Cape Town, South Africa

After leaving Luderitz, Namibia, we sailed south along Africa's west coast for a day heading to one of our "Bucket List" cities.  We were up bright and early to watch the sail into Cape Town from the front deck of the ship.  Sure enough, when Cape Town's iconic backdrop, Table Mountain, came into view we were all excited.  As we sailed into Table Bay, which is located on the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, we were anxious to get our day started.

Map of South Africa

Sailing into Table Bay

Famous Table Mountain, the backdrop of Cape Town

Entering the harbor at Cape Town

World Cup Soccer Stadium

Cape Town has a population of about 4,000,000 people and is spread out over a large area.  South Africa’s official languages are English and Afrikaan.  The area of Cape Town has such an interesting history.  During the era of exploration in the 1500s, its location at the tip of Africa made it a strategic location for European explorers to stop to re-supply their ships enroute to India and the Far East in search of spices to bring back to Europe.  The Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz first landed in the area in 1488 and named it The Cape of Storms due to the rough weather and currents in the area.  Back home in Portugal, the King learned about the strategic find, but cleverly re-named it The Cape of Good Hope in order to encourage other explorers to go there...good marketing strategy there!  “Good Hope “ sounds way more inviting than “Storms”.

We joined a tour that would take us to Table Mountain and show us some of the highlights of the City. Our first stop took us to the cable car that goes up to the top of Table Mountain.  The mountain is 3,000 feet high and offers a panoramic view of the area looking down over the waterfront and port area on one side and beautiful beaches on the other side.  The national park at the top is very well done much like our great national parks in the U.S..  We had a great visit there, but wished we could have stayed longer.  Next we drove through the City as our tour guide pointed out the various neighborhoods and gave us an overview of the history and culture of the City which gave us a good orientation for exploring on our own later.  In the afternoon, we went to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area which is a focal point of Cape Town.  We were blown away by this bustling entertainment area with its museums, hotels, restaurants, bars, boutiques and a huge 3 story shopping mall all set in a rambling marina area.  There was public art to enjoy and plenty of rhythmic, live African music performances all along the walkways.  It's a terrific area for locals and tourists to enjoy.  In our opinions, this waterfront rivals other famous waterfront districts we have visited such as San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.  Fortunately, our hotel was located a short walk from this waterfront.  We were sad to disembark our ship, but excited that we had 3 more days to explore Cape Town.

View from the top of Table Mountain

City View

Looking down on beaches around Cape Town

Enjoying the national park atop Table Mountain

Table Mtn. with our friends from Scotland

Beautiful clean walkways in the national park

offering spectacular views from high above

The V&A Waterfront Entertainment District

Terrific live entertainment and

public art to enjoy at the Waterfront

Massive modern mall (and air conditioning!)

Nobel Square with its monuments

of South African Nobel Peace Prize Winners

including Mandela and Tutu

After leaving the ship and checking into our hotel, we spent the day and evening at the Waterfront area.  The next day, we did an all day tour that took us out of town along the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point (the Cape of Good Hope).  The national park there is a vast area of scenic mountains, soaring cliffs, rocky bays and lagoons.  During our drive through the park, we had to stop several times to wait for troops of baboons to cross the road.  Several of them jumped up on the tops of the passing cars.  Apparently, the baboons are like bears in our national parks and they are savvy and persistent in searching cars for food.  It was pretty cool to be at the Cape of Good Hope close to the area where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean converge knowing how the brave explorers sailed through these treacherous waters to establish routes to India.  Standing at Cape Point, it took some effort not to fall down from the wind gusts so sailing in those conditions had to be terrifying.

Our tour also stopped at Boulder's Beach on the east side of the Cape Peninsula to see a colony of African penguins.  We enjoyed the boardwalk meandering through the penguin colony for an upclose and personal (and smelly) wildlife encounter.

Grasping the monument sign to stay upright in the wind gusts

Cape Point

Excited tourist

Wind effected hair

Rough seas and rugged coast line

for the explorers to navigate

Cape of Good Hope

Baboons taking over the road

in the national park

Junior gets a ride

African penguins on Boulder's Beach

Nesting on the egg

Later in the day, we visited the famous Wine Country of South Africa.  Our driver took us to the charming town of Stellenbosch where we visited a winery and, of course, drank wine. 

After enjoying a tour of the of these beautiful, scenic areas, on our way back to our hotel we had an opportunity to see another side of Cape Town that was sobering to witness.  The impoverished areas called "Townships"  are where the very, very poor population lives.  We passed by a massive Township on the outskirts of the City called Khayelitsha consisting of lean to corrugated metal shanties that made up a ghetto housing almost 400,000 people.  During the Apartheid era, black and racially mixed families were displaced and removed to the townships.  Years later many problems still linger and the unemployment rate among this population is currently at a whopping 42%.  South Africa has some very serious problems to work out, including corrupt government officials, but it is a spectacularly beautiful and resource rich country.

Wine country

Grapes ready for harvest

A Stellenbosch winery and popular wedding venue

Our winery tour guide (and BFF after the tastings)

He says the Pinotage is great for breakfast!

Cheers!

Impoverished Township

On our final vacation day, we bought tickets for the Hop On-Hop Off bus and explored the area further on own.  We visited an area known as Long Street in the City Center, then hopped off again at a beautiful beach town called Camps Bay.  After a long, hot day of touring, we headed back to our hotel for quick showers, then left for the airport to catch our flight home at 12:30 am (yawn!) for a total of 23 hours of flying to get back home.  We had a whole lot of flying time to think about all the wonderful sights we've seen on this 42 day vacation.  HAPPY TO BE GOING HOME TO THE USA!

Coming up, one final post on "Luvin' Our Days at Sea".