Cape Town was the transition point between our two grand adventures – hiking in the Alps and whitewater rafting on the Zambezi River. My main goal for these few days was to do laundry, so that we had clean clothes for the next half of our trip. Anything beyond that was a bonus to me.
We arrived in Cape Town on Monday morning, having flown overnight from Frankfurt, Germany (thankfully, no time zone change to adjust to though…just a night of missed/limited sleep). The scene at the airport was fairly quiet – no long lines in immigration, no lost baggage, and no issue figuring out transportation to the city center. The public bus from the airport into the city was easy to navigate. Unfortunately, getting to our hotel in the harbor from the bus stop was a different story. As soon as we emerged from the bus station, the wind knocked us off our feet! And, to complicate the situation, our Google Maps route lacked sidewalks in some sections, so we found ourselves walking in the street (or the grass and dirt) at times. Kurt thought it was more stressful than I did – I reminded him that we’ve dealt with much worse. After asking a local for assistance trying to navigate around the Customs building, we spotted our hotel (which I chose specifically because the room had a washer/dryer) nearby, and we arrived intact.
We dropped our bags then walked through the Canal District to the V&A Waterfront to grab lunch. The V&A Food Market was the first building that we saw after crossing the bridge, and it turned out to be a great option for several meals during our time here. We quickly learned that food and drinks are fairly inexpensive in Cape Town, so as Kurt said, we were able to eat like kings (and, enjoy the wine that the region offers). The clouds that had been hiding Table Mountain since we arrived cleared a bit on our walk back to the hotel from lunch.
Once we were able to check in to our hotel room that afternoon, we got cleaned up and napped. We didn’t venture out again until dinner – we hurriedly made our way to the Silo District, bracing against the strong, cold wind on our walk to/from the restaurant. The Tour de France has a rest day on the Monday of the 2nd and 3rd weeks. And, today, so did we.
We had booked a tour for Tuesday that would allow us to get to a couple of places that would otherwise be difficult for us to get to on our own without a car. We headed south in the morning to our first stop at Boulders Beach in Simons Town, part of Table Mountain National Park.
Boulders Beach is home to a protected breeding colony of African penguins (formerly called Jackass penguins because they make a braying sound similar to donkeys). We walked to the end of one of the boardwalks, and we were greeted with penguins everywhere on the beach below us (listen to the howling wind in the video)!
Once we were done oohing and ahhing over the penguins, we enjoyed a delicious (and, fairly inexpensive) seafood lunch at a beachfront restaurant before continuing our bus journey further south on the Cape peninsula. Our wildlife sightings continued too with baboons, zebras, ostrich, and eland in Table Mountain National Park. It was exciting and unexpected to see a zebra, our first true African animal, in the wild!
Once we arrived at Cape Point, we braced ourselves for the uphill walk into the wind to the original lighthouse (there is also an option to take a funicular up to the top). This is the point where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean currents often meet even though the southernmost point of Africa is further to the southeast. With no land bodies from here to Antarctica, the cold south wind blows across the Southern Ocean and makes this one of the windiest points (the average wind speed is 30.6 km/hour)! It was a struggle for us to stay upright at times!
We took in the views around the Cape Peninsula, including the current lighthouse (later constructed far below due to clouds obscuring the light at the original facility) and Cape of Good Hope, the first of the capes encountered by Bartholomew Diaz and his crew in the 15th century Portuguese expedition to reach the Far East by sailing around Africa (though Diaz did not give it such a cheerful name, calling it the Cape of Storms instead).
Our guide had warned us that the baboons here are particularly aggressive in going after food and other personal items.
Then, we hiked over to, up, and down the Cape of Good Hope, the most southwestern point in Africa. Our guide definitely undersold the technical aspect of this relatively short hike.
Once we got back to Cape Town, Kurt was eager to try a variety of local exotic meats for dinner on the Waterfront. Ostrich, crocodile, springbok, karoo lamb, and venison were all on the menu tonight.
Thankfully, the wind finally died down in time for our afternoon outing on Wednesday. After lunch at the V&A Food Market again, we headed over to catch the 30-minute ferry from the Nelson Mandela Gateway in Cape Town to Robben Island. The tours had been canceled due to the strong winds in the preceding days, so I was happy that my advance scheduling of our Tuesday and Wednesday activities worked out for us in terms of the weather.
The ferry ride offered us spectacular views of Cape Town!
After disembarking from the ferry, we walked over to the maximum security prison for our tour which was conducted by a former political prisoner. He shared his story while escorting us through the prison grounds and Cell Blocks F & B of the prison. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned here from 1964-1982 (his cell is the 4th window seen from the exterior courtyard in the pics below). Mandela’s handwritten copy of the original draft of his biography, The Long Walk to Freedom, was hidden in tin containers and buried in the garden next to B section.
Then, we boarded a bus for a tour of the small island, including the criminal prison, leper graveyard, limestone quarry where the prisoners worked, the lighthouse, and homes previously occupied by guards and their families.
When we returned to the waterfront, we had time for one final dinner at the V&A Food Market (such a good variety of inexpensive, international food/beer/wine options) before heading back to the hotel to start the process of repacking our bags for the next phase of the trip.
One last sunset in Cape Town…until next time! We were only here for a few days but there is plenty more (hiking Table Mountain, shark diving, wine tasting, safaris, to name a few things) for us to explore in the area and throughout South Africa.
That looks awesome! I get the wind! Nice fall breeze here now.