Our Tales From Tanzania: South Africa: Cape Town and Beyond

For this year’s mid-term holiday we went to South Africa. ISM shifted the holiday back a week from it’s normally scheduled time to give expats a chance to leave during the general/presidential election. Due in part to inexpensive flights and a strong US dollar, many ISM families chose this as their destination, too. Cape Town is an amazingly beautiful city. We had so much fun and there is still so much left to explore!

I know many people think that since we’re already in Africa that South Africa is just a quick jaunt, but it’s still far away. It took us 3 flights and a full day of travel to get there (left the house at 5:30 am and arrive Cape Town at 6:00 pm); it’s about the same distance as NYC to San Diego. Just enough time to head down to the waterfront and get dinner before we fell into bed.

We woke up to a gorgeous day with the mountains beckoning to us from our window. A hike sounded like the perfect way to start our holiday. We heard Lion’s Head was a great hike, so we headed straight there. It turned out to be more technical than we had expected, but the kids were up for the challenge and it was so worth it.

That afternoon we took the easy route (via cable car) to the top of Table Mountain for more stunning views…and sundowners.

The next day we headed south from Cape Town in search of penguins on what has to be one of the most gorgeous drives in the world.

Penguins!

They’re not kidding

Then further on to visit the Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point. We started with clear blue skies and then the fog rolled in which made it eerie and cool.

On our third full day in Cape Town we went to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens before we headed out to a soccer match that night. We joined a guided tour and it was so worth it. Dot, our guide, was so knowledgeable about all of the plants, but she also wove in great historical stories of kings and queens, too. She was amazing.

Webb, Ashy chose these as her favorites just for you.

Canopy Walk

The next day we did a morning Sea Point walk before our ferry to Robben Island. Anyone that thought 11 years old is too old for playgrounds would be wrong.

After a pretty 45 minute ferry ride we arrived at Robben Island. This is where the political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, were held during Apartheid. It’s easy to see how there were no successful escapes. Our guide, Ntando Mbatha, was once a prisoner here and hearing about his experience first hand was quite impressive. We saw Nelson Mandela’s actual cell as well as where he buried the manuscript for Long Walk to Freedom before it was smuggled out. Hard to image spending 18 years here.

After 5 nights in Cape Town we were ready to get out of the city and go explore more of South Africa. We were heading to a friend’s mom’s beach house in Plettenberg Bay, but we figured as long as we were heading east we may as well take the extra few hours and touch the southern most tip of the continent, Cape Agulhas, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. When will we ever get that chance again?

Then on to Plettenberg Bay. We felt very fortunate to be able to take advantage of the generosity of friends. We swam in the pool, watched whales and dolphins from the porch, went for long walks on the beach, and watched a game or two of world cup rugby (love the Haka!). We ended up staying 4 nights because it was so peaceful.

We weren’t able to swim due to dangerous waters and these bluebottle jellyfish. They were really cool to look at and then watch the snails devour them when the next wave washed over.

We went to Monkeyland one day. It’s a sanctuary for rescued monkeys and lemurs. The striped lemur will always remind me of Mike. The lemurs and howler monkeys were noisy, and the spider monkeys were super cheeky.

Our guess is that a storm washed all these starfish in. Sad, yet beautiful.

Failed whale watch cruise, but we did get to see lots and lots of seals and one really cool elephant seal that bit into the smaller seal and tossed it.

It was time to start making our way back to Cape Town via Hermanus, but another detour to Oudtshoorn to visit Safari Ostrich Farm seemed warranted. Kids all listed this as a highlight. It was pretty crazy. We learned that the invention of the automobile almost single handedly killed the demand for ostrich feathers because it was no longer practical for women to wear them on their hats (but really, how was an ostrich feather hat ever really practical??)

Standing on eggs

Feeding ostrich

All suited up (to protect the ostrich from germs).

The kids had been talking about doing this since we first heard it was a possibility from one of our South African friends. Until planning this trip, I didn’t even know one could do this. Totally worth it!

Of course there’s video, too.

Ostrich riding from Lisa Coyle on Vimeo.

After the ostrich riding it was on to Hermanus, an area known as the base for whale/shark watching, but we took a slightly different approach and went fishing instead. Bonus: we saw lots of whales just from the shore. Hermanus was beautiful, and we had a good sea-side meal while watching the full moon rise from this side of the Atlantic. We had a great day out fishing and caught 20 fish!

Grandpa Chuck tradition: kiss the fish good-bye

We even saw several blue sharks. We wanted to get a closer look so the captain caught him by hand line (i.e. no pole) and pulled him next to the boat for us. They are really pretty animals.

Final days back in Cape Town including a stop at the amazing Two Oceans Aquarium, and we couldn’t leave South Africa without a trip to a winery. Kids even had a great time on the wine tour and kept themselves busy playing with corks while Matt and I did a wine tasting. Really beautiful setting for lunch.

Thirteen days with over 2100 km / 1300 miles covered. It’s really one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In addition, the people were friendly, the roads were smooth, the food was great (and amazingly cheap...hello $10 all you can eat sushi and $5 bottles of wine!), and they have a great sense of humor: