Cape Town

Cape Town is widely considered one of the most breathtaking cities in the world. From the spectacular seaside setting at the southern tip of Africa with Table Mountain looming above, to the colorful neighborhood of Bo-Kaap and the tantalizing food and nightlife, Cape Town did not disappoint and was an amazing contrast to the fairly bleak business-savvy Johannesburg.

We spent 3 full days in Cape Town, and we could have easily spent another few days. We didn't have time to visit the wine country out near Stellenbosch and only barely explored the unique biodiversity associated with the Cape Floral Region, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to the incredible biodiversity in plant-life (home to over 9,000 species of which 69% are endemic).

Cape Town is home to a unique blend of people and cultures. It is the only major city in South Africa without a black majority. Instead, the city is very ethnically diverse with a population mix of English and Afrikaans-speaking white people, mixed race people, Cape Malay and black Africans. Our AirBnB for our stay was located in the beautiful Bo-Kaap neighborhood, which is considered the Cape Malay quarter.

Our AirBnB rooftop patio! Too bad it was only really sunny for a few hours each day.

On our first full day, we walked around downtown Cape Town. We visited the Company Gardens, established in 1650 by the Dutch East India Company. Many historic sites are scattered around the gardens, including the South African Parliament Building and St George's Cathedral, the church made famous as the seat of Archbishop Desmond Tutu during Apartheid.

Desmond Tutu's church in downtown.

South Africa's Parliament Building.

The Company Gardens in downtown.

Christina likes animals. Even fake ones.

There are several pedestrian streets in downtown with shops and restaurants.

After exploring downtown for a while, we took an Uber to the Old Biscuit Mill for lunch at one of the most popular restaurants in Cape Town, The Pot Luck Club. Like most of our trips to developing countries, we always try to go to a high end restaurant or two that we likely couldn't afford in the US. The Pot Luck Club was our treat for this trip. Although not as good as our experiences in Mexico City (Dulce Patria) and Lima (Central)...the Pot Luck Club had fantastic views of the city and Table Mountain and delicious tapas-style shareable food.

Fancy pork belly dish at The Pot Luck Club.

View from The Pot Luck Club.

The elevator opens right into the restaurant, with amazing views of the city.

We were advised by multiple friends to go up to the top of Table Mountain the moment the sun comes out, since the weather in Cape Town can be very fickle. So, right after lunch we went to the mountain to take the cable car up to the top. Table Mountain, which rises 3500' above Cape Town, offers panoramic views of the city center to the north and the Cape Peninsula to the south.

Living on the mountain is a small mammal called the dassie. Despite looking like a ground hog these things are actually related to elephants and manatees. David enjoyed referring to them as "elephant monsters" throughout the rest of the trip.

Downtown Cape Town.

The cable car is very steep and rotates as you climb so you can see in all directions.

Clouds crashing into Lion's Head and evaporating as the wind blows down the mountain.

Obligatory Table Mountain photo.

Our friends Kalyan and Alexander taking a break from searching for elephant monsters.

Christina's looking south from the mountain into the sea of clouds on the peninsula.

The flowing clouds were beautiful.

Cable car climbing up the mountain.

Lion's Head with a mane of clouds.

A short video we took of the cable car and flowing clouds.

After getting our fill of Table Mountain and with dusk approaching, we went back to our place in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. This area, adjacent to downtown, is the center of Cape Malay culture in Cape Town. The buildings are all brightly painted (which reminded us of San Juan, Puerto Rico) and there are a number of mosques. Hearing the call to prayer added to the atmosphere of the neighborhood.

Bo-Kaap is really colorful.

I like to call this the Greece Blue Building!

Clouds crashing over Table Mountain in the background.

Each separate residence is a different color. Wonder if they coordinate?

One of the neighborhood mosques. There were several.

Table Mountain behind Bo-Kaap.

Such a cute neighborhood!

Another mosque.

We also enjoyed some of the nightlife in Cape Town. At hipstery Mother's Ruin, a gin bar, artisan cocktails were only about $4. Can't beat that!

Fancy Pimm's Cup at Mother's Ruin. David got a cocktail with strawberries and black pepper.

Not as fancy as a Pimm's Cup, ginger beer is popular in South Africa. This was the best brand! No jiving!

On Saturday morning we decided to check out the Neighborgoods Market, located at the Old Biscuit Mill. This was a much larger scale than the Market on Main we visited in Johannesburg. There is also a Neighborgoods Market in Johannesburg, but it happens on Saturdays only, so we missed it. This place was packed with people, but there were vendors of everything from dim sum to desserts, greek food, soap and everything in-between. We'd highly recommend you visit if you're in Cape Town on a Saturday morning.

After the market, we visited the renowned Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Despite being sunny on the downtown side of Table Mountain, the gardens were shrouded in fog and light rain. It gave the gardens an ethereal quality...but also was slightly annoying and didn't make for the best pictures. The location, at the foot of table mountain is very scenic and is another sight we'd highly recommend.

With 5 people and only 2 sets of keys... accidental lock-outs were bound to happen.

With this many people, you know it must be good!

Barista doing his thang!

Paella!

Lush verdant Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens.

The "Boomslang" canopy walk.

When lots of people walk on it, it shakes and slides like a tree snake!

Wet...but happy!

Even the rain can't stop that smile!

The colorful flowers with the ominous clouds was kind of neat.

A protea, a genus of flowering plants that are mostly endemic to the Cape Floral region. Pretty!

Flowers!

On the way back to Cape Town we decided to stop on Long Street to check out the restaurants, bars and shops. The whole street's architecture is somewhat similar to Bourbon Street in New Orleans...it's also a very popular nightlife district. We also took a stroll along the Sea Point Promenade. This walkway along the Atlantic Ocean passes through some of the most affluent neighborhoods on the continent. The pathway was bustling with adults and children. There were playgrounds and public art sandwiched between the surf and Table Mountain.

That evening, we had dinner at a sushi/Asian restaurant named Beluga. They sat us down right in front of the biggest TV in the restaurant, because they assumed we'd want to watch the second South Africa Rugby World Cup match. As soon as they realized we were American they asked if we wanted to move. We didn't bother and the rest of the evening the entire wait/prep staff starred through us at the TV!

Typical Long Street architecture.

Sea Point Promenade.

People getting their exercise at the Sea Point Promenade.

Yum! More South African wine at Beluga!

Drinks after dinner at Beerhouse on Long Street.

Bourbon Long Street at night. Lively!

Early on Sunday morning all our friends except Alexander headed out after breakfast to the airport to return to Johannesburg. Alexander graciously offered to drive us down to the Cape of Good Hope. We'll handle that in a separate post. Cape Town is a lovely city, easily our favorite city of our Southern Africa trip. Make plans to visit!

Kruger Park - From Antelope to Zebra!

After a couple days in Johannesburg, we rented a car and embarked on the 6 hour drive to Kruger National Park, in the far northeast corner of South Africa. Driving on the left side of the road took a while to get used to, but we managed. The main mistake we kept making was turning on the windshield wipers each time we meant to turn on the turn signals! All said and done, we spent about a day and a half in total in the park; far too short a time to take in all the sights. 

En route, we stopped at the Blyde River Canyon. By some measures, this is one of the biggest canyons in the world, and the scenery was spectacular. Unfortunately, many farmers nearby were burning their fields before planting so there was a lot of haze. We still had some good views down to the bottom of the canyon.

Roads were generally good, but watch out for cattle!

Blyde River Canyon.

Don't step backwards!

Left-hand side of the road driving is scary at first, but you get used to it.

We're here! We went in the Orpen Gate and out the Paul Kruger Gate.

At over 7,500 square miles, Kruger National Park is nearly the size of New Jersey. All accommodations inside Kruger are confined to restcamps, which are surrounded by electric fences. Gates to the camps close at a set time just before sunset, and you must be inside for the night before the gates close, because it's dangerous to be outside at night.

We reserved a little bungalow at Satara Restcamp, in an area of the park with large concentrations of prey animals in the hopes we'd see a lion. The park is really accessible. You can easily drive your own vehicle around, as there are several main paved roads. Despite being in a malaria area, we didn't see many mosquitoes, and spent most of our time in the air-conditioned car driving around the park.

Even though we drove for multiple hours each day, our route (the orange line) only traversed a small park of this huge national park.

It's not the Ritz, but it'll do for two nights, and it has AC!

David is ready for Kruger! This is one of the few places where it's safe to get out of your car.

When we arrived we weren't sure how much wildlife we'd see. We've been to state and national parks in the USA, and usually you'll see a few animals here and there but sometimes nothing at all. Within 500 meters of the gate to Kruger we were treated to a small group of zebra. The 50km drive to the restcamp was a veritable Noah's Ark of antelopes, giraffes, zebra, baboons, etc... Kruger Park is amazing! Here's a typical view of the wildlife, as seen from the truck taking us to our guided walk:

And a sampling of some of the different animals we saw over the course of our stay:

A cute little vervet monkey.

An adorable common duiker.

Impala. These guys were everywhere! We probably saw a thousand of them.

The zebra were majestic, but we heard they're mean.

A zebra family.

Zebra were a relatively common sight in the park.

Giraffe with bonus ox pecker!

A very large giraffe. You can tell he's a bit older because his spots are dark.

Giraffes have impressive necks.

Another huge giraffe.

Giraffes have scary faces!

Buffalo crossing the road. We saw a herd of about 100 of them.

Buffalo...always so serious looking. Or maybe they're just bored?

Big herd of Buffalo.

Our first elephant sighting was at night near our restcamp (viewed through the electric fence).

We saw many more elephants the next day. These are getting some water.

Elephant with bonus ostrich in the background!

Elephant's are HUGE!

Elephants seen from the Oliphants Rest Camp. They congregate in the Oliphants River to cool off in the afternoon.

Another elephant in the tall grass. They're beautiful creatures.

Waterbuck. These guys were also all over the park. You can ID them because their rear-ends look like white toilet seats.

Baboon with her baby.

Baboons hanging out.

Another baboon with a baby.

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill. There were lots of different species of hornbill in the park, and we spotted a few.

Ostriches aren't common in the park, so we were lucky to see a couple!

Kudu. Their stripes are unique like a fingerprint. Their horns grow an additional twist each year.

Hippos taking a siesta after a long night of grazing.

Hippo pod hanging out in the water.

Some wildebeest resting.

Crocodile on a rock across from us.

Warthogs were also a pretty common sight!

White Rhinoceros. These guys are really pretty rare and hard to find, so we were happy to have a few separate sightings, even if we didn't get a good picture.

Hanging out at one of the few places you're allowed to leave your vehicle.

In addition to driving ourselves around, we also did two guided tours. The first was a morning walking tour. Accompanied by armed guides, we took a 3 hour walk through the bush, learning about animal footprints and droppings. It was an interesting and unique experience. We didn't get too close to many animals, because they're afraid of humans, but we did see some elephants, baboons, and plenty of impala. We also heard a lion roar, but their sounds can travel for several kilometers so we're not sure how close it was.

We're ready for our walking safari!

Paul's enjoying a grape juice during our breakfast break.

Here's one of our two walking safari guides. Both carried guns.

A dead buffalo.

Single file, men with the guns at front!

That evening we took a night driving tour to see some nocturnal animals. Some of the passengers operated small spotlights to help find animals, but it was difficult because there were only three lights.We did spot hyena, jackals, African wild cats, rhinos and rabbits. Unfortunately, we didn't see any big predators (lions, leopards, or cheetah) at Kruger, but we were very impressed with how easy it was to spot huge elephants and herd of buffalo and impala. New animals were waiting around every corner. We ID'd a total of 40 animal species, and  saw a three of the big five - not bad!

Driving back to Johannesburg was sometimes terrifying, given the lack of lane markings.

Driving through a small city near Kruger.

We really enjoyed our time in Kruger and would recommend it to anyone visiting South Africa. The self-driving aspect is very convenient, as are the restcamps, restaurants, and gas stations. Later in the trip we visited the much less developed Chobe National Park in Botswana, and it was interesting to compare the two parks. Next stop, Cape Town on the opposite side of South Africa!