Postcards from Zambia: South Africa: Cape Town

Our two week trip to South Africa began in beautiful Cape Town, oblivious to the small drama unfolding at home.

We arrived in Cape Town in the evening and were met by the crazy wife and her sister, of our booked tour guide for Stellenbosch later in the week. We discovered that we hadn’t arrived on the best night with a lot of the city roads blocked off for a marching band parade and people and traffic everywhere! Eventually we made it to our hotel, a small apartment, centrally located and as we quickly discovered above some of the busiest restaurants and bars on the strip. The complimentary ear plugs were an ominous sign, although after the first night we got pretty used the noise.

Awesome bed! No foam, no mosquito net and huge!

The following day we headed out to the Waterfront, probably one of Cape Town’s most well photographed areas, and I must say for good reason; it is absolutely stunning! I know I’m Australian, so what I am about to say may be a little controversial, but the Waterfront in Cape Town surpasses any Australian city, including Sydney, in prettiness and just general beauty. Look in one direction and you have the water with the boats and picturesque buildings, look the other way and you have beautiful mountain ranges surrounding the city. I'm sure my photos won't do it justice!

Cape Town Waterfront: Love the buildings

Cape Town Waterfront

Cape Town Waterfront: Looking back, just beautiful!

On the pier

Me with a very pretty scenery behind me

View of Table Mountain from the Waterfront

Did I mention it is pretty?

Christmas Tree!!!

One of the things we enjoyed most about Cape Town was definitely the fresh, good quality food, as well as the wide variety of it, something we’ve been missing in Zambia. In Cape Town we ate everything from Tapas, to sushi, Asian noddles, dim sum, fresh fish, beautiful soft cheeses and great coffee!

Yum, yum, Dim Sum!!

Nearly the highlight of the trip for Mike, I believe...

Or maybe this was the highlight. Great coffee!

Ciabatta with herb chicken, tomato salsa. All fresh and tasty
ingredients

Happy hour Mojito

Singha beer with Pad Thai. Probably sounds so boring to
everyone at home, but was SOOO exciting for us

Lovely white wine with fresh bread and soft cheeses

Enjoying a tasty beer

We took a trip to Stellenbosch where we were finally able to confirm that not all South African wine is bad, only the ones they send to Zambia it seems. On our tour, and on the proceeding and following days, we had lovely white and red wines. I even found some nice Port, despite not really being a Port drinker!

Wine region

The oldest store in Stellenbosch

Hmmm. Where do I start?

Mike and I enjoying a glass (or two) of sparkling

The House of J.C.Roux

Outside of the House of J.C.Roux. Loved all of the colourful flowers

Vergenoegd Estate

Mike and I after a few wine tastings :-)

Disappointingly we didn’t get to spend much time actually in the town of Stellenbosch, a definite drawback of a tour and something I’d do different if I was to go back again. Should definitely have hired a car!

And of course we visited the two key tourist sites, Table Mountain and Robbin Island.

Robbin Island, which we found out needed to be booked well in advance, was for me, one of the sites I most wanted to visit. We were very lucky to get on a tour at all; the tours which run every hour from 8am till 5pm were booked out until 5pm the day before we had to leave. Just crazy busy!

Looking back at Cape Town from Robbin Island. The low cloud
over the mountain looked amazing!

Unfortunately the tour was quite disappointing. Once we arrived on the island we were all piled onto buses and taken around the island with the most mundane tour guide ever! Being in a bus meant we missed a lot, with a lot of the points of interest on the opposite of the bus. Not sure why they won’t allow people to walk around and have a look, as that would certainly have been a lot better.

Lime mine; where prisoners, including Nelson Mandela used
to dig for lime

What does Mike think of the bus tour?

Following the bus tour we were taken back to the prison where political prisoners (the most “dangerous” ones), were kept. At the prison we were given a tour by a former prisoner. This part of the tour was more enjoyable as we got a bit more of a look into what life was like on the island and in the prison. And of course, we got see a very famous prison cell, that of Nelson Mandela.

Former political prisoner who gave us a tour of the prision

Maximum security prison cell for political prisioners

View from outside of the prision

Solitary confinement cells

Nelson Mandela's cell where he spent approximately
17 years of his sentence while on Robbin Island

No way to escape

Perhaps a good indication of the work this tourist site requires is the state of the women’s toilets which I went to use before heading back on the ferry. A complete disgrace and unusable; not at all what would be expected of an international tourist site, but I digress…..

Table Mountain was incredible, although extremely busy. We took the easy way up via the Cableway, although you can walk up. At the top we had fantastic view of Cape Town, the beginning of the peninsula and Robbin Island.

Cableway up to the top of Table Mountain

Gorgeous view behind me!

View of Cape Town and Robbin Island in the far distance

Most days we just wondered around the city, did a bit of shopping for key supplies (a new pair of Havianas, drink bottle, runners, etc.) and basically enjoyed the city. For anyone who has ever thought about visiting South Africa and in particular Cape Town, I can highly recommend it, and now is a great time to go with the Aussie/ Rand exchange rate very favourable from an Australian perspective.