ROAD TRIP ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA (4): Cape Town

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From Plett we went to Cape Town. We stopped at Hermanus for lunch. Hermanus is a small town which is famous for it’s whale viewing. The whales season between July and November. Southern Right Whales migrate from Antarctica to South Africa to give birth and mate. Hermanus even has a whale festival at the beginning of whale season. Even though the whale season was meant to have been over we were still were lucky enough to see a Southern Right Whale.

In Cape Town we stayed at a backpackers on Long Street. Long Street is where most of the bars, restaurants and clubs are found in Cape Town.
The backpackers (Bluemountain Backpackers) was in a very old, large house with a balcony all the way round it.
On our first day in Cape Town we went to Boulders Beach. Apart from boulders (obviously) the beach is famous for it’s population of African penguins. They were previously called Jackass penguins because they make a noise like an ass/donkey. Fortunately they have recently had a name change. The penguins are wild but they are used to people. It feels very odd to be surrounded by penguins while you sunbathe.
While in Cape Town we looked at the view from Rhodes Memorial and signal hill. We didn’t even try Table Mountain because the queues are meant to be terrible in peak season and it would have been a waste to spend half a day queuing when we only had three days.
one evening we had cocktails overlooking camps bay which was great especially since the sun sets later in Cape Town than it does in the rest of the country.
We also wanted go to Robben Island but in peak season you have to book long in advance so the ferry was full.
At night we went clubbing or to bars along long street.

We spent one afternoon doing our own wine tasting tour in the Cape Winelands. We went to Spier, Merlust and a more modern wine estate (can’t think of the name). I was surprised at the price. It was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be (each estate was about R20 per person). Merlust was defiantly the best. The third place was very modern instead of the traditional Cape Dutch style which took away a lot of the charm.
Spier didn’t just have wine. They had also donated some of their land to the Cheetah Outreach project (http://www.cheetah.co.za/ ). So I had the opportunity to meet a cheetah. The money “Enigma” and the other captive bred cheetahs raise goes towards saving cheetahs in the wild.

To return home to Johannesburg we drove back through the Karoo desert and spent the night at Griep Dam. It was interesting. Honestly though- the people there are rather weird.

well that is the end of the trip. I would defiantly want to do another trip like this or for a more relaxing holiday stay longer at some of the places we visited.

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Photos

Cheetah
Cheetah at Spier