling with the Intercape Bus Lines. We are to catch
our bus at 2:30 pm on Friday and then we arrive in Johannesburg Saturday morning at 9:00 am. That should be an adventure.....I'm sure that will be another story for another day!!
After buying our tickets for the long distance bus we jumped on the Double Decker and off we went. Oh...the other most excellent thing about this mode of transport is that no one has any stress getting around on strange streets and unknown neighbourhoods. And let me tell you, there are some very unknown streets and sketchy neighbourhoods here in Cape Town. (just like any city I guess) Also the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the vehicle and they drive on the other side of the road. So just as well we take the bus. No oopsie driving mistakes for any of us!
Off we went on the top deck of the bus, with our audios plugged in. Of course there is so much history in this city. One thing I found fascinating was that right here in Cape Town, the first successful heart transplant was performed by Dr. Christian Bernard in 1967.
Our first stop was the Kirstenbosch botanical Gardens. Now
I am sure that these Gardens are beautiful in the summer, but unfortunately for us we are here in March, which is fall here and heading into winter. Therefore many of the flowers are not blooming and although the grounds are beautiful and green, the gardens are not worth spending too much time at. We hung about for about an hour and hopped back on the bus and off to the next stop.
The next stop was the Township of Imizano Yethu. A Township in Africa is a piece of land where the black people were sent during the Apartheid Government. Imizano Yethu means "Our Struggle". Our tour guide Africa Moonie met us off the bus and took us through his community. The 18 acres was meant to house about 2000 people and right now there are about 40,000 people living there. Many people are refugees from other countries in Africa who came to look for work and once here found there was no work for them, so many end up living in these townships. Very interesting tour and very heart-wrenching. SO many people living in quite horrible conditions. The government is beginning to help, but there are so
many to help....my question is "where do you start"????
After touring Imizano Yethu we walked quickly over to the Tea Bag Store. This is an initiative founded by an English woman who was living and teaching in the area and saw so much poverty. She and a friend, discussing options for business ventures to help the local people, thought about drying tea bags and making crafts out of these dried tea bags. She hired all local people and they now turn these tea bags into beautiful creations.
We hopped back on the bus and our next stop was the Mariner's Wharf at Hout's Bay. A big fishing port where the boats come in filled with all kinds of fish. Kingklip, Angel, Trout and in this wharf lots of Snoek. We were told that Snoek fishing is an art in itself. The Snoek is caught with a line off the boat and then as soon as it comes out of the water all it's scales immediately fall off. Then the fisherman must put the fishes head under his arm somehow and snap it's neck. Not easy fishing we are told. Pretty easy eating though I must say. We had
an amazing feast of Snoek, Chips (French fries) and these fish balls called Lekkerbekkies. HMMMMMMM GOOD!!!
We hopped on again and passed by Camp's Bay, Clifton, Bantry Bay, Sea Point, Three Anchor Bay and back to the V&A Waterfront. By this time it was getting dark and we were on the last bus. We hopped off at the V&A Waterfront and walked back to the flat.
Time to sit and unwind from the day and then suddenly the day is over!!!!!!
Tuesday March 11 We were all excited about this day and tomorrow as we booked a driver to take the 4 of us to The Cape of Good Hope, the southern most tip of Africa and tomorrow a wine tour. We got Graham's name from Carl, so after some phone calls back and forth we were anticipating touring with Graham.
He picked us up at about 9:15 in front of our flat and off we went. We drove along some of the same route as our Hop On Hop Off tour with another quick stop at the Mariner's Wharf where we all fed a big fat seal, with the help of a local and
some money of course!! Then we took a different turn and up on Chapman's peak we drove. We saw some fantastic scenery of the coast. Breathtaking really!
On the way to Cape of Good Hope we stopped at Ostrich farm. Went in for a quick look and saw some amazing Ostrich leather purses, shoes, wallets etc. We didn't purchase anything as a genuine Ostrich leather wallet was over $200 Canadian. A little to rich for our blood! We didn't lolly gag long and we wanted to get to the Cape. Along the way the landscape became very different. No more trees and greenery, now more shrubs and rocks. Much like Nunavut tundra I thought......without the perma frost of course. Perma hot!!! At the end of the road was walk way up to the lighthouse. We could take the funicular (little tram like thing) but decided to hike up. Took us only about 20 minutes. The views along the way were breath-taking. The crashing waves on the rocky shores, the waves rolling along the sand beaches. It was pure beauty!!! We spent a couple hours looking around and standing in awe of the majesty of this part of the world.
Just as we were leaving we finally saw one lone baboon! Apparently the baboons are in the 100's here and have become quite a nuisance. We didn't see all these 100's as it was a little bit of a cooler and windy day, so Graham said that they wouldn't be out, rather they would be hiding from the wind. The one we finally did see I guess was desperate for some human food, because when we encountered him he was attempting to open a sealed can of tuna. He wasn't having much luck. When we next saw him he jumped up on top of someone's parked motorhome and proceeded to tickle and play with his business!!! Showing off for all to see!!! We had a good laugh at that and someone suggested we not have hotdogs for lunch!!!!
On we went to Boulder's Beach that was our next stop. Boulders Beach is where there are 100's of African Penguins. We spent the next hour or so watching the Penguins. Sue and I were walking along admiring the little critters when we stopped, looked over and there were these 2 adorable little penguins, making baby penguins. Sue remarked that they
were doing it "Penguin Style" Another good laugh!!! What a day.....magnificent sights and sex education all in the same day....does it get any better?
After Boulder's beach it was already getting dark. Somehow I feel like there are not as many hours in a day here in Africa as there are at home. The days just fly by!!!
Wednesday March 12 Another day of touring with Graham. This day we were off to tour South African wine country.
Our first winery was called Fairview. Here we tasted 6 different wines and many different kinds of cheeses. Many of the cheeses were goat cheeses that were also produced at or around this winery. Both the wine and the cheese were delicious. Our second stop was the Spice Route Winery. Here Sue and I had 4 wine tasting with different complimenting dark chocolates. Amazing how after having a bite of dark chocolate the wine tastes much different. Dick and Rene ditched us and went upstairs to do some beer tasting as there was a craft brewery there as well. Susan and I joined them when we were done our wine and also sampled some of the different beers.
Dick and Rene got a private tour of the brewery from the brewmaster himself. They felt pretty special!!!
After these 2 vineyards, Graham took us to our last wine tasting at Solms Delta. Here we tried several more innovated wines! and yes.....now it was time to quit!!! Our last stop of the day was the quaint little town of Franshoek. Here we had a bite to eat and NO MORE WINE!!! Waters all around thank you!!! All of these vineyards are in valleys surrounded by fantastic mountains. The scenery all around is so beautiful!!!
On the way back to Cape Town we got to see more and more how stunningly beautiful South Africa is!!! And the incredible differences in the wealth of the people who call this place home. Never before in such a concentrated area have we seen as many expensive vehicles such as Porsches, BMW's, Mercedes and Aston Martins and such expensive living accommodations, worth millions and then seemingly right beside all this wealth are the townships, with tin and cardboard homes and worn out shoes on the feet of the people. on the way back to our flat we drove by one of the largest
townships in Cape Town called Khayelitsha. This is a township of between 400,000 and 500,000 people who almost literally have nothing except their tin shack with rocks on the top to keep the roof on when the winds blow. Kinda hard to reconcile these 2 life styles.
Again the day flew by and it was time to go back to the flat.
Thursday March 13 Today was a day of doing not to much and just enjoying our last full day in Cape Town. We lazed around a bit longer this morning and decided that it would be a separate couples day of doing whatever we wanted and we would meet up at about 4 to have our last Cape Town Dinner at an Authentic African Restaurant. After dinner Carl and Lindy were coming by to pick the 4 of us up to take us to the top of Signal Hill to see the African sunset.
So Rene and I set off about 10 am, got about a half a kilometer down the road and decided to stop for coffee. After a leisurely coffee we continued our stroll. We ended up at a car dealership where Rene saw
a Land Rover Defender. Now for those of you who don't know what a Defender is I will explain. It is a rugged 4X4 jeep-like vehicle made by Land Rover and Rene has loved them since I've known him. So foe the next half hour Rene and the salesmen chatted about price, taxes and tariffs and shipping costs to Canada. I just stood back and listened and smiled. Let the man dream I thought.
After the vehicle dreaming, drooling and talking we were parched and needed to stop for a beer. I told you it was a lazy (ish) day. After our ice cold delicious beer we headed towards the Green Market for one last go round with the street vendors. Now I love the street vendors and bartering and Rene HATES it. He hangs in there with me and together by doing a little bit of what each of like to do and experience we make a pretty good traveling team. By the time I had purchased a few items to take home it was already time to head out to the restaurant.
We met Dick and Sue at Marco's at 4 and proceeded to have a wonderful
dinner of grilled Kudu. It was so yummy. The staple side dishes of Pap and/or umpandgushu were not so good. We had a lovely dinner and off we went back to the flat to meet up with Carl and Lindy to watch the sunset. They were waiting when we got back so we piled into the Jeep and off we went up Signal Hill. Lindy had prepared this most wonderful picnic and although we did open some items most of it was left in the picnic basket and we decided that they should join us in our flat for a picnic after. Graham, our tour guide from the last 2 days also joined us on the Hill. I had forgotten my notebook in his van so he and his girlfriend came to bring it back to us. We invited them also to join us for our indoor picnic. The African sunset my friends did NOT disappoint!!! It was magnificent!! We took so many pictures and oohed and awed for about 35 minutes until the sun went to bed for the night. Back to the flat for some drinks and eats and to learn a little bit more about some new
African friends. Then....just like that awesome sun, we all said good night to another amazing day in Cape Town Africa.
Friday March 14, So today is the day we are leaving Cape Town. I can hardly believe we have been here 10 days already!! My how time flies when your having fun
We could have slept in today but we were all awake early. Probably because we are all quite excited about this next leg of our journey. We are on Our way to Johannesburg today. Our bus leaves at 2:30 pm so we have the morning to do and see any last minute things we want to see and/or do! We got up and began the process of packing and cleaning up!
Rene and I saw a neat place we wanted to stop and have our last breaky in Cape Town so after we were packed and our luggage at the front door, the 4 of us made our way for our last foray on the downtown streets. We made our way down Long Street and after a couple passes found RCappe. This quaint cafe just made the top 10 list for daytime dining. We had an amazing
breakfast and after breakfast strolled one last time towards the Garden. We sat and watched people until it was time to go back to the flat, collect our luggage and head off to the bus station.
Our bus arrived on we went and North to Jo'burg we headed.
That my friends is how to Spend 10 days in Cape Town and surrounding areas!!!
And so now our friends and family
STAY WELL!!
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Peter Mueller
non-member comment
Amazing!!!!!
....such an amazing place ..... you guys sound and look like you are having a great time.... never a dull moment..!!!!! ...all those interesting facts ... thanks