It is Day 8 in South Africa, and I'm sitting in a quant safari themed lodge (my home in Johannesburg for the next 2 days) reminiscing all about our wonderful trip. Steve, Anna and mark are en route to Kenya for their volunteer mission to help build a school, and I miss them already, but am so excited, as I know Kenya will be amazing. I have nothing but love for what I've seen and experience in Africa.
Cape Town was stop 1 of 3 on our journey, and we had a city tour, a visit to the Table Mountain, winery crawl in the winelands, and a coastal tour of the peninsula on our itinerary. I have to say that I loved the city, and I loved the peninsula and all the nature wonders that it has to offer even more. Besides the scenery and the great food (South Africa is heaven for a meat lover), it was also very eye opening to learn about the history of apartheid and the racial separation in the country, and how it shaped the way of life of its people. It absolutely puts things in perspective and makes you appreciate Canada and the UK even more. The only way to describe this trip fairly is to post some pictures, as I don't think I'm poetic enough to do it justice in words, so here we go :)
Table Mountain
Table Mountain is part of a small mountain range right smack in the middle of Cape Town and is renowned for its flatness, just like the name suggests. I was fortunate to visit many mountains, but this one was the most unique one of them all. Firstly, you find yourself above clouds, so on a sunny day (like the one we fortunately got), one could see the ocean, the mountains and the city through patches of cotton ball like clouds - absolutely spectacular view. Secondly, because of the flatness, you can actually walk the whole mountain, back and forth, taking in the scenery and trying to spot all the little animals that live all over it - a change from most mountains where al you have ia a couple of viewing platforms.
Table Mountain from afar
This guy was covered by a tablecloth of clouds 3/4 days we were there, except for the day when we actually went up. Lucky us as we got great views!
Taking in the view
Lion's Head mountain on the left...harbour on the right...
Table Mountain critters
We had no idea who these guys were but they were everywhere. The winning hypothesis is that it's a guinea pig.
South Africa is renowned for its wine, and has been since the mid 1600's as we have learned. Our day two was supposed to be a tour of the winelands including visits to the wineries and a couple of small towns, but because it was a rainy day and walking outside was out of the question, the tour turned into just a winery tour. The damage? 30 wine samplings and 4 wine bottles for later :) As always, we learned a ton about wines, and forgot it by the evening hehe. The wine country itself was spectacular, even in the rain. The one drastic difference compared to Canada is that the grapes grop on the slopes as opposed to flats. We later learned that the taste of the wine has a lot to do with these unique elevation conditions.
Wineland scenery
Cape Peninsula Drive
The highlight of my Cape Town stay! Imagine an all day coastal drive where you spend your day taking in beautiful ocean, bay and mountain scenery, driving to the tip of the peninsula to stand on the most south westerly point of the African continent, visiting a penguin colony on Boulders beach, and finishing the day off with a visit to the Jurassic Park like Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. I was especially excited to stand on the most southern westerly point of the continent, because I'm a huge geek who pretty much thinks that things like that are cool, and uber-especially excited to visit the penguin colony, as these guys are my fave animals. They were so cute, words can't even describe them! I would totally bring a couple home if I could :)
Maiden's Bay views
A the name suggests, this is where the women used to go to take baths 200 years ago...
Chapman's Peak views
It gets so windy in these parts that people get blown off the mountain sometimes...yikes!
Road companions
These are baboons, and supposedly you are not allowed to touch or feed them because they are dangerous (or at least that's what the signs that are everywhere told us)
Stopping to feed some ostriches
This activity is as terrifying as my face suggests. These guys will attack your hand for food. Mine almost got swallowed. Good thing they don't have teeth hehe
"The most south western point of African continent"-we were there!
Cape of Good Hope views
Making new friends with the penguins!
There's a penguin colony on the Boulder's beach. We were told that these guys showed up in the 80's and multiplied making this beach their new home. They are the most adorable things ever!
Penguin march
Kirstenbosch botanical gardens (NOT Jurassic Park)
Victoria and Albert Waterfront
Day 4 was our official 'chill day' where we got to sleep in, explore the waterfront and harbour area of Cape Town, squeeze in a bit of shopping, and eat eat eat. More seafood, steak, ribs, and more steak. We found an amazing resto right next to our hotel - a quaint stakehouse called Hassar's Grill, serving fantastic meat, and equally fantastic dessert including their special chocolate vodka (sipping chocolate with vodka and cream...where have you been all my life! lol). It was the first resto for all of us that we went to two days in a row, that's how good it was! As an added bonus, you could bring your own wine, so our 4 bottles purchased during the winery tour were put to a good use. I have to say that SA restos (except for those tourist traps along the waterfront) have a great policy of BYOB charging a small corking fee at most, making dining experience quite affordable.
The old City Hall
This is the building from the balcony of which Nelson Mandela made his first presidential address
The Coke Man
We thought this was the greatest thing ever...It's a 'Coke Man' b/c it's a guy that is sitting on the harbour and he's made of coke crates. Amazing what people come up with. He is looking at the stadium, so we think that he's supposed to be cheering for the World Cup...or maybe we just have too much imagination :D
City views from the ferris wheel
City of rainbows
We saw these a lot in Cape Town, and they were the brightest biggest rainbows that I've ever seen! We also got to see a perfect double rainbow. Must be a geographical thing? Or just one of Cape Town's wonders...
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