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Published: August 15th 2008
View of Cape Town
From the ferry heading to Robben Island We've been on the road for the last week, so it's been a bit difficult to update (the backpacker hostels we've stayed at as we've driven through South Africa have been good, but the internet at the hostels wasn't fast enough for our needs).
What else to say about South Africa except that what we have seen has been beautiful. Most of the Western Cape region that we've covered has seemed very much Southern California mixed in with a little New England charm with an Afrikaaner twist. The topography and scenery is amazing.
We spent our first day here in Cape Town just relaxing and doing our last blog entry. Cosmina had a cold, which I was soon to catch as well, so we just worked on the computer and relaxed in our beautiful apartment at the Daddy Long Legs Hotel apartments.
The next day was spent on a guided tour of Robben Island. This is best known as the island prison where many of the area's black political prisoners were kept during apartheid from the 1950s through the 1990s. Nelson Mandela served the bulk of his prison time at this facility, though when he was finally
released it was from a prison on the mainland.
The tour group started from a museum named after Mandela on the Waterfront area in Cape Town. We boarded a ferry boat that took us on a 30 minute ride out to the island. This boat trip itself, and the view it gave us of Cape Town and its backdrop of the impressive Table Mountain was worth the admission price itself. The city is such a sight that the pictures below won't do it justice.
When we touched down on Robben Island, we boarded a bus with a driver who took us around the different buildings on the island (that housed both the prisoners and the guards). We also had a guide who was probably the most charismatic and interesting tour guide we'd seen. He started by going around the bus and asking each person what country we are from. The answers ranged from England to Brazil to the USA. For each country, in his very dramatic quasi-British sounding accent complete with rolled "r"s, he rattled off how each of these countries contributed somehow to the history of island. He knew all the facts and dates, and gave a
thorough (and at times humorous, believe it or not) account of the island. We saw the separate small building that housed the Pan Africanist Congress leader Robert Sobukwe. Among other things, Sobukwe arranged a demonstration challenging the "Pass Laws" that required black citizens to carry a passport with them at all times. They could be jailed if they were caught without this book. In 1960, Sobukwe led thousands of blacks to march to a police station without their passbooks to turn themselves in for arrest.
On the lighter side, Robben Island also happens to have a colony of penguins, which we actually got to see during and after the bus ride. They were really cute, and didn't seem to mind all the attention and photographs.
After a bus tour of about an hour, we were dropped off at the actual cell blocks where the prisoners lived. We were greeted by our next guide, an actual former political prisoner at Robben Island from 1978 to 1983 who showed us into the cell block and explained how the prisoners were treated and, and times, tortured. It was a very powerful tour, especially considering that it was literally living-history coming from
someone who actually experienced it. Really impressive and pretty emotional.
The next day we decided to climb Table Mountain, so we geared up with some warm clothes, water and snacks and took a cab to the base. It was probably about 70-75 degrees at the base. The climb took about three hours (with plenty of stops along the way to "catch the view" -- i.e., catch our breath), and was basically a series of steep stones you climb up like rough-hewn steps. By the time we reached the top, it was cold, windy and cloudy. In the three hours it took for us to reach the top the "Table Cloth," as Table Mountain's usually foggy top is known, set in. We had a latte at the summit's restaurant (just like most true mountaineers do), and took the cable-way back down. We cleaned up and went out to have a meal of South African wine and tapas (also like true mountaineers) at a restaurant called Caveau. A great end to a great day.
We sadly said goodbye to Cape town for a few days, and rented a car to see some more of this scenic country. Our first stop
Our Prison Guide
A former inmate on the island-Note the Obama pin he's wearing was the Winelands area, including Stellenbosch and Franschoek. Surrounded by dramatic mountains, there are scores of great and beautiful wineries. We only visited a couple. Takara was set along a rolling hillside of grapevines. It was an impressive modern building with a balcony taking in the great view. Our next winery, Waterford, was set in a California-style courtyard. We tried a really cool wine and chocolate pairing, where we tried seven wines and paired three of them with different types of chocolate (pretty much as good as it sounds).
Our next day brought us to Oudtshoorn, which is either the self-professed Ostrich Capital of the World or the self-professed Ostrich Capital of South Africa. Either way, they love their ostriches here, and we ate it for breakfast lunch and dinner. Ostrich steaks, ostrich sausage and even scrambled ostrich eggs. Pretty tasty. Our drive southward to Oudtshoorn took us through the Swartburg Pass. On our map it looked pretty easy, but as we approached the mountains (breathtaking!) and the asphalt changed to dirt and the roads becam narrower, steeper and curvier we started to tense out a little. We've never driven such a beautiful scenic road before, but with every
Inmate Room
The beds were not there before 1976, the inmates slept on mats twist of the dirt road (and all the blind corners with no guardrails), we realized what we were up against. As the driver, Aaron just took it slow and honked at every turn to warn oncoming cars. We made it through just fine, and with a new lease on life.
Our main reason for visiting Oudtshoorn was to see the Cango Wildlife Ranch, a small zoo that specializes in big cats. For about $9 apiece we had a one hour guided tour of the animals (cheetahs, jaguars, bengal tigers, white lions, pygmy hippos, etc). At the end, we had the option of paying a little extra to have an "animal encounter", which means going in with the animals face-to-face. Our choices were adult cheetahs, 10 week old cheetah cubs, or 8month old tiger cubs. Cosmina made the decision to go in with the cheetah cubs (because they were the littlest), and we got to spend about 10 minutes with the three cubs and the price even included an 8x10 photo with the cub. Needless to say, Cosmina was beside herself.
By the next morning, we were feeling good, except we'd both had a little cold the few days
prior, and I (Aaron) was still nursing a chest congestion. We decided to go to a doctor to get it looked at. Dr. Jordaan saw me prettty quickly, and after a cortisone shot in the keester and a prescription for an inhaler and antibiotics, we were on our way. The diagnosis was asthmatic bronchitis. I still have a little bit to clear up, but the breathing is easier.
We continued on our way to the Garden Route, which is a scenic drive along Route N2 along the Indian Oceans coast. One of the towns along the way, Knysna, is known for its oysters. Between dinner and lunch, we took care of at least a dozen altogether. They were probably the tastiest oysters we'd ever had. We spent part of the first day walking to an overlook of the Knysna Heads (the inlet between the ocean and the bay). We've included some pictures below. Later, we went by the water to eat at a resataurant called the Dry Dock, which had amazing seafood and a perfect view of the sunset (pictures also included). The oysters and other food we had were magnificent.
The next morning, we went to lunch
at the Kynsna Oyster Company. We paid for a "tour and tasting" in which one of the oystermen explains how the oysters are cultivated and harvested and followed up with a tasting of oysters. Our guide was a weathered old salt who kept referring to us as "Ladies and Gentlemen", even though there were just the two of us at the time. While saying this, he was looking over the tops of our head as if there were twenty people standing behind us. Considering that the guy had worked there for thirty years, we could certainly forgive him what had probably been a speech he'd recited the same way hundreds of times. It was pretty funny.
We drove back westward toward Cape Town and stopped at a scenic overlook in the town of Wilderness. Some other people pointed out a couple whales for us (a mother with her calf) that we could easily see from land. We watched these Southern Right Whales for a while, and then moved on.
By this time, I'd got pretty used to driving on the left hand side of the road (with the steering wheel on the left). By the time we got
Start of the Trek
View from the base of Table Mountain back to Cape Town a couple days ago, I was sad to say goodbye to the rental car.
That night, while starting this blog, Cosmina started to feel very nauseous. By the time we made it back to the hostel, she was downright sick. She spent the night throwing up, and finally we decided to go to the local Medi-Clinic. We hopped a quick cab ride, and pretty soon they had her hooked up to an IV drip and gave her an anti-vomiting medication. We were there for a couple hours until she was stabilized and could keep liquid down. By the next morning, I felt it too, and had a couple good yukes myself. We suspect it was the chicken we'd eaten. We checked into a new hotel, and spent the day sleeping and recovering. I think we got 12 hours of sleep last night, but it felt great and we're sticking to plain toast and water or tea until tomorrow.
That left us with the decision regarding our flights booked to leave today for Delhi, India. As we're writing this, we were supposed to be on our way to India. Even though we think that we
First Step Up
And it only gets steeper! feel a lot better, we really didn't want to push it, so we changed our flights to give us three more recovery days and will leave for India on Monday August 18. I mean if you're feeling sick BEFORE you get to India, you're not going to feel better IN India.
So we've really enjoyed our time in South Africa. Aside from a little sickness (and it was bound to happen at some point), we've had nothing but fun here and we'd definitely come back someday.
There is more than one page of pictures below, so click on the number "2" below to reach the second page.
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Kristen, Katie, and Sarah(from Dr. Italiane's)
non-member comment
WOW!
Hey there! Amazing pictures/videos....we "ohhhh and awwwhh" at every one! Such a world...we thank you again for sharing it all with us....We think the USA may have their next "Cheetah Girl" from your cute pics with the animals. Nice driving video and hey "save the chickens"...stick with toast..esp. in India! Stay safe and well...thanks...kristen and girls