Good morning and welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging where we’re known to wander off the garden paths by also including our animals, homes, travels and other interesting topics.
P and I spent a month in five African countries. My first diary about the trip covered Zimbabwe and Zambia. My second diary covered a nine-day safari in Botswana.
This third diary below will cover a week in Cape Town including two day trips spent in the South African countryside. Not part of this were two days spent in Johannesburg as that was our main point flying in and out of Africa.
The fourth and final diary will be exploring Namibia in a rental car for a week.
After arriving in Cape Town from Maun, Botswana and settling into our downtown hotel, we ventured out to the famous Victoria & Alfred Waterfront which attracts more than 23 million visitors a year. This Christmas tree is made from Moet champagne bottles. In the background is Table Mountain named for its flat top with its tablecloth made from a fog covering.
The city’s old waterfront lighthouse
Below is the world famous Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa housed in what use to be a 1921 grain silo. (I’ll be writing a separate diary on this museum but not in SMGB). All I can say is WOW. This is one of the most exciting museums that I have ever seen anywhere. I experienced a new type of art that was absolutely incredible and brilliant. I became so enthralled in it that P repeatedly encouraged me to move on with offers of ice cream or perhaps a glass of wine to no avail. I didn’t even know the name for this art until several months later I read AKALib’s diary here on DK called Immersive Art. AKALib provides excellent examples in his diary and I highly recommend it!
Okay, just a few pics from inside the museum. This is looking down the staircase. We took the elevator to the top and then worked our way down to each floor.
I am actually lying on my back with a zoom lenses looking up about nine stories when luck would have it that a lady walked across the glass roof and laid down trying to peer inside. Earlier I had also walked across this roof but hurriedly left. The black markings on the glass panes appeared to be primitive tribal markings. This is one of my all time favorite photographs ever! It almost looks like a futurist spacecraft that was taking off and struck the woman against one of its portholes.
Okay just one painting (can you believe this!)
and one photograph that stopped me in my tracks. No asking for more as you’ll have to wait for the future diary.
This incredible florist shop was just outside the museum. Their speciality being hanging moss balls with plants.
https://opusstudio.co.za
and these beauties were in the outside sitting areas
Looking up at Table Mountain one morning as we make our way there in an Uber. (we used Uber over twenty times around town, to and from the airport and to restaurants at night)
The people walking up to the cable car lines were from across the globe. Large crowds from India and the Middle East were well represented at tourists sites around the city.
Looking back down while standing in line. The red circle is our hotel. (I used a magnifying glass!)
Finally our turn arrived after close to a two-hour wait
A view from the top. Yes our hotel circled in red again.
That is Robben Island in the middle where the museum is located that contains Nelson Mandela's jail cell. Cape Town was packed with tourists because of New Years so we decided to skip the almost half mile-long line for the ferries. The high mountain on the left is Lions Head and the flatter part is Signal Hill. Many plants survive on Signal Hill that are not found anywhere else in the world, including one of the last two remnants of Peninsula Shale Renosterveld.
these flowers and blooming shrubs were all over the mountain top
Great camouflage but we can still see you!
And you young fellow, what a million dollar view you have from your home!
He’s a Rock hyrax that is actually a hoofed mammal related to the elephant!
We didn’t know this until after climbing all over the rocks and leaving the mountain that 22 species of snakes live there with half being venomous including the Puff Adder and Prairie Rattlesnake. :-O
Some flowers on the mountain top
There were no guide rails anywhere so you had to be careful of your footing like this wet surface next to a bluff’s edge
You can see hiking trails on the distant peak so there are more here than you can do in a day.
bird on a perch
Huge lines to get back down. This was probably one/twentieth of the line as it took way over an hour so you might as well enjoy the view while waiting.
No, LIcenter and Jayden, this is the type of view that I was talking about.
Going Down!
I had mentioned in the first diary that this trip was to celebrate my retirement and a major birthday for P. I had informed him that I was going to give experiences instead of presents. The first was the helicopter ride over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. This was the second experience — an all day trip to the Cape of Good Hope and its National Park, New Cape Point Lighthouse, Boulder’s African Penguins and Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
The tour van picked us up by these trees outside our hotel.
The only place that I saw graffiti was on trains while leaving the city.
Our speeding van passed many incredible beaches
I liked the urban busyness of this particular beach. The train crossing gate is down with vehicles stopped, two Traffic Wardens standing there with an approaching train visible, yet many pedestrians are still allowed to cross the tracks. As a retired transportation engineer, I would have used this photograph to show what not to do including too much signage and possibly too low overhead lines.
as far as the eye can see
I added this photograph because I thought it would a good exercise for Kishik to count the number of birds
We took a trolley two-thirds of the way up the mountain to the New Cape Point Lighthouse
Spectacular view without anything between us and the Antartica. It is hard to describe the feeling but it is almost an awe “end of the world” sense of isolation.
We walked all the way down the mountain where these plants were growing wild along the trail.
I could have parked here for hours enjoying the view
no words needed
Cape Of Good Hope — The most Southwestern point of the African Continent. Turn your heads as I am not sure what the couple on the far right were up to ….. maybe one or both have “Good Hope”.
I wish I had a way to bring this large boulder back home but I couldn’t find a reasonable crane rental.
Someone had been here before me
We had a good walk from our van to the ocean and these were plants spotted along the way
There were thousands of penguins. We were on a boardwalk so it was hard to get a good wide angle
Mothers on their eggs
Some penguins appeared as curious about us as we were with them. The middle picture is from our lunch table in Simon’s Town looking out at the South African Navy fleet in the distant background. At the bottom is their headquarters and barracks. The Royal Navy in 1814 established the most important British naval base in the Southern Hemisphere until 1957, when it came under South African control.
Kishik needs a bathroom break as she is still struggling to count the birds so we’ll stop here for a second. This ladies room was built in 1937. I was a bit surprised that the hanging sign on the left stated “OPEN-BARE TOILETTE” so I googled it. It means a public restroom! lol
So we ended P’s second experience and our day at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, internationally acclaimed as one of the seven most magnificent botanical gardens in the world. And man was it! I didn’t get to spend the amount of time that I needed to fully explore it. And I hate to do this to you again but in order to keep this diary reasonable I’m going to save the photographs for a future diary.
This is part of the entrance
This is a section of the famous Tree Canopy Walkway where you are literally walking above the trees. Be aware of snakes!!
Time to get back to our hotel and take a nap. Our room is center bottom and we were lucky to find it considering most hotels had sold out months in advance because of the Holidays. All standard rooms in the city were gone so we had no choice but to rent a hotel apartment. It blew our budget a bit but we more than made up for it with the cheap mouth-dropping prices for incredible foods and wines. We had balconies on two sides of the living room and these were our views — this very old hotel, Table Mountain and the ocean. The room had a washer/dryer that we put to very good use as we had been washing T-shirts, underwear and socks in bathroom sinks while in Botswana. We had packed Tide pods just for that reason.
Good night
The next day was P’s third birthday experience. You don’t go to Cape Town without taking an all day wine tour. (and this is also the third time that I regretfully hold back photographs as I plan to do a separate diary on this too)
We visited four different wineries and were treated like royalty at each. There were ten of us plus the guide/driver.
I like the recycling aspect of their chandler!
Our wine buddies for the day — L to R: a Brazilian doctor, a Costa Rican judge, student studying for her PHD in biology in Rome, P cut out of pic, a Costa Rican real estate agent, four lawyers from Mozambique, me cut out of pic, the guide/driver. It is amazing what led up to this photograph but you’ll have to read the future diary to learn about it. I’ll give you one hint though as everyone in this photograph has been contacted since returning home by the male lawyer and are invited to his place in September in Mozambique. I would have to sell my house, car and possibly P and the dogs to travel again so soon.
I love how the movement of the student was caught while walking past this display as her dress colors fit right in with this mix of primitive and modern (notice the woman in the middle has the circular disk in her earlobe.
We didn’t really witness any poverty while in South Africa until driving back from the wine tour when we passed mile after mile after mile of endless shantytowns. Cape Town shows up on many lists as one of the most dangerous cities for traveling Americans. In my own CT neighborhood, a family and also my cardiologist all left South Africa because of the crime. Besides being surrounded in Botswana by lions while in an open jeep and walking across the Seitz museum’s glass roof, the only other time I was nervous on the trip was one night walking in Cape Town. We had walked maybe six blocks from our hotel for a French restaurant that we couldn’t locate. The sidewalks were barren as office buildings had emptied after closing hours. P went down a side street into a bar to ask directions and immediately returned without getting them. I suddenly noticed every eye in a group that was standing on that street was on us and moving forward. The hair on my arms went up, I sensed immediate danger and we quickly crossed in front of traffic on a main boulevard to get away. I like to think we are both street smart especially with P having lived in New York City for over 20 years but we had made a mistake. The small restaurant was found close by and the owner welcomed us inside but surprised we had walked. After dinner, he refused to let us walk back. We tried Uber but were refused because of the short distance. The owner had a security guard escort us back to our hotel. After that, we never went out at night without taking a cab or Uber and we were in one of the best neighborhoods! We heard way too many horrible crime stories from locals. Even middle class families have security guards. Yet we also witnessed such extreme wealth. Regardless of all this, I still recommend going as there is no other city with the natural scenery and culture that Cape Town has to offer!
Major cities across the globe now offer free walking tours. The guide passes a hat around when finished. We went for a tour of Bo Kaap, the oldest Muslim neighborhood in the city. So many people showed up for the 2 p.m. tour that they had to split us into two groups. Below was part of ours.
The neighborhood is known for its colorful historical houses.
Yet you can see the modern parts of the City starting to creep into the neighborhood
Is this a happy door or what? Notice the lace curtains.
The oldest and first Mosque established in South Africa in 1794.
Out of the 4,000 photographs I snapped on the trip, this is one that I could have easily passed over. The woman’s scarf color sorta matches the window trims and her clothing matches the stone sidewalk colors in a similar design. On the right appears what use to be a bench. I like the stone set across the top and the planter with an evergreen. All colors in the photograph beautifully blend harmoniously.
I enjoy seeing plants that others have on their porches. These wood door, shutters and windows are great.
No to gentrification. With houses in the neighborhood starting to sell to outsiders for outrageous amounts (many reaching over half million!), there is growing opposition as the locals can no longer afford to live there.
P and I celebrated New Year’s Eve on the roof of our hotel next to a swimming pool with other guests. How many Germans can you safely fit on a hotel roof? A fantastic midnight fireworks display was fully visible over the ocean front. We had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to finish packing and catch Uber for the airport.
We flew to Windhoek, Namibia on New Year’s Day to pick up a car rental for a week’s travel. The final diary will be on what I thought was the most exciting part of the whole trip. Also I was able to completely surprise P on the morning of his actual birthday with his fourth and final experience. It may have been the highlight of the trip for both of us.
Yes, Welcome to Windhoek as we take a deep breath to prepare driving on the left hand side of the road to unknown adventures.
To be continued ………..