Bottom of the Continent

After finally negotiating my flight from Dar Es Salem to Joburg to Cape Town I arrived safely in Cape Town and found a great hostel right in the middle of the city...Cape Town Backpackers.  I was staying in their property The Guesthouse which was slightly more expensive than the hostel across the street.  It had a beautiful view of Table Mountain and the city and was ideally located for me to walk around the entire town.  Cape Town is not huge but historically is the oldest urban centre in South Africa.  It sits at the foot of Table Mountain and the gateway to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans which converge at the end of the Peninsula at Cape Point.  It is to say the least very picturesque and quite walkable.  I took the first day there to get my bearings and headed down Long Street which is a major street running from Table Mountain to the waterfront.  Long street is the home to some of the oldest victorian buildings in Cape Town and I was grateful for the advice of a fellow traveller to not just take in the street scene, but to look up and admire the architectural grandeur dating back to the 17th century.  Long Street also houses many tour operator offices, hotels, hostels and eateries aimed at the budget tourists.

Once I reached the water I made my way to an area called the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area which has recently been completed and is home to the South African Maritime Museum, the Two Oceans Aquarium, South African Arts and Crafts Market and many many restaurants and shops!  It reminded me very much of the Toronto Harbourfront area with street performers and patios.

I then returned up a pedestrian street Adderley to Queen Victoria Street and the Company Gardens which were established by the Dutch East India Company who sent Jan van Riebeeck to Cape Town in 1652 to establish fresh produce gardens to supply passing ships.  The gardens still stand today although they are now covered in lawns, rose bushes and indigenous trees.

As I awoke to a glorious day, I thought I would attempt to climb up Table Mountain.  It was about 1100m above sea level.  I left the hostel around 10 am armed with a vague notion of where the path was and began walking.  After about and 2 hours and 1/3 of the altitude I met up with a couple who were searching for their 2 Great Danes.  They had been walking them about 2 hours previous when they had run up ahead on the path and did not return.  As I was coming from the opposite direction to them I told them I had not seen the dogs go past or around me.  They asked me where I was going and when I told them they said OH NO NO NO!!! you must not be out here alone, you will most likely be attacked and atleast raped and worst murdered!  Well hello to you too!  I inquired a bit further about their paranoia or attack and was told that thousands of people are killed here each year for no other reason than wrong place wrong time and they did not believe it was safe for me to proceed with someone else, let alone alone!  Now these are two people who also think that someone drugged both of their Great Danes and somehow managed to carry them down off the mountain to enter them into dog fights!  We are talking full grown Great Danes here, not little Terriers, but I was not however in the mood to argue and god forbid prove their theory correct, so I went down the mountain with them to their car and they drove me to the cable car station at the bottom of the mountain.  I took the cable car up to the top and was treated to a spectacularly clear view of the city and Peninsula far in the distance.  I found out later than I was extremely lucky as the weather on Table Mountain can be precarious at the best of times with hundred mile and hour winds etc and in fact although 2 days later it was another beautiful day in the city, fellow travellers told me of their experience and unfortunately they could not leave the safety of the restaurant and the Gondola was nearly shut down .

The next day I rented a car and took off for the Cape.  I left via the Atlantic Ocean side of the peninsula and Camps Bay.  My view of the 12 Apostles (a mountain range extending out of Cape Town off Table Mountain) was stunning.  I traveled down Chapman's Pass which is a stretch of road running parallel to the ocean and affords excellent cliff top views of Hout Bay and Noordhoek a beautiful white sandy beach which I hope to horseback ride on in a few days.  I head over to the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula and Fish Hoek and Simon Town.  Just south of Simon Town is an area called the Boulders and area that has become a sanctuary for African Penguins.  in 1982, there were just 2 breeding pairs left in the colony and today due to conservation and preservation efforts there are over 3,000.  These penguins were previously called Jackass Penguins as they bray like jackasses, but as they only breed in Africa they were renamed.  My visit was timed perfectly as hundreds of them were on the beach and well within the viewing platforms.  I was able to see them swimming and frolicking in the ocean as well as up close and personal right next to the boardwalk.  I could have stayed and watched for hours, but as it was another beautiful day I wanted to get down to the cape before it got dark or stormy.

As I made my way down to the Cape of Good Hope, I pulled over several times to see the Southern Right Wales just off shore.  They were nearly extinct due to whale hunting in the early 1900's, but have now returned to a population of about 1700.  They weigh about 60 tonnes and have no dorsal fin.  They come to this area to breed and have their babies in the safe, warm, food rich Indian Ocean.  I was lucky enough during the day to have seen several whales and their calves doing an activity called lobtailing where they point their nose down and wave their fluke (tail) in the air.  It was unreal.  I could hear them blowing air through their blowhole.  It sounded like a 18 wheeler using their air breaks and the sound can be heard over a mile away.  I was lucky enough to have been within 1/4 mile of them as they were just off the cliff.

The cape is home to an amazing variety of plant life internationally classified as the sixth Floral Kingdom known as Fynbos.  Although the smallest in area, this floral kingdom contains the riches diversity with over 8,000 varieties of which 5,800 are found only here.  Table Mountain alone has 1,470 species - more than the whole of the British Isles.  (taken from the AA Essential Guide to South Africa)

I made the trek up to the lighthouse and then out to the point.  The sign said it would take 1 1/2 hours to make the round route, but it honestly did not look that far.  I only had a half hour before I had to be heading back so I thought I would risk it and run out there.  I headed down the footpath and made it to the point in 10 minutes.  Their estimation of 1 1/2 hours must have been the very lowest common denominator of a blind, one legged, vertically challenged turtle!  It was worth the sweat though as the view from the bottom of the continent was glorious!

I headed back up the coast and stayed in a most amazing hotel in a town called Glencairn.  The Southern Right Hotel was a small 8 room victorian right on the ocean.  I had my own room with a huge bathtub and view of the ocean.  It was a full moon that night and one of the most amazing stays of my journey.  I had booked a table for dinner when I checked in and was glad a did as it was a very popular place.  In addition, I was greeted by several large men at the bottom of the stairs.  I later found out that the South African Navy Rugby Team had a tournament going in which they had invited the British Navy Rugby, the New Zealand Navy Rugby and the American Navy Rugby team to participate in.  I was treated to a variety of Maori songs and the traditional Haka Dance.  it was fantastic.  I then was joined by 2 of the NZ fellows for dinner, apparently they cannot let a girl eat alone...it was a thoroughly entertaining evening and although I attempted to get to sleep around 11 their songs and laughter kept me awake until 2!  Still an excellent evening and I could not have enjoyed myself more.

I headed out to Noordhoek to go horseback riding at sunset, but unfortunately the biggest thunder, lightening and wind storm I have ever experienced (short of the tornado at the cottage in the 1980's) was descending upon the coast.  No wonder there are over 1800 shipwrecks scattered up and down the coast.  Before the storm arrived I thought I would head out to the beach to go for a walk, but as I passed over the sand dunes, the wind whipped up the sand and it blasted my bare legs sufficiently that I can now say I would be able to verify what it would be like to have paint stripped off my body by a sand blaster!  To add insult to injury, I then received a first class soaking of ocean spray followed swiftly by another blast of sand so that I before I could escape the beach I looked like one of those Sand Art Paintings where the sand is glued to a board in various layers.

Back to Cape Town the next day, but not after being bitten by my B & B's nasty dog.  My fault actually, they had 2 of these Chow Chow dogs and one Boarder Collie.  The previous day when I checked in I met the "nice" Chow Chow and the Boarder Collie and the next day when I was checking out, I met the "evil twin" Chow Chow without knowing it, I reached down to pet him and as he is blind, I apparently scared him and he bit my hand.  No shots necessary as he was part of the stable farm, he had had all his shots, but I did have a problem shaking hands for a few days.

Upon my arrival back at the Cape Town Backpackers I had my Canadian Thanksgiving dinner of Squash Soup and Corn on the Cob and arranged to go on a Wine Tour and then Shark Diving for my last two days.  I thought that order was most appropriate as if you are going to intentionally go swimming with sharks you may as well have had a good time the previous day.  The one minor detail I had not completely thought through was that of being on a boat in the ocean with a hang over!

I can highly recommend Cape Wine Tours.  We toured a chocolate shop and cheese store and 4 vineyards/wineries, Villiera - Excellent Sparkling Wine called Tradition Brut and Late Bottled Vintage Port called Fired Earth, Beyerskloof - super Pinotage, Tokara - most impressive building, and the Tokara White was ok, but not a great producer, Charles Back and Fairview wines home of the Goats Do Roam brand and and excellent selection of cheeses.  Finally we stopped infront of the gates where Nelson Mandela did his walk to freedom from the last prison that held him.  Although he spent most of his captivity on Robben Island, his last remaining years were in a minimum security prison in wine country outside Cape Town.

All in all a great day, and what do you do after a great day of wine tasting, you cut your hair of course, with a BIC razor of all things!  Two of the girls I went with were chatting about hairdressing as one of them was one and we were debating the merits of an expensive cut versus a run of the mill kind of chop shop, the hairdresser said one of her best cuts was on a friend of hers with a BIC razor...at this point I was seriously doubting her skills as a hairdresser, however, I decided that I needed to even up a few rough edges and went out a bought myself a pack of BICs.  The result, actually not too bad!  And hey I was potentially going to get eaten by a shark so what did I have to lose!

So the shark diving...not as scary as you would think, atleast not as scary as I thought.  We headed out to an area called Shark Alley - but of course.  It is only 9 m deep and is a causeway which runs between the mainland and an offshore sandbank about 2 hours from Cape Town near Hermanus (so don't dip your toe in the ocean here no matter how nice it looks as you are driving by).  The ocean was quite rough and a mere 15 degrees, with very poor visibility due to the storm which had passed through 3 days previous (the one that hammered me in Noordhoek).  What this meant was that we would not be able to see the sharks very well.  I did take several pictures from the viewing platform on the top of the boat as they crew were baiting the water with tuna heads and some of the more braver souls were entering the cage.  The cage is tied to the side of the boat and is 2 m deep and is about 1/2 m above the waterlevel. After I realized that the first group had survived I decided to don a wetsuit and take the plunge.  I was the first of my group to get in the cage and as I did so one of the sharks went for the bait as the crew member was pulling it past the cage and he crashed into it right in front of me.  i guess the good thing is that if I was ever attacked by a shark i would not know it as all I could see was bubbles.  We had a few other close calls, but none that close and after 1/2 and hour I decided I had had enough and let someone else go in.  We saw 4 sharks, the largest shark was 4 m and the rest 3 m.  The best part of the experience was being in the cage above the waterlevel and seeing the shark and it's dorsal fin as it swam by about 2 feet infront of me.

The next day I headed to the airport for Joburg and my relatives David and Wyn Appleton....my mum had arranged for me to hook up with them and although they had not seen her for over 50 years, agreed!  So off I go...Goodbye Cape Town, I look forward to visiting you again someday!