March 23 – 26, 2024 – In and around Cape Town South Africa

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Our flight from Namibia was about 2 hours. We arrived in Cape Town on schedule and were met at the airport and taken to our Hotel, The Silo Hotel, which was near the Waterfront in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, an area with shops and restaurants. Tired, we had some cocktails and snacks at the roof top bar, then dinner and rest for the busy days ahead.

March 24, 2024 - Table Mountain

The biggest attraction in Cape Town is Table Top mountain. You can see it from just about anywhere. There is a cable car to take you to the top, though some do hike. The Cable care is not always running, depending on the weather, particularly the clouds. But we were lucky as there were few people there when we arrived. We had the cable car going up to ourselves. Beautiful views, when the clouds would clear for a few minutes. Was a bit windy, but not too cool.The trip down did fill the cable car as more people had arrived.

Eon, our guide (who by the way is fantastic, so if you are ever in Cape Town and in need of a guide I suggest you look him up) then gave us a tour of the city. We stopped at the Company Garden, a park in the center of town that had been the vegetable garden of the Dutch East India company when they inhabited the city. Bo-Kaap is the oldest surviving residential area in Cape Town and is known for its brightly coloured homes. There is also a wooden arch erected outside St. Georges church as a memorial to Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Lunch was in an old, converted house with eclectic furnishings. We had Ostridge.  It did not taste like chicken. More like beef.

March 25, 2024 - Art and Wine

Today was art and wine day. Drove about 40 minutes to Constantia where we toured the exhibits in the Noval Foundation museum. Then a walk in the sculpture garden. Then to Groot Constantia for some wine tasting. Had a wine that was made famous by Napoleon, Grand Constance. From here we had a tasting lunch at Foxcroft. 4 courses. Cathy had fish, I had Blasbuck. Frozen yogurt for dinner.

March 26, 2024 - Penguins and the Cape of Good Hope

Our first stop of the day was the boulders where we could see the colony of African Penguins, formerly called the Jackass penguins because of the call they make, though we did not hear any sounds from them today.

Then on to the Cape of Good Hope. This too was formerly called something else. Originally called Cape of Storms because of the winds and difficulty navigating the waters, it was changed so as not to arouse the concerns of the early sailors.

A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, based on the misbelief that the Cape was the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. In fact, the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas about 150 kilometres (90 mi) to the east-southeast. The currents of the two oceans meet at the point where the warm-water Agulhas current meets the cold-water Benguela current and turns back on itself. That oceanic meeting point fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point (about 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) east of the Cape of Good Hope).

To get to the Cape we enter a national park, while not a wildlife preserve, there are many types of wildlife that inhabit the park. Today we saw, Bontebok, Ostridge, and Baboons. More about Baboons later.

We reached the end of the cape and then drove to Cape Point and took the Funicular up to the light house. The light house was built by the British but does not work as it is too far up and is often hidden by the fog and low clouds that constantly occur. But the views today were spectacular.

We drove down to the beach area for a picnic of fruit, bread, cheese and meats. We ha anyway  to keep watch because it is common for the Baboons to come and steal the food. Way too much for us so we could leave some for them, but it is discouraged.

 Afterwords we headed back toward Simon Town where we boarded a helicopter for a trip around the cape back to Cape Town. We were warned there were some winds and there would be times of turbulence, no kidding, there were times where my heart was in my throat, though Cathy says it was nothing. But again, the views were spectacular.

2 thoughts on “March 23 – 26, 2024 – In and around Cape Town South Africa”

  1. Howard Lasser

    Very facinating city, and the wine is pretty good too. That will come after the 28th when we spent a couple of nights in the wine region.

  2. Michael Stern

    Wow, what a wonderful tour! I wasn’t aware of all the wonders of Cape Town. Thanks for taking time to put together the pictures and narrative. Not as good as being there but very enjoyable to see. Glad you avoided baboon attacks..

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