Cape Town - Part 1

It’s been a few months since I updated my blog, and I’ve been home since July…but I’ve had some requests to finish it…so I’m going to try my best to remember everything!!! I’ll also try to encourage Courtney to post her account on the shark dive that I didn’t go on. All the dates will be off since it lists the post dates, and I’m writing it in retrospect.

Cape Town was an awesome city. Out of all the cities I went to on my trip, this was by far one of the best. First off, this place didn’t seem as dangerous and isolated as it felt when I was in Jo-burg. The hostel we stayed at in Green Point was within walking distance of the stadium and nightlife, and we were actually able to walk to most places, which was really nice. In Jo-burg, I had to take a cab to get anywhere, even down the street. With all the police presence, I didn’t see any fights or felt threatened in any way.

We went wine tasting to a few different wineries in the Cape Winelands just outside of Cape Town. We went to the three main areas – Stellenbosch, Franschoek, and Paarl. This was supposedly a must-do when going to Cape Town, so of course we had to check it out. Come on, who doesn’t want to drink wine?

The first one was Villiera. To simulate one of the WC games, Aneka (The Germans) fought the Dutch (Netherlands) after a winemaker opened the bottle of champagne with a sword. If you do it fast enough at a specific point, the top of the bottle will come right off leaving it smooth yet very sharp!

Zorgvliet in Stellenbosch was our 2nd stop on the wine tour. This place had delicious food, great wine, and was very beautiful. Zorgvliet, when translated, means having your worries fly away.

Kimmie wants to retire here someday!

Juli and Courtney remind us, Alcohol is Addictive.

The last stop was at Fairview, where the goats roam! This place, unfortunately, was a sad stop on the trip for me. When I had called my mother in the States to wish her a happy birthday, she told me that my great uncle passed away. :'-( He was a great man and will be surely missed. (I swear, anytime I talk to my mother when I’m with Nicci, I seem to get bad news. I lost 2 dogs, 2 cats, 6 chickens, a duck, my Grandmother, and now my Great Uncle when I was with my old roomie. Wow.)


The Cape Point tour was a lot of fun. The others had to reschedule their shark dive because the water was too choppy, so Courtney was able to come with us on the tour. Nicci and Cody had already gone a different day. We went on a boat ride to see the seals at Seal Island in Camps bay, visited with the Jackass Penguins at Boulder’s Beach (I love their name!!! hahahah), and went for a bike ride down to the Cape of Good Hope.

A lovely view of Camp's Bay

One type of African penguin is the Jackass Penguin. No, I am not making up their name! They were named this because of their donkey-like braying call. However, I like to think it was because they act like jackasses. j/k There were a ton of them at Boulder's Beach. They actually are pretty small (about 2 1/2 feet). The pattern of their spots are unique for every penquin, sort of like human fingerprints. Also, their distinctive black and white coloring is like a form of camouflage–white for underwater predators looking upwards and black for predators looking down onto the dark water. Pretty cool.

The bike ride down to the Cape of Good Hope was pretty fun. We stopped riding at lunch because of the rain. However, one of the guys on the tour borrowed Courtney's jacket and rode all the way to the Point in the rain. He ended up with a raccoon stripe up his backside from the water spraying up from the back tire!

The Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more easternly than southerly when travelling along the western side of the African coastline.

Most people don’t know that you have to go a little further south to Cape Point to get to the most South Westerly point of Africa (18 deg. East. Lat, 34 deg South Long).

Cape Town - Part 2

Since Cape Town was so freakin' awesome, I actually have my blog in a 2 parts. Here is Part 2...

If anyone knows anything about Cape Town, Nelson Mandela's name must come into play. Of course, before I came to South Africa, I had to check out his autobiography ("Long Walk to Freedom") on audio book from the library in order to familiarize myself with his endeavers. Any how, we toured Robben Island, an island in Table Bay, where Nelson Mandela spent decades imprisoned during the apartheid era. If you didn't know, he became the first president after the end of apartheid and received the Nobel Peace Prize.

This is the rock quarry where Nelson Mandela spent decades of his life working on Robben Island. After giving a speech back in 1995, he placed the first rock on the "reunion cairn". Other fellow political prisoners followed suit. Now, at each 5 year reunion, the rock pile is enlarged.

Mandela's cell was pretty small. It's about 5 square meters (I'll let you do the conversion). I'd hate to really have to stay in that cell!

Although I lost half of my group to a logistical error (they got on the wrong bus!), I still had an educational experience with the rest of my friends and the former inmate who guided us around.

Table Mountain was pretty cool. I really wished I could have hiked up to the top of it instead of taking the cable car...although the ride on the cable car was pretty cool in itself. I made it to the top just in time to see the climbers taking down their ropes. So much for "abseiling" or rappelling down!! That would have been an awesome photo op. :-(

There were a ton of Dassies everywhere, if you paid attention and focused your eyes in the foreground. Sometimes people would just look at the great view and miss them! It is believed that the Table Mountain Dassie is the closest living relative to the African elephant. Apparently they are going by an analysis of their teeth in the skull to prove it. Interesting. Definitely got the short end of that stick in the gene pool! lol

We stayed up on top of Table Mountain to check out the sunset. Of course, we had to bring some of the wine and cheese we bought in the Cape Winelands. And in case you didn't know, that little island off into the distance is Robben Island.