Southern Africa 2014 - Suedliches Afrika 2014: Cape Town

Cape Town – Cape of Good Hope

We approach from the mountains, slowly making our way down to sea level. The winds are whipping up something fierce; it takes both hands on the wheel to keep the RV steady. We look and look, and there it is, Table Mountain, the landmark of Cape Town. As the saying goes “first impressions count the most” and so it is with Cape Town, and I am in love. Our campsite is actually a long way out of town, along the coast, kind of across the bay from the city. It is hazy and there are lots of clouds, yet the views are breathtaking. We are looking forward to our city sightseeing tours.

Next day we get picked up from the campground and we all go by bus. We drive along the ocean, getting closer and closer. Cape Town has around 3.7 million people, but you wouldn’t know it, everything is calm and quiet and traffic is a piece of cake. Today we only go down to the Waterfront, we get to walk around on our own, do whatever we want to do. First thing on our to do list is to go and see, if we can get tickets to visit Robben Island. This is not part of our tour, and it is hard to get tickets last minute, they sell out weeks in advance. We are lucky and are able to buy some for Sunday morning (it is Thursday today). Sunday we are supposed to move on to Stellenbosch, but we figure we can catch up with the group later that day, better to miss some Stellenbosch than Robben Island.

On Friday we have our city tour of Cape Town. As the wind has been blowing hard for days now, it is not possible to go up to Table Mountain, as the gondola is closed. But we drive up to Signal Hill, and have a wonderful view from up there. We see many sights, spend some time walking through the older parts of town, some gardens, the parliament. Funny story about the parliament: Apparently, the president has four (4) – yes 4!!! – wifes. During official ceremonies, such as the opening of parliament, only wife number one is allowed to follow him in through the main entrance. Wives 2-4 must make use of a lesser entrance, but are allowed to rejoin with number 1 on the inside!!!

On Saturday, we go on our Cape Tour, also by bus. We are excited, as we get to see the Cape of Good Hope. But first we drive along the coast, out of Cape Town, along beautiful beaches and cliffs and expensive villas. We stop in small little fishing villages, and the scenery is getting more rugged as we go along. The weather is again fantastic, nothing but blue skies.

To end this report, here is one thing I learned about the Cape: I always though that this is the point, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. Not so. This actually happens a bit further east, at Cape Agulhas. But looking out at the Ocean, on this very blustery day, it does not surprise me, that many sailors don’t wish to sail the cape!

First view of Cape Town and Table Mountain. It's very cloudy, but this will change...

Cape Town Waterfront. 16912 km to Vancouver, the furthest distance on this marker post. Surprise, surprise....

Cape Town Waterfront with Table Mountain in background. Much fewer clouds, but still really windy...

The national flower of South Africa, the Protea...

These are carved Ostrich Eggs. They make them into lamps. I was tempted to buy, but how to transport? Can't have everything....

Another view of the Waterfront, with Table Mountain in back...

This is Robben Island, more on that in my next post...

Table Mountain and some of Cape Town from Signal Hill, no clouds, but too much wind for Gondola.

Looking down at Cape Town...

This is a fever tree. Interesting: If there is bad stuff in the earth, the tree designates one branch for the poisonous stuff, and will discard that branch when it cannot absorb any further poison. Then it will start another branch ...