Cape of Good Hoping for No More Broken Bones

Day 5:

The better part of the day was spent on a jet sleeping and doing a bit of blogging. The total flight time was around 14 hours. It was not as bad as I imagined. We had several meals on the plane. I got around six or seven hours of sleep which was good. No drama. Which was better.

I plan to post a blog about sleeping on these types of trips. In brief, I took 2 mg of Lunesta as soon as the plane took off around 9 PM EDT. I woke up around 1 PM Cape Town Time. I stayed awake until around midnight and then took two 2 mg of Lunesta again to help force myself to sleep. The idea is to do a shock time zone switch.

We drove from the airport to our hotel near the water in downtown Cape Town. Driving in South Africa largely follows British style rules. You drive on the left with a right-handed car. The streets are narrow, and the driving is a bit chaotic. Interestingly, most folks drive the speed limit or even a little less. Definitely spicey driving because of the narrow streets, but not because of a ton of crazy Texas drivers.

Day 6:

On Sunday, we made our way down toward the Cape of Good Hope. It is a mountainous road full of twists, turns, a moderate flow of traffic (probably lighter than normal because of the cold and mostly cloudy weather) and beautiful views. We stopped at Boulders Beach in Simon's town on the east coast of the Cape peninsula. This is the home of a colony of African penguins (and rock hyraxes—cuddly little marmot looking animals).

The penguins hang out among the shrubs, trees, nooks and boulders from the top of the trail all the way to the beach. It was a strange and lovely experience seeing them. And smelling them. Dogs have the sense not to poop in their own dens. Just saying… Now, don’t get me wrong. The aroma was more of a joke to me than a detractor. The penguins were marvelous.

Given our late start for the day and the gloom that was steadily overtaking the sky, we made our stop with the penguins short. Long enough for lots of pictures and a couple of ice cream bars. Cold or not, ice cream is critical when visiting penguins.

From Simon’s town, we made our way to the Cape of Good Hope. This was one of the first few spots where European civilization made landfall at the southern end of Africa. Dias led the expedition which first landed in Mossel Bay on Feb 3, 1488. After traveling and landing a bit further east, they turned back and made landfall again near the Cape of Good Hope where Dias erected a cross after “discovering” the tip of the continent—lest we forget that it was home to indigenous humans for tens of thousands of years before Dias arrived.

Along the route, we saw some ostriches and some baboons. Go figure. The sign wasn’t telling drivers not to drive like baboons. It was telling us to yield to the baboons. That definitely makes a bit more sense now that I think about it ;-)

We had been having trouble with our car since we picked it up the day before. We were driving a Haval SUV.  I was planning to write a couple paragraphs on the car but I'm not wasting any more time. In brief, the car is a piece of junk. If you have a chance to rent one, demand another brand. We took it back to the airport (90 minutes of our brief time in Cape Town wasted) and got another of the same. We thought the first was a lemon. Wrong! The brand is a lemon. The second wasn’t quite as bad as the first. At least the back-up camera works. It matters when the rear window is so small.

We were pretty tired by then. So, we had a nice dinner of Turkish food and crashed.

Day 7:

 We started the day on Monday with a very quick stop in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. Picture lovely little residences and shops in bright, cheery shades of green and yellow and blue and purple along steep and narrow cobble-stone streets. Not brick, mind you. We are talking authentic cobble stone. The weather looked to be closing in, so we hurried over to Table Mountain for the cable car ride.

The floor inside of the gondola slowly rotates 360°. You get fun views of the city, the hill, and the other gondola on your ride up and again on the ride down. Our timing was impeccable. We got to the top and took pictures in two different locations. Probably the best locations to take pictures. And then holy smoke did the weather roll in. A thick cloud bank full of drizzly rain, hail and whipping winds engulfed the top of the mountain. We scooted over to the little souvenir store, got a couple of trinkets, and a snack. Then we made a beeline back down.

By then it was a little after noon, so we stopped off downtown to have a bite of local South African cuisine at KwaMai Mutsa. It was an experience in African dining. After taking our order, the server brought a wash basin and water to our table. She poured water over our hands so we could wash before we ate.

I had hardbody chicken stew and faith had beef braai. Both the stew and the steak were seasoned with exotic (for a couple of Americans) African spices that filled the air with an aroma of adventure. The chicken was really good. The braai was fantastic. The flavor jumped off the fork and into your mouth before the bite arrived. Lunch was served with ugali (AKA white pap which was a large white maize flour dumpling) and a form of kale that tasted like home-made collard greens.

We stopped over at a couple of the museums in town. The first was the South African National Gallery and the second was Iziko South African Museum. DINOSAURS! Both were nice. Given the short time we had left in town, the size of the museums was perfect. It took us less than an hour in each to have an enjoyable experience. The Gallery had a fine selection of South African artists among other perhaps more widely known artists.

We made our way back up to Bo-Kaap to get a few pictures and then headed down to the waterfront to watch the sunset on our last evening in Cape Town.

- See you on the Garden Route -