A sampling of favorite pictures--in addition to those already posted!

V&A Waterfront and Table Mountain

Solar powered windmill at Sanbona



Table Mountain cable car views



Caused by coastal breeze!

Winery day tour-lunch stop

Nobel Square at V&A Waterfront

Random thoughts….at the end of a fabulous trip!

Random thoughts….

Cape Town and the surrounding areas we visited are just gorgeous…from the waterfront to Table Mountain, Chapman’s Peak Drive, Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope, Franschoek and Stellenbosh (wine country).  However, the country has a long way to go to resolve its many problems.  Unemployment is at 25%, illiteracy is 23%, and 11% of the population has hiv/aids.  On the other hand, Cape Town feels like a big city with a friendly and welcoming vibe nearly everywhere we went.  Each of our stopping points had free wi-fi, fabulous staff, and lovely accommodations.  From others we talked to however, it is not typical of SA—those who had visited the northern half of the country indicated that there was a third world feel with an entirely different atmosphere from Cape Town and its surrounds.  Indeed we saw many impoverished areas near the city, but the overall impression is welcoming, with lots to see and do, and absolute stunning landscapes—though the racial divide still seems quite evident. 

We chatted with lots of interesting people from all over the world…a few Americans, but mostly from everywhere else.  In addition to native Cape Tonians, we met visitors from India, London, Ireland, France, Scotland, Belgium, Pretoria, Australia, Germany, and more.

Eating:  Great service everywhere we ate.  Staff could not have been nicer or more helpful.  Prices are cheaper than US—only had one dinner that cost over $100 (including tip) though almost all of them would easily have been more than that at home.  Recommended tips are only 10% too!  Ate lots of fish these ten days including: kingklip (regional favorite), mussels, clams, sole, hake, yellowtail, salmon (almost every morning), white salmon, prawns, sushi.

Overall, a terrific journey and a unique experience!  Highly recommended!  See next post for a selection of pictures (still narrowing down from the thousand shots--gotta love those digital cameras!)

Restaurants

Baia (decent fish, located in the V&A Waterfront, in the mall)

Panama Jacks (cute place off the beaten track, good fish)

Bayside Café (stumbled in, only fair)

Codfather (fabulous fish platter, no menu—pick from the display, pay by weight, good sushi)

Pepenero (great waiter, beautiful floor to ceiling windows facing the waterfront, though after sunset when we were there,)

Il Leone (terrific pasta)

Willoughbys (yummy sushi)

Tasty breakfasts everywhere we stayed—great homemade breads, lots of salmon.  Good desserts everywhere, great sushi, good fish, great service!

Must haves that we remembered to bring:

Extra battery for camera

Power strip for charging 3-4 gadgets

Came in handy:

Cell phone purchased in Cape Town

GPS for rental car (essential!)

Should have brought:

Wool hat

Binoculars

Didn’t need  to bring:

Splitter for computer headsets

Headsets (received one on each leg of the flight plus on the Red Bus)

Sunscreen (never used it)

Last Day in Cape Town

A leisurely day in Cape Town at the Waterfront.  Said our farewells to our helpful host Antony, at Blackheath Lodge.  Cabbed to V& A Waterfront to spend a few hours checking out the two craft barns (individual craft stalls with local art, jewelry, crafts, etc.), walking through the large mall to Willoughbys for a great sushi lunch, and strolling around on a sunny day.  They have done a nice job redoing the harbor area as an attraction, though the shopping mall feels very touristy, lots of familiar stores, and some local.  Great nine foot tall sculpture display at Nobel Square honoring 4 Nobel Peace Prize Winners:  Albert Luthuli (1960-while still under house arrest), Desmond Tutu (1984), FW DeKlerk (1993), and Nelson Mandela (1993). Table Mountain, Kruger National Park, and V&A Waterfront are the three biggest tourist attractions in SA. 

Back to Blackheath to pick up our car for an uneventful trip to the airport.  Probably won’t be undertaking renting a car in a country that is set up different than the US—too scary!  See next post for final thoughts and pictures. 

Continuing north up the coast to Sea Point

After our two lovely nights in Camps Bay, we headed to Sea Point, a larger beachfront suburb of Cape Town, which has a large Jewish population, and a somewhat Miami Beach feel with high rises and hotels.  Found our way to the quaint Blackheath Lodge, a refurbished 10 room boutique hotel from the 1880s, and met our friendly host Antony. There is a nice beachfront walk, with interesting sculptures—and an area for residents to let their dogs run free—which Steve enjoyed! 

Decided to make use of the Red Bus tour as our transportation to Table Mtn. and the District 6 Museum.  The museum was quite stirring—there is an interesting story there, and it doesn’t seem that they have recovered yet.  The post apartheid world is still struggling with a long way to go before there is any real equality.  Women do have some leadership roles in politics, but there is quite the division between blacks and whites.  The Mayor’s election was taking place the Weds. after our upcoming Monday departure, and the ANC is referred to in political statements in the local paper as “the party of the blacks.” 

Though we were approached at least three times in different locations for money, we never felt threatened or in danger—just a bit pestered.  Once Steve told them to go away, they did just that.  And a convenient security person pulled up to shag away the woman who approached us outside the museum.  As in any major city, you need to use caution and common sense as to where you are wandering and how late at night you might be out.

After the museum, we headed up to Table Mountain, where at last, the weather was clear enough to undertake the cable car ride.  The cable car ride up was great fun but brief—65 in the car, with seemingly as many languages! 

Many hiking trails available at the top, but with Steve’s knee restricting us a bit, we took the short 15 minute Lassie trail with beautiful views around every corner.  

We took Antony’s suggestion of Pepenero for dinner—quite good fish again in a great setting.

On Saturday, we were picked up for our all day wine country tour by Graham of Luhambro Tours at 9 a.m.  Two women from Pretoria and Australia (now London) also were in the van, as we visited three wineries in the Franschoek and Stellenbosh areas.  Beautiful scenic drive to get there, and great overviews of the spectacular valley of Franschoek, settled over 300 years ago by the French Huguenots.  As we drove through, it looked like a great town to spend a day or two in, with art galleries, shops, restaurants, and hundreds of wine farms.  We enjoyed our wine, cheese, and olive oil tastings at Tokaro, Rickety Bridge, and Fairview Wineries.  We topped off the day with a great dinner at Il Leone, and again collapsed into bed at the end of a long but another enjoyable day.  Can’t believe it’s time to go home tomorrow!

Will post pictures in a final post.

 

On our way to the suburbs

Uneventful 3 ½ hour drive through more beautiful countryside (with a stop at a cute little restaurant in tiny Montagu) to Camps Bay.  Camps Bay is a wealthy residential seafront area with stunning views  and prime beach area.  Just as we approached the town, Steve noticed the brakes weren’t working properly as we coasted by our first right turn in Camps Bay towards our next “home,” Sea Five .  Limped through the second stop and luckily were just around the corner and made it to Sea Five with a burning smell coming from the car—yikes!

View from our room



View from our room




Breakfast area in Sea Five

 Sea Five is a beautiful feng shui type boutique hotel of 10 rooms—normally very expensive, but well worth it as part of our Mantis package.  Took a walk down the hill to the busy main street, and just stumbled into Bayside Café facing the waterfront…just okay, but we merely needed to eat and then collapse into bed, since our day began many hours earlier with our last game drive in Sanbona.  Nice views from the front deck and our room.  Lots of seafront restaurants and bars on a busy main street.

Friday: 

Rose from Sea Five made the arrangements for a car replacement and by noon a new car was in place and we were good to go.  Headed for the scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive with a quick stop in Hout Bay’s community center, which held an original literacy center—but now a little craft center with products made by participants from the literacy project. 

Made a quick stop at the popular Boulder's Beach, where 3,000 jackass penguins roam wild. 

Continued on for a beautiful trip to Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope via the spectacular Chapman’s Peak Drive.  Quite stunninf panoramas—followed by equally breathtaking views from the Cape’s southerly most point of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet at Cape Point near the Cape of Good Hope. 



Chapman's Peak Dive




False Bay from Chapman's Peak Drive

 Ran out of time, or we would have taken the funicular up to the top.  Made it home in time for our dinner at CodFather for a great dinner (no menu, picked fish from a display case, and paid by weight.)  We had some good sushi, followed by our selected fish platter of swordfish, prawns, and yellow fin—yum.   

Magical Safaris at Sanbona

Day 2 at Sanbona

After listening to baboons during the night, an early wake up at 6:30 a.m. in order to get to 7 a.m. breakfast, and 7:30 safari.  After breakfast, everyone enjoyed watching the baboons playing on the top of our tent and turning it into a slide.

 We headed out with high hopes on a chilly morning—made better with my five layers of clothing, a provided blanket, and a much appreciated hot water bottle.  Pretty quickly we came upon a confusion of zebras (actually what a group is called!) who nicely posed for pictures.  Briefly saw a hippo in the water, and more of the antelope family—including leaping springboks.  Interesting short hike to see the rock art of the San people from 4,500 years ago on rocks that were hundreds of millions of year old!  Alvin also gave us quite an educational tour on different plants and their medical uses for both humans and animals.

Tues. night drive:  herd of elephants, journey of giraffes, field filled with baboons, hippo strolling across the street in the dark.  Best drive of the trip so far—three more to go!

They are feeding us well, all you can drink and eat.…gaining weight daily.  The meals are good—a nice breakfast buffet plus hot choices (eggs, etc.)  Cappucino on demand, a coffee break on each morning drive, and a choice of sundowners (drinks—alcoholic or not) to accompany the sundown during the evening drive.  we are welcomed back from our morning drive with hot chocolate (laced with Amerello—African version of Baileys) and adequate lunches—caesar salad, veggie wrap, burgers, etc.  Dinners were buffets with lots of veggies—delicious homemade breads.  We are seated at meals with Shoba—our safari partner, a delightful Indian woman now from London, who has adopted us as her parents.  Our conversations are interesting and ended up with many dialogues around marriage and relationships. 

Wednesday drives bring us to more animals, including a distant vision of cheetahs.  We continue to appreciate our hot water bottles and blankets on our very chilly morning drives.  We have a great encounter with a herd of elephants on their way to a watering hole.  They ended up right next to our landrover and we definitely followed Alvin’s instructions to sit very still and not make any sudden movements.  One full grown female came directly next to Steve’s side and stood staring at Steve for a few seconds, moving her eyes up and down—then sort of nodded her head.  Steve did the same—and felt he definitely made contact with her.  A highlight of the day!

Rides are increasingly bumpy as we go deeper and deeper into Sanbona, particularly looking for an elusive white lion—which Sanbona is known for in its efforts to breed this endangered animal.  Only through Alvin’s perseverance did we finally come upon her—but she was hidden from view from the trail, and was busy working on the kudu antelope she had killed earlier in the day.  Alvin actually left us alone in the landrover so that he could get closer by foot and grab a few pictures.  He promised we would get closer in the morning on our last drive.A few of my favorite shots: 

And indeed we did finally make our way to the white lioness early Thursday morning!  Still bundled in my five (!) layers (and observing their first frost of the season) while bouncing through the rough trails, we found her near the same spot, but at least out in vision.  My zoom didn’t quite do her justice, but it was fascinating to find her. 

Her two cubs however are not nearby and there is quite a bit of concern at Sanbona that they may have lost them.  The rest of the day we came upon baboons, elephants, giraffes, kudu, springboks, rhinoceros, jackal, and more.  A great way to end the safari!  We left there wanting more—a fantastic journey and certainly the trip of a lifetime.  We are heading to Camps Bay next…a seafront community at the foot of Table Mountain, and considered a southern suburb of Cape Town.