When South African Airways ran a fare special in late August, it proved the ideal excuse to return to a city that I got just a taste of a few years ago. The fare rule that travel be completed before the end of November coincided perfectly with my Thanksgiving holiday plans. I always love visiting the southern hemisphere in late November. As the northern daylight hours grow shorter and shorter, visiting the likes of Argentina/Chile, Australia/New Zealand or South Africa provides a real body battery boost! In the case of Cape Town, the daylight hours of 5am to 8pm were welcome relief to this northern hemisphere resident’s body clock!
My last visit to Cape Town occurred in January 1999 as a brief 2-day weekend stopover following a business trip to Johannesburg. This time, I decided to devote my entire time in South Africa to this incredible city. Cape Town has so much to offer, from wonderful outdoor activities like hiking, sea kayaking or abseiling, to a vibrant array of resident flora and fauna to wine tasting in the world famous Stellenbosch growing region.
It took a long time to get to Cape Town. 9 hours nonstop to Accra, Ghana in West Africa, another 5.5 hours nonstop to Jo’burg and finally a 2-hour domestic flight to the southern tip of the African continent.
I found the 7-hour time zone change fairly easy to adjust to, and was able to hit the ground running. Met up with a rugby buddy, Nick, with whom I’d played at a tournament in London last year. We buzzed around Cape peninsula, stopping in Nick’s boyhood town of Hout Bay for lunch, followed by a walk through the vineyards of the stately Klein Constantia winery. A relaxing afternoon stroll along Llandudno beach was the perfect way to top off the day. The next day, we set off on a 500km roadtrip eastwards along the Garden Route to Knysna. The Indian Ocean waters lapping against Knysna’s beaches proved noticeably warmer than the frigid Atlantic waters near Cape Town. The confluence of the warmer Indian waters provide quite a contrast to Cape Town’s cold waters, which originate in the Antarctic current.
Back in Cape Town, awoke one morning to crystal clear blue skies, and headed out to ascend Table Mountain. Took a revolving gondola to the top of the mountain, which provided an awesome 360-degree panorama of the entire Cape Peninsula region. The views were stunning. Following a walk along the marked perimeter at the summit, I headed back down the mountain and drove 40km east to the wine region. I passed through Stellenbosch and stopped at the Boschendal winery, in Franschhoek. Took the wine tour, did a tasting and bought a bottle of Chardonnay. Then drove up to Paarl to tour the KWV emporium. KWV is a cooperative of independent wine growers in the area, and I’ve known the label for years.
That afternoon, I headed back to the Victoria & Albert Waterfront, and booked an afternoon tour to Robben Island, site of the former maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela had been held as political prisoner for a couple of decades under the former Apartheid government. The island is a short 25-minute catamaran ride offshore, and the views back to Cape Town and Table Mountain are amazing. Our tour guide through the prison was a middle-aged man who himself had been a political prisoner at the facility due to his membership in the ANC. Hearing the first-hand accounts of his life in prison made the visit that much more poignant. It’s incredible to think how far this young democracy has come in just over a decade!
The next day, headed to the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Thoroughly enjoyed walking through the gardens filled with local flora. Loved seeing my favorite plant/flower – the bird of paradise, in it’s natural home setting. Was also impressed with the beauty and variety of the local Protea plant. Spent the afternoon relaxing at the beautiful and remote Sandy Beach.
Capped things off on Saturday evening with a one-hour drive north to the small village of Darling, where South Africa’s most famous drag queen cum political commentator, Mrs. Evita Bezuidenhout, charms her audiences with political wit, humor and insight. The show was followed by a local Braii, or barbecue.
The only unexpected event during the trip occurred on what I thought would be my final day in South Africa. I checked-in 2 hours ahead of my 3pm flight only to discover that all inbound and outbound flights were delayed due to the hard landing of a Russian Anatov cargo aircraft, creating a hole in the runway which needed to be repaired immediately. This created a rather large problem for the single-runway Cape Town International Airport – especially on a busy late spring Sunday afternoon. The flight delays stretched 4-6 hours before things began to be restored to some semblance of normalcy, resulting in virtually all Cape Town-originating passengers missing their onward international connections at Johannesburg that day. South African Airways put all of us up in hotels, and I was rebooked on my homeward flight 24 hours later. Ah, the joys of travel in Africa!
This trip once again reminded me why South Africa ranks among my favorite countries, and why Cape Town is the jewel of the country. It’s an amazing place that should not be missed (in fact, it should be visited – again and again!) I hope that one day Cape Town will play host to an Olympic Games.
Websites which I found helpful in planning this trip include:
National Geographic Adventure map - Cape Town (was essential!):
http://www.ngmapstore.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=396&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=396
http://www.kleinconstantia.com/
http://www.knysna.co.za/
http://www.boschendal.com/
http://www.kwv-international.com/
http://www.nbi.ac.za/frames/kirstfram.htm
www.evita.co.za
Pictures accompanying this travelogue can be found in the Cape Town folder at: http://photos.yahoo.com/mark_haneke
Happy Travels!
Mark
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