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| Chapman Peak Drive in South Africa |
As we sailed from Durban to Cape Town, we rounded the tip of
South Africa. Like its counterpart in
South America, Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope is notorious for rough
seas. In fact it was originally named
Cape of Storms, but Vasco da Gama renamed it Cape of Good Hope as he rounded
the cape in hopes of reaching India.
According to one of our guest lecturers, the Agulhas Current around
South Africa can produce some of the most extreme maritime weather as the
waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.
This causes very strong winds and can create huge waves including
notorious rogue waves.
It was just such a situation that led to the legend of the
Flying Dutchman. I had heard this name before, but until this trip, I hadn’t
associated it with anything other than the fact that I had heard of him! But I now know that this is a tale dating
back centuries to the time when a Dutch captain tried to round the Cape of Good
Hope. He vowed he would pass through these
stormy seas or die trying. Well, since
he has become a ghostly legend, you can easily guess the outcome! He is said to haunt the waters of this area,
and many a sailor has confessed to have witnessed the presence of an eerie
ship.
While the seas were rocky, we were fortunate not to be
visited by this fabled ghost. The seas
were nothing that we couldn’t take in stride, and we weathered the conditions
at the Cape of Storms aka Cape of Good Hope with little more than being tossed
around a bit. One can only begin to
imagine the sailing vessels of the late Fifteenth or early Sixteenth Century struggling
to navigate such rough seas!
Ever since meeting our friend Conrad, who claims Cape Town
as his home and hearing other friends who have been there tell how wonderful it
is, we have been looking forward to visiting this lovely city. So despite the bittersweet feeling of saying
good-bye to those we’d gotten to know on the cruise that were disembarking
here, including Herman and Leida, our tablemates since Hong Kong, we eagerly anticipated
our arrival in Cape Town.
The first European to arrive on the shores of this area was
Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese explorer who was searching for a sea route
around Africa to India. Diaz made it
around the cape and up the east coast a short distance before returning to
Portugal. Ten years later in 1497, Vasco
da Gama succeeded in following this route to arrive in India and claimed the
cape area for Portugal.
Once a profitable route was established around Africa, the
Dutch began to run the spice trade through their Dutch East India Company. In 1652 they established a settlement near
the Cape of Good Hope since it was just about exactly half way between the
Netherlands and India. Because the area
had an excellent harbor and lots of fruit (which helped combat the sailors’
affliction of scurvy), they established a colony here. When settlers first came, they were given
free passage to settle in Cape Town. If
they chose to go back they were required to pay their round trip fare. Therefore most of the settlers opted to stay.
Soon slaves were brought in to do some of the work, but slaves could earn their
freedom quite easily.
Around the turn of the 19th Century the British
took over after doing battle with the Dutch.
In the 1830s the British abolished slavery across their empire,
including South Africa.
The Dutch in South Africa became known as Boers, and their
language, resulting from a mixture of Dutch, French, and a few other
influences, is known as Afrikaans and is one of the two most predominate
languages in South Africa, (the other being English) and the only official
Germanic language outside Europe. With eleven official languages in South
Africa, it can get confusing, but signs are often posted in three languages: English,
Afrikaans, and the native language of the area. (For example, around Richards
Bay and Durban, the third language was Zulu.)
Between 1948 and 1994 the South African policy of apartheid
meant complete segregation for all blacks and whites in the country. The whites lived like rich people while the
blacks seemed to struggle along. Since the removal of this policy things have
become more equal, and at least from a tourist’s point of view, it appears that
people live in total harmony now. Once
again, one of our guides talked freely about life during and after the
policy. While there are still problems,
the country is trying very hard to overcome the issues that have plagued them. There are still shanty towns, but they are
working to improve the living conditions of those who live in them. The guide told us what it was like back in
the late 80s and early 90s when sanctions didn’t allow South Africans to
participate in any worldwide events (such as the Olympics or other sporting
events), and when many countries refused to trade with South Africa. With the eradication of apartheid, this
seemed to free the entire country from these other problems, allowing their
economy to grow. In fact, a different
guide commented that he sees the Cape Town area as “first world Africa”, and
though there are still issues to be dealt with, we can heartily agree that it
is a very modern and beautiful location!
With a population of about 4 million, Cape Town is the third
largest city in South Africa. One of its
biggest industries is tourism, and with the area ideal for the growing of
grapes, the wine industry is also very important. On our three day visit to this town, we
contributed to both industries. Being
tourists, we certainly did our share to support the South African economy, and
two of our tours included wineries (not by our choice, but because the rest of
the tours looked good to us)! The guide
who talked about the impact of apartheid commented that with the removal of
this policy, the wine industry has taken off.
Before 1994, South Africa could not find international demand for their
wines. Now South Africa is the
eleventh-largest producer of wines in the world.
Since this is a very long blog entry, I’ve broken it into
days for somewhat easier reading…
Cape Town Day 1: Seals, Penguins, Table Mountain & Wine
We were to arrive in Cape Town very early on the first
morning, and Chuck commented that if he was awake he would get up to watch the
sail in. I heard him getting up and
rolled over. Yawn! Too early for me. But a little while later as I looked at the
time that projected onto the ceiling, I realized that I should be getting
up. I heard Chuck ask, “Are you getting
up for the day?” Now that seemed like a
silly question to be asking at 6:15 in the morning when we had to be at our
tour’s meeting point at 7:45! So
naturally I told him that I was getting up.
His reply? “It’s only 5:15!” That darn projection clock had played tricks
on us again! It had happened before with
much more serious consequences back in October of 2009 when it set itself back
and we nearly missed the excursion to the Great Barrier Reef. This time it set itself forward on the first
Sunday in April. We had commented when
DST when into effect early in March that the clock, which was programmed before
the dates were changed for DST, that there would be some Sunday that it would
go forward. Well, today was that
day! Much less serious than getting up
an hour late, but both of us would have appreciated another hour of sleep!
As we stepped out onto the verandah, we could see Cape
Town’s most famous landmark, Table Mountain.
Unfortunately that morning it was adorned with its tablecloth. Table Mountain is a beautiful flat-topped
mountain, and it is known for the clouds that often shroud the top, sliding
over the edge just enough to look like it is covered with a white tablecloth.
Despite this the scenery from the ship was lovely!
We had decided to do a private tour through Cruise Critic
today, so we knew it would be a smaller group.
We were pleased that our friends Sally & Ange were also on the tour,
and we knew others in the group of 19.
We were very happy to see a full-sized comfortable tour bus awaiting us,
so anyone who wanted was able to claim a full seat to himself. Since one of our major stops was to be the
cable car to the top of Table Mountain, our guide Roger suggested that we
rearrange the tour and do that last in hopes that by the time we returned later
in the afternoon the tablecloth would have been removed.
So we set out and headed for the seal colony. After a beautiful ride along the coast, we
arrived at the ferry which would take us out of the harbor and to the seal
island. We sat in the bow and really got
a kick out of the ride we experienced.
There was a crew member in our area who asked people to sit down, and
the next thing we knew, the little ferry was being tossed around like a
cork! People who had been standing
grabbed for support and quickly found a place to light as we bobbed across the
waters to the island where the seals frolicked or lounged on the rocks. It was a short ride but very
entertaining!
Back on the bus, we headed to Boulder Beach and the penguin
colony. Much to our surprise and delight
we found ourselves passing through the town of Llandudno. Never did we dream
we’d get to Llandudno on this trip! As
we walked down to the penguin colony, Chuck asked the guide if this town was
named for Llandudno in Wales. He not
only replied that it had been, but we learned that he had lived on Anglesey for
several years. We had a nice chat about
Wales in general, and we told him how much we loved visiting Llandudno, the
beautiful Victorian seaside town along the north coast of Wales. (We can’t think of Llandudno without
remembering being there with our cousin Beryl!
We did have fun there!)
Of the eighteen species of penguins, we can now add another
one that we have seen, making two for this cruise. Way back in January (another lifetime) we saw
the Humboldt penguins off the coast of Peru.
Now we have seen the African penguins.
Interestingly, these little guys look very much like three other species
of penguins, one of which is the Humboldt penguin and the other is the Magellan
penguin that we saw in the Falklands and Punta Arenas last year. African penguins appear to be much smaller,
though. We were able to get quite close,
and they entertained us by strutting around their domain and splashing
playfully in the water.
All too soon we were leaving these adorable creatures and
heading for lunch. We had a delicious
meal made even more pleasant by discovering that it was the least expensive one
we had purchased off the ship since setting sail in January (I had a full pizza
and a coke for less than what I’d pay for a meal at McDonald’s!) An added bonus was a chance to do some
browsing through some crafts on display outside the restaurant. My only regret was that I had so few rand
with me and they only took cash. Maybe
that was a lucky thing – I didn’t have the chance to spend as much!
In our journey we crossed the peninsula that took us from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
While the Atlantic Ocean is the coldest ocean, the Indian Ocean is the
warmest. This is part of what creates
some of the strong currents in the area.
As voyagers back in early times would make the turn around the Cape of
Good Hope, they would often end up entering a bay rather than the Atlantic
Ocean. This happened enough times that
the bay got the name False Bay because of its “mistaken identity”.
Then we headed to Groot Constantia, the oldest winery in the
area, having been established in 1685. Not
being wine connoisseurs, we can’t seem to quite appreciate all these wine
tastings we are offered, but at least this time we were offered juice! In addition, there was some lovely artwork on
display. I would have loved to purchase
a beautiful painting of a lion, but it would have been quite impractical – my
house would have been too small for that large a piece of art, and then of
course there would be the logistics of getting it home. Also to be considered was the small sum of
about $3800. Maybe I should have gotten
the cheetah also – they’d make a lovely pair!
Oh, well… Instead we went out and
enjoyed the scenery while we waited for the others to finish. We found the autumn-colored leaves in the
vineyard – in April! Seems so strange to
be dealing with early autumn at this time of year!
Our final stop was Table Mountain. Our gamble of putting this at the end of the
day did not pay off as we’d hoped. The
tablecloth had not lifted, but we decided to take the trip to the top anyway
and boarded the revolving cable car that offered spectacular views of the
harbor and Cape Town – at least partway up the side of the 1067 meter high
mountain. When we got to the top, we
could barely see 20 feet in front of us.
Chuck and I immediately thought of our first trip up to the top of
Snowdon in Wales – lovely views from the bottom but nothing but fog at the
top. However, at least we can now say
that we’ve been to the top of Table Mountain!
The first day was a diversified and very enjoyable day. We certainly do see why people enjoy Cape
Town so much!
Cape Town Day 2: A Game Drive in a beautiful mountain area
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| King of the Jungle at Aquila Game Reserve, South Africa |
Our second day was another early day. We were scheduled to leave at 7:30 for our
full-day shore excursion, Amazing Aquila. We were disappointed when we saw the heavy
rains, but since the tour description stated that we would be heading north and
that the area would be in was described as “semi-arid”, we were holding out
hope that we would be fine once we were on our way.
There was only one bus on the excursion so there were no
worries about trying to get on the same bus with our friends Bob &
Nancy. We got excellent seats with the
ability to get some great pictures – if the weather would only cooperate! As we headed north, the rain was off again,
on again. When we made a brief rest
stop, there were spectacularly bright rainbows – a very hopeful and promising
sight!
After passing through a 2½ mile tunnel, the terrain changed
drastically. Suddenly we were surrounded
by beautiful mountains, created once by the collision of two tectonic
plates. Not only that but we saw what
was a strange sight for North Americans – baboons along the road. I do wish I’d managed to get the picture of
one of them sitting on top of a guard rail post watching the traffic go by!
Still, the rain came and went. We overheard the guide’s comment, “What is
with
this weather???” Just
great! This semi-arid climatic area was
promising to be more “semi” than “arid”!
Another game drive marred by the weather? Just great!
As we set out in our safari vehicles, wrapped in blankets to
try and shield us from the rain in this “semi-arid” climate, our ranger-guide
said, “Because of the rainy weather, I can’t promise that we’ll see any animals!” Good grief!
Then the luck began to turn!
Within minutes we had seen several hippos peeking up above the surface
of a watering hole. In the near distance
we saw a springbok and way in the distance we could make out two
elephants. Okay – three animals right
away. At least we’d seen something! A
few minutes after our photo stop for the hippos we came across five ostriches,
so naturally we stopped for that. Again,
nearby there was a springbok. Our guide
commented, “Springboks are like flies.
You see them everywhere!” Nancy
and I agreed that these were much prettier than flies! We also learned that the springbok is the
official animal of South Africa. (No
wonder so many tour buses had a picture of a springbok on them!)
Continuing on our way, we could see two white rhino in the
distance. Not bad, but the ones we’d
seen in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi a few days ago were much closer.
I could go on and on about all the animals we saw, but it
would be impossible to describe the experience with words. We also saw zebras, blue and black wildebeest,
springbok, giraffe, elephants, springbok, a black eagle, lions, springbok,
eland, blesbok, and did I mention that we saw springbok? A few highlights: We got very close to two elephants that were
stripping bark off a nearby tree. We
were fascinated as they entwined their trunks around the tree branches as well
as each others’ trunks, sometimes reaching into each other’s mouth with their
trunks! An especially exciting sight
was those same hippos, three of which were now out of the water, including a
baby, probably weighing a mere 500 lbs.
Nearby were four ostriches – and (you guessed it) a springbok! We got some great pictures of all three of
them in the same shot! Apparently it’s
highly unusual to get hippos out in the open, let alone a baby hippo!
The tour ended with a stop at a rehabilitation center where
they were taking care of animals that had been injured. This provided us the opportunity to see the
elusive leopard, the last of the Big Five African animals. He was camouflaged so well that it took a
tremendous amount of effort to spot the leopard! (Pun intended.) There were also two beautiful cheetahs
pacing back and forth (no hiding for them) as well as more lions. The only thing we didn’t see was the
saltwater crocodiles, but we just ran out of time, and we figured we’d seen
them in the Philippines.
So by the end of the game drive, where we had been advised
that we might not see any animals, we’d managed to add several new animals to
our list of African animal sightings.
There were several repeats, which was also fine with us. By the end of the drive, we had seen four of
Africa’s Big Five: the elephant, rhino,
lion, and leopard. The only one we
didn’t see was the cape buffalo, which we’d seen in Mozambique.
Despite the dismal weather at the start of the day, we came
away very happy with all that we had seen.
It was a truly amazing game drive, and another marvelous day in the Cape
Town area, topped off by one of the best folkloric shows we’ve ever seen: a
combination of what sounded like a New Orleans jazz band, a South African band,
and energetic dancers. It even included
a very entertaining audience participation number! What a sensational end to an incredible day!
Cape Town Day 3: Ostriches & More Wine
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| Near Cape Town, Table Mountain with no tablecloth (clouds) in background |
Our final day in Cape Town was somewhat more relaxing. That day we had a complimentary AAA excursion
that left at 10:30, allowing us a little breathing room in the morning to get a
few things done. We had been on an
absolute tear since arriving in Cape Town – we wanted to see and do everything
we could, and we did pack a lot into those days!
Our tour Ostrich Farm
& Wine Tasting again took us north out of the city. We made a photo stop at a lovely beach area
where we had a spectacular view of Table Mountain. Although the water is too cold to swim, the white
sand of the beach was the perfect foreground for the beautiful mountain, which
was showing its best side – the top without the tablecloth and with blue skies
as a backdrop. One lady passed us as she
walked down to the beach, smiled, and commented, “Thank you for enjoying my
mountain.” Chuck voiced the opinion we
all had, that we had thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Cape Town!
It wasn’t long before we were arriving at the ostrich
farm. What an interesting place to
visit! Did you know that one ostrich egg
is about the size of two dozen hens’ eggs?
That is one seriously big omelet!
Also, the ostrich’s eyes are bigger than its brain. It has wonderful eyesight, but it isn’t the
most intelligent of birds. The ostrich
descends from the dinosaur, and its wings function similarly to the forelegs of
the Tyrannosaurus Rex, for example.
Those long ostrich legs are particularly interesting. The knee is way up by the pelvis, and the
joint you see is actually the ankle, making those foot bones very, very
long! Ostriches kick very well, but they
kick from the ankle, not the knee!
After those and many more fascinating facts, we went out to see the
ostriches and were allowed to feed them.
You really have to be careful feeding an ostrich because it snaps its
beak around the food. If your fingers
are curled up a little, it can easily catch your fingers along with the
food. (I learned this the hard way. After that, I was very careful to keep my
hand flat!) One albino ostrich didn’t
see very well so easily caught anyone’s fingers, so nobody (not even I) fed
that poor bird! He had to scrounge for
food from the feed bin! We moved on to
see the emus from Australia and the rheas from South America, as well as saltwater
crocodiles and large tortoises. We even
saw the Guinness Book of World Records smallest ostrich, Tom Thumb. Naturally I fed him. Then we had a photo opportunity sitting on an
ostrich. I was going to, but I couldn’t
bend my knees far enough, and I was afraid I’d never get up. I couldn’t very well push off from the
ostrich. And I certainly didn’t want to
make him mad and have him take off on me!
After a wonderful visit to the Ostrich Farm, we headed to
our final destination, the De Grendel Winery for yet another wine tasting! We have decided that the South Africans do
love and are very proud of their wines. Unfortunately all this wine knowledge
is completely wasted on us. Chuck doesn’t
drink it, and I just plain don’t like the taste of wine. I’ve tried. I just can’t tolerate the taste
at all! However, it was a beautiful
area, and we had a lovely view of the harbor and Table Mountain as the backdrop
for the vast expanse of vineyards. We
had expected some appetizers that would go with the wine, but it was a full
lunch, and the food was delicious. The
dessert was absolutely yummy, and I finally decided what it reminded me
of! It was some kind of brandy cake but
it really tasted a lot like my favorite British delectable, sticky toffee
pudding. (Shoot! Now I’m back to wanting my UK fix!)
We had to be rushed back to the bus because we were due back
at 3:00. We actually got there at about
3:25, and All Aboard was 3:30 so we could once again go through immigration
before setting sail. Then we had our
mandatory lifeboat drill. All we can say
is that at least this year we only had to do it once a month. Last year we had to do it every single
segment, which meant we did it eight times!
And right after the lifeboat drill Captain Jonathan announced that if we
wanted to see the Queen Mary 2 arrive in port, it would be entering the harbor
at about 5:00. So we headed up to the
Sports Deck to watch this behemoth of a cruise ship maneuver into the
harbor.
We went to the Pinnacle for dinner with our friends Sally
& Ange. We had been warned that the
seas the day between Cape Town and Walvis Bay, Namibia would be rough since we
would encounter 50 mph winds. We didn’t
expect it to start as soon as we left port, though! The poor Pinnacle stewards were swaying all
over the place, and they had to tie the carts down just in case. We did bounce all over, with what we figure
were the roughest seas on the whole trip!
We were very sad to say good-bye to Cape Town specifically
and South Africa as a whole. While we
had been looking forward to visiting there, it far exceeded our
expectations. Conrad will be pleased to
hear that we can now add another “favorite destination” to our growing
list. We would both return there in a
heartbeat!
BT
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