Welcom by Kaapstad!
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2005
1
24
149
Trip End
May 22, 2006
Cape Town,
South Africa
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Tamalyn, Jason and I left the house to meet Nick & Jimmy at the slip at 10:00 am
6:00 am in a buckie
. Out on the water, we headed south along the Cape peninsula, giving us a spectacular view of Capetown and Table Mountain in the background. Shortly after leaving the marina, Jason spotted a seal of to the right of the boat. As we slowed down to get a better look, Nick noticed a large shape jutting out from the water ahead to the left. Jason yelled out "Whales!" We then forgot about the seal, and we made our way to the whales. Sure enough, two Southern Right whales were slithering to the surface and then diving once again into the deep. We waited about 10 minutes before heading off. We continued South beyond Clifton towards Camps Bay. We stopped to admire the multi-million dollar homes overlooking the sea and the beaches at Camps Bay. We then turned around and headed north along the coast back towards Mouille Point. Shortly after passing the waterfront of Capetown, Jason asked Nick to head out to Robben Island.Half way to Robben Island, Jason pointed out a group of 50 or so penguins. Unfortunately, as soon as we turned towards them, they dove and escaped from our inquisitive eyes. It took Tamalyn some convincing, but she finally realized that Jason wasn't pulling her leg. Shortly before arriving at the shores of Robben Island, Jimmy and Jason pointed out a Sun Fish. This fish lounges around the surface, looking much like a shark, but it is actually just a regular fish
Cape Town from Table Mountain
. It floats near the surface on its side, raising its dorsal fin in a way which makes it easy for the untrained eye to mistake it for a shark.We circled entirely around Robben Island, passing a grounded Taiwanese fishing trawler on the western shores, as well as another grounded vessel which ran aground trying to free the Taiwanese trawler. We then passed the dock where the ferries carrying visitors to Nelson Mandela's prison cell dock. We could make out the prison, and the other buildings which formed part of the compound.
One of the beaches on Robben Island is a very protected area, many penguins nest and live here. Luckily, just out from this beach, Jason spotted another group of penguins. These ones were less shy and hung around for a while. In the water, they kind of looked like large, long necked ducks. Very cool!
As we left Robben Island, the view of Capetown and Table Mountain in the background was overpowering. This truly is one of the most scenic sights of one of the world's cosmopolitan cities. It rivalled the Sydney Harbour with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. We must have taken about 40 pictures of Table Mountain
Cape Town from the cable car
. We just couldn't get enough. We headed towards Big Bay and Dolphin Beach, on the north side of Table Bay. Although these beach front homes have the most beautiful views of Table Mountain, they are not as sought after as we would have thought as the prevailing winds come strongly off of Table Bay.We then headed back to the wharf. Jason, Nick and Jimmy were happy with the performance of the boat, and Tamalyn and I were elated with our ride. We had seen Capetown and Table Mountain from the water, we had seen seals, whales and penguins in the ocean, and we had circled Robben Island by boat. All of this, and we hadn't even been on the ground in South Africa for more than five hours!
We had lunch at one of the new restaurants on the waterfront, overlooking the harbour. We really had to pinch ourselves. Forty-eight hours earlier, we were in the desert, in 42C heat, in Leo & Tracey's 4x4 jeep, getting stuck in the sand. Now, we were in South Africa, enjoying a beer on the harbour, enjoying the 18C spring day. We truly are lucky.
We got back to our hosts' home and headed to bed for a short nap. Yeah, about an hour and a half later, we roused ourselves and found that Tammy had arrived home from work
Elevation
. We were so happy to see her. A while later, their friends Joe and Cherie, popped over to spend the evening with all of us. They, like Jason and Tammy, are fabulous people. Hanging out with the four of them was a lot of fun, we never felt like 5th and 6th wheels. After a few Windhoeck brewskies and some lovely rosé South African wine, we headed out to find some dinner.As almost everywhere, finding a table at a restaurant on a Friday night was difficult. After no luck at 2 restaurants, we found a spot at the Brass Bell. This reminded us of the Robin Hood Pub in Bermuda except that it was right on the ocean. Even though it was pitch black, the lights from the surrounding buildings did give us a clear view of the pounding surf. Keeping in mind that it is springtime down here, the cool spring breeze finally forced us to move to a table inside. In the end, we all left the restaurant very satisfied, despite the fact that 4 of the 6 pizzas weren't quite what we ordered and 5 of them had to be reheated. There you go, sometimes places seem like they'll be completely foreign, but in the end, these kind of experiences just prove how so many parts of the world can be so similar. This could happen absolutely anywhere.
September 17 - Cape of Good Hope
After a great sleep, we awoke to freshly made strawberry pineapple smoothies, freshly brewed coffee, muesli and yoghurt
Gerald & Jason on the boat
! Have we landed in a private African health spa? What a treat! The four of us quite enjoyed lounging around swapping stories and making plans for our week. A couple of hours later, we finally got in the car to head off for the Cape of Good Hope. 20 minutes down the road, we found ourselves back in Kalk Bay where we'd had dinner last night. This is a very trendy neighbourhood of late. It has all sorts of little antique shops, coffee shops, delis, bric & brac shops, you get my drift. We then found ourselves on a road that follows the shores of False Bay. A row of cars parked alongside the road and camera-laden people were looking out to sea alerted us to the possibility of whales. It was! Yup, day 2, second whale sighting! We stood watching them for a few minutes. They were more active than the pod was yesterday. They seemed to be rolling around. We'd catch sight of their flukes, their fins, their backs, and even their heads. Boy oh boy, trying to catch a good photo really made us appreciate all spectacular whale photos we'd ever seen before. Our shots just look like extremely large, black pickles floating in the water!We continued on our way towards the Cape. This was not an "are we there yet?" kind of drive. The terrain was so pretty. The road became quite curvy with steep drop-offs to our left and since South Africa drives on the left side of the road, which meant that the passengers were directly over the cliff
Gerald & Tamalyn at Cape of Good Hope
. So pretty! Mountains to the back and to the right of us; to the front of us, green, short bushes, short clusters of flowers interspersed with stones and boulders kept us gasping in awe.Not too long later, we came to the gate of the Cape of Good Hope National Park. Not only are the flora and fauna within the park protected, but they've re-introduced native African animals into the park. We saw zebras, ostriches and gazelles. We drove along the Atlantic coastline to the South-westernmost tip of Africa. This area had a long rocky beach with waves breaking and crashing on shore. Once again, there were large stalks of kelp thrashing about in the water. Apparently, kelp has a very wide, but narrow stalk that roots itself in the sea floor. The stalk can grow up to many metres in length and has long "leaves" for lack of a better word that branch off of the stalk. When the waves settle, it looks like there are hundred of seals or sea lions popping their heads out of the water. The strength of these plants is simply mind boggling.
After taking a few photos, we continued on to the most southerly point of the Cape. Here, we parked the car, picked up lunch in the little convenience store and headed off for a nice trek to the summit of the mountain.
Gerald & Tamalyn at Cape Point
A mix of stairs and sloped stone-paved paths brought us to the top. At the summit is, of course, a lighthouse. You can imagine its importance. Looking down to the ocean below, it is very understandable how this area has hundreds of shipwrecks deep in its waters. Again, we paused for a while to take in the natural wonder, take a few photos and take a quick rest for our legs. There was a cool signpost as well, New York: 12,541 km, Rio de Janeiro 6,055 km, New Delhi 9,296 km, Sydney 11,642 km, South Pole 6,248km and Paris: 9,294. Man oh man, this world is freakin' massive!The final leg of the journey had us continue downwards to the most southerly point. Again, every single glance was filled with colors and raw nature. The path was quite a bit narrower and very steep to the one side. We made our way to the farthest point on the path, hopped over a fence (quite gingerly as there was a quick emergency exit to the ocean below on our right side), and plunked down on some rocks to have our picnic lunch. I tell you, that was the best setting for our sandwich feast. We took our time taking in the surrounding beauty: 2 oceans, rugged rocky peaks, and short bushy & flowering trees...what a sight. Actually, the 2 oceans joining at this peak are the unofficial mixing spot of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Where the 2 joined there was a perpendicular line of foam straight off the point that stretched for a few hundred metres
Mouille Point Boardwalk
.After a quick "off-road" jaunt a little ways down for just the perfect photo, it was time to retrace our steps back to the base. We couldn't quite imagine what could make the day any better until Jason spotted another couple of whales far below. These ones were again somewhat active. We must have stood there for a good five minutes watching them surface.
Back on the road, we headed out of the park and stopped at some craft stands set up along the road. They were quite simple, just wide long tables and maybe only 8 different vendors to choose from. Ah yes, my shopping paradise: wooden bowls, wooden animals, jewellery, table clothes and placemats and of course...masks. As many of you would know, I have a mask collection. You can imagine how difficult it is for me to have to pick only one (partly space and partly Zimbabwe...more masks). Well, there was quite a variety, but I am pleased to say that I think I found the perfect one for me, no regrets. We went by a couple of other market spots, one of which had massive wooden and stone carvings, mostly of animals. One hippo stood taller than Gerald. He had a flip-top mouth (the hippo that is) into which Gerald stuck his head. Great photo!
Ready to Climb
Jason and Tammy are fantastic tour guides and insisted on bringing us back to Cape Town alongside the western side of the Cape Peninsula. We went through the small town of Scarborough (Tammy said this is kind of hippie territory) and then through Misty Cliffs. This spot is so named due to the perpetual mist that is in the air from the crashing waves. Continuing on, we passed by a massively long beach, Long Beach, well, it was like a stretched out Horseshoe Bay. It must have been more than a kilometre long and a few hundred metres wide. I think there weren't more than 30 people walking along it.
Farther up the coast, we came to Chapman's Peak. The highway that snakes alongside the cliffs of the mountain was closed for quite a few years to do major repairs and preventative construction. There had been frequent boulders falling on the road as well as some road slippage. This winding stretch of highway was breathtaking. I imagine it may compare to the Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver. We stopped a couple of times at observation points...no words to explain the views.
We continued on through Hout Bay and Sandy Bay to finally end up in Camps Bay. This part of the drive had ocean on our left and the backside of Table Mountain and the 12 Apostles to our right
Sunset at Cliffton
. Some of the real estate around here has gone through the roof over the past decade. Many seaside homes are worth millions. Camps Bay was the end of our journey and what better way to finish, but to enjoy a drink watching the sun set from a patio bar. La Med is quite a happening hangout. It was jam packed even though the breeze was quite cool. The sunset was fantastic. I doubt I'll get many more of these in a lifetime. Reds, oranges, yellows, blues, pinks and mauves. The cloud cover made an inverted triangle and the rocks in the ocean made for stark contrasts.Well, all good days must come to an end. We stopped at the market and went home to feast on some pasta and ostrich meat sauce. Yup, ostrich. It was very, very lean and very, very deep red (almost purple) and it was very, very yummy. After dinner, we had quite the treat. Jason specializes in making a local dessert named Don Pedro. Deeeelish! It has a swirl of chocolate sauce on the inside of the glass and into the glass goes a blended mixture of vanilla ice cream and Amarula. Jason decided to be creative and used the Caramel Baileys we had purchased in Duty Free in London. Wow, that is a keeper dessert recipe. After more chat and perusing Jason and Tammy's photo albums, we headed off for another great night's sleep.
September 18 - Langebaan
Nice, low key kind of Sunday
Table Mountain
. It felt like a real Sunday. We all slept in a bit and took our time with coffee and fresh croissants (thanks for running to the local bakery, Jason). We had the chance to meet Tammy's step-father, Malcolm. He is the kind of guy that you feel like you've known for years. He seemed to be able to chat about everything. When asked, Gerald told him that we were from the Peace Country in Alberta, Canada about 600km north of Calgary. Malcolm told us that he'd been to the Calgary Stampede before and thought it was hilarious that he'd been and Gerald hadn't.Eventually, we got ourselves organized and headed off to Langebaan. This is north of Cape Town along the Atlantic Ocean side. We were hoping to be able to watch some kite-surfing. The surfer is on a surfboard-type board and his harness is attached to a rectangular-shaped kite. These guys (and a couple of girls) fly! Not only in speed, but also in the air. They must reach speeds of at least 50km/hour. The best guys were lifting themselves at least 15 feet in the air and spinning around a couple of times. One guy was even releasing his board mid-air and trying to get back on it before hitting the water. As you can imagine, with this level of tricks come some pretty good wipe outs. Ouch. It looks like a really cool sport, but I'd be afraid of being picked up and pitched onto a nearby house or worse yet, a road! Apparently, this has happened before
Tamalyn at the summit
.We had a lovely lunch on a patio with a view of the beach and then headed back towards Cape Town. Back in town, we went for a lovely walk along the boardwalk on Mouille Point. The waves were crashing heavily on the shore. Some spots along the boardwalk had puddles; we didn't pause there too long. Also on the boardwalk, we found pieces of kelp and even chunks of sea sponge. We often pause to watch the breaking waves and the splashes of water onto the boardwalk. We also looked up at the apartments and condos lining this street and wondered what it would be like to live there. Not too shabby.
Back home, we had a braai...a South African barbecue. Jason grilled, to perfection, bratwurst and skewered chicken wings while Tammy made a lovely couscous. Again, delicious. Man oh man, we need to work off all of this great food. And that, we plan on doing tomorrow. If the weather cooperates, we'll try to climb Table Mountain.
September 19 - Table Mountain
Being the gracious host that he is, Jason offered to drop us off at the base of Platteklip Gorge (Flat Rock Gorge)
Tamalyn hiking up Table Mountain
. This is a hike up the Eastern face of Table Mountain. Although we do not know the distance in kilometres, we do know that the hike should take approximately 2 ˝ hours. No problem, we did Kilimanjaro and we're prepared with 3L of water and 4 Power Bars. It's 9:30am, off we go!What we quickly loved was that in creating this path, they've really made an effort to keep a natural feel. Instead of flat, perfectly interspaced/interlocked stones, there were small and medium stones that looked like they could have naturally been there all along. Sort of like a dry creek bed. The inclines were again not steps, but varying sizes of large rocks that we used as steps.
The first third of the hike was mostly a gentle incline with a few flatter spots here and there. We passed by a pretty little waterfall. The water made the iron-coloured stone sparkle and gleam like it had been polished. About a half hour into the hike, we could see that the clouds were beginning to come over the plateau of Table Mountain, we realized that shortly, we could be in these clouds and our view would become the rocks in front of us. Good time for our first break! We paused for some water, to share a granola bar and to look down on Cape Town. The site was spectacular. Green bushes and short grasses interspersed with varying sizes of boulders sloped down to Cape Town, in turn giving way to 2 large bays on the Atlantic Ocean and in the distance, Robben Island
The big hippo!
. About halfway to the summit, the path became quite steep. It continued to be the same type of rock path except that the rocks had become significantly larger. Larger means higher. Each rock was higher than knee height which meant for some pretty good hefting up. This sure made the blood pump in the head. Every 20 or so steps, I'd pause for about 5 seconds to catch my breath. Gerald was very patient, it seems like he never needed a break. We continued a pace of about 25 minutes of hiking and 5 minutes of break. We wanted to maintain our energy and re-hydrate ourselves (we were sweating a ton). The weather continued to be foggy although there would be some clear breaks every once in a while. It was quite encouraging to look down and see the winding, switchback path we'd climbed.
At one hour and 45 minutes from the base, we reached the summit. Ah, what a feeling of accomplishment. We hadn't expected the hike to be such a "hike". We had made it to the plateau summit. We still had about 500m of summit to walk across, nice and flat! We took our time pausing to take photos of the 12 Apostles, the valleys between the mountains, some flowering bushes, some information panels, some fantastic lookout points that jutted out over the cliffs and even watched a couple of rock dassies (South African hyraxes, a local groundhog type marsupial)
Where to next?
. In all, I think we spent another hour or so exploring the summit. This was probably the best thing we could have done for our leg muscles.Going down the same path to get back to the base of the mountain wasn't what we thought we'd want to do and the climb up solidified the decision. NO WAY! We were feeling ok at this point, but walking down, rather hiking down, would have shattered me for sure. My knees would have screamed at me (as would Gerald) for the 4 hours it would have taken me to get down. I stink at going down things (especially uneven, large stepped things). So, it was off to the cable car! This is definitely the best cable car we'd ever been on. The floor of the car rotated as we moved down the mountain. COOL! This gave everyone a beautiful panoramic view. And what a view! The fog had burned off for our trip down affording us breathtaking views of the table-top mountain summit, the valleys, Cape Town, the bays and beaches and the ocean. Perfect!
We jumped in a mini-bus to take us back into town. Actually, we'd contemplated walking to the harbour front since it looked so close...ha! Good thing we wussed out! It took at least 10 minutes by van! Once there, we checked on our emails, got a bite to eat, browsed around the harbour front a bit. The harbour front is a relatively new development. It is less than 10 years old. All around the quays, they've created a little Tourist Heaven: a small shopping mall, small boutique stores, a smaller boutique mall, two African craft markets, numerous tourist shops (all quite tasteful), a beautiful wine store, a museum and the aquarium. This is also the spot from which to take the ferry to the Robben Island tour, which we may do later this week.
A few hours later, we headed back to Jason and Tammy's (via our personal chauffeur service: Jason...too sweet). We relaxed for a bit before heading off to Jason's first touch rugby game of the season! Free home-opener tickets...just like most recreational adult team sport...an outdoor field...one spectator other than us.
Now, I don't mean to make it sound like this was ho-hum. Not at all. This is a tough sport and a lot of fun to watch. Gerald and I know a bit about rugby (Gerald more than I) so it wasn't completely foreign to us, but touch rugby is a variation of the "real" rugby. Let's just say that touch rugby is a perfect way for a bunch of guys to still participate in playing rugby and still make it to work the next day. (Much like no-contact beer-league hockey back home!) Sure, they'll still be sore and tired from having run almost non-stop for 40 minutes, but instead of walking in with fractured bones and 32 bruises, they'll get to work with strained muscles and 14 bruises! Still a lot of tumbles, just no intentional contact. Jason's team came away victorious, as expected, and Jason came home a bit tired, but no where near as knackered as Gerald or I would have been.
Back at "home", we dug into Tammy's homemade butternut squash soup and lovely, fresh rolls. A perfect hot-soup dinner after being outside in the cool spring weather for the last hour! We lazed around (not much longer though) and ended up all in bed by 9:30. Not only had all of the fresh air and exercise taken its toll, but we needed our rest for our wake-up call was an very early 5:30am...not telling you why...you'll have to read on to find out...
"stay tuned for....the REST of the story"
