Advertisement
JP, back in the saddle, picks us up at 7:30. Today's itinerary calls for us to drive to Hermanus, a beautiful area about 2 hours out of Cape Town famous for its rugged coasts and for its whales—at certain times of the year, but not now. However, when JP hears that we did not manage to get up Table Mountain yesterday, he proposes a complete change of plans, feeling that today's good weather and tomorrow's forecast of cloud argue in favour of doing Table Mountain today. It is, after all, perhaps the number one must-see attraction in Cape Town. It is so agreed.
We have breakfast at a local restaurant then head for the city. By the time we reach the cable-car station, however, a couple of the members of our party are feeling quite ill. There has been a cold/flu combination attacking us over the last few days. I myself am not immune but nothing will keep me from Table Mountain. So in the end three of us embark on the gondola to the top while JP ferries the other two back to our lodgings to recuperate.
While there are hiking paths that lead to the top, most
people take the gondola, which opened in 1929. The 5-minute ride is spectacular. The floor of the gondola rotates around as we climb, making one complete revolution on the way to the top.
We emerge into blinding sunshine. The sun somehow seems stronger at this altitude, and there is no shade. Looking over the precipice in all directions, you can see forever. Cape Town is on one side and the various tony neighbours on the Atlantic coast are on the other. We follow groomed paths with interpretive signs. While there are minor ups and downs as we stroll, the top of Table Mountain really is amazingly flat. A geological freak of nature.
Sitting around on the rocks and even on the paths and benches are dassies, like the one we saw yesterday. They are completely unperturbed by the throngs of people. Of course, there are signs warning against touching or feeding them, which many people are ignoring. They are quite adorable. I remember reading that they actually are not rodents but a member of the elephant family, appearances to the contrary.
There are several paths that can be followed, each a slightly larger loop around the top.
We opt for the 30 minute walk. Signs provide information on the native flora (mostly fynbos) and fauna (dassies, snakes, lizards). After completing our route, we spend some time in one of the two gift shops.
All too soon, it is time to descend. I videotape the descent as the gondola slowly rotates.
JP meets us at the bottom. Our third member decides to return to the resort, leaving Violet and me on our own. We decide that we will try for some Cape Town attractions that were not on the itinerary. JP drops us off at the hop-on, hop-off bus station. We take the red line, then switch to the yellow line that winds through the Cape Town old downtown.
Our first stop is St. George's Cathedral. This church played an important role in the fight against apartheid. Then-Bishop Desmond Tutu helped organize many of the huge protests that marched from St. George's to government buildings. While the interior is fairly simple in comparison to European cathedrals, the church boasts stunning stained-glass windows. The sunlight shining through paints beautiful patterns on the pews and altar.
We exit and walk south along the outside of the
church. We happen to notice a door that says it leads to the "Crypt". Intriguing, but it appears to be locked. As we are walking away, however, the door opens and a young lady invites us in. In the cool interior is a small museum documenting the role of St. George's and Bishop Tutu in the fight against apartheid. The young lady provides some background information then lets us move through the exhibits showing the timeline of events. At the end, we have a conversation with her about our impressions. She mentions that it is so important for the young people of today to know and understand what their parents lived though. So glad we stopped in.
We continue walking south until we encounter the Company's Garden. This is an expansive green area with trees, gardens, statues, river ways and green spaces right in the heart of downtown. It was originally built by the Dutch East India Company in 1792 as a vegetable garden to supply ships, but by the 18th century it had expanded and become more recreational. On this beautiful day, the park is filled with families and presumably government workers on their lunch break.
We
walk the entire length of the garden (about 4 blocks). At the far end is the SA Museum and Planetarium and the SA Library and Archives. No time to explore these, however, We hop back onto the bus.
We next descend at District 6. This once was a thriving, vibrant neighbourhood of black and coloured families that was rezoned in 1966 as a whites-only area under Apartheid. The people were moved out to the townships and the area was razed to the ground and rebuilt. A community museum documents these unpleasant events and tries to recreate the lives and spirit of the families that once made their homes here.
A slightly unpleasant incident as we wait for the next bus. There is a homeless man begging on the corner. We saw him before we went into the museum, but he approaches us again. We ignore him (as we see everyone doing) but he begins to harrass us. Eventually he sits down on the sidewalk near us, back to the wall, and starts ranting about "rich Americans" letting "poor black people" die in the streets "like dogs." We are glad that the bus arrives fairly soon to relieve us from this uncomfortable situation.
It is now getting late, so we complete the circuit on the yellow line without further stops. We pass notably the Houses of Parliament, the Slave Museum and the Castle of Good Hope, the later the oldest building in Cape Town and the scene of rapturous throngs greeting Mandela on his release from prison in 1990?.
The only option available to us to return to the Waterfront is to hop onto the red line and follow the complete loop that we did on our first day here: all the way west, up and around Table Mountain, returning east on the backside of the mountain past the stadium and then finally to the Waterfront. We realize that this is going to take us past our agreed-upon rendez-vous time with JP so we call him on the cell phone he has given us. All goes well, and we meet him back at the Waterfront, then return to the resort.
Our friends are feeling much better and we all go out to supper together. JP has selected Nividia, where we ate on our first day here. Once again, sumptuous food, in my case fall-apart pork belly with mashed potatoes and veggies. Yum!
To bed a little bit earlier than usual. Tomorrow is our last day in Cape Town before moving north.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0232s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
