After a few days bouncing around Namibia we were happy to have 5 nights staying in one place in Cape Town, South Africa, followed by another three nights in the nearby cape wine region. We arrived in the evening and picked up our rental car from the airport and Fred successfully and skillfully drove us on the other side of the road to our accommodation. We had rented a little apartment for the week and had our own living room, kitchen and laundry machine. It was nice to have a little sense of normalcy to our travels and settle in a little bit into the space – cooking breakfasts and dinners and watching movies sitting on the couch. And also not having to pick up and leave after just a short time – it was nice to feel like we had a bit of a home for a few days after so much time on the road.

Our first day in Cape Town came with grey skies and a bit of rain but we made the best of it by walking all along the promenade on the shore line and watching the angry Atlantic Ocean waves beating against the walls. At some points they would jump over the walls and crash in front of us and we had to jump out of the way to avoid getting wet from the cold water. We did a lot of walking and the light rain eventually let up as we visited a local farmers market close to the waterfront in the afternoon near to the area called the Victoria & Alfred (or V&A) waterfront. We picked up fresh organic vegetables and some cheese to have with our dinner later, and enjoyed strolling around the stalls and seeing what was offered. That night we made a delicious dinner at home with our finds.

The second day also started off with grey skies and we took the opportunity to sleep in a bit and then spent the afternoon exploring more of the V&A waterfront area, including venturing into the various shops selling lots of African crafts and eating lunch at the food hall there which has local vendors serving food from all different cuisines. We had a few different kinds of Samosas, Tunisian dishes which included lamb and ostrich, and a delicious Hungarian flatbread. Finally the sun started to come out as we were sitting along the waterfront enjoying our late afternoon lunch. We had our first nearly cloudless glimpse of Table Mountain, the well know landmark in Cape Town which towers above the city. We hoped this was a sign for a clear day to go to the top of it later in the week.

Our next day we went to Robben Island, the prison on the island in the middle of the bay which was used to house convicted criminals as well as political prisoners during apartheid, including Nelson Mandela for 18 years. Prior to being a prison, it was an isolation colony for people with leprosy. We took the ferry across the choppy waters and were first given a tour of the prison by a former inmate. It was interesting and somber to hear his stories about going through imprisonment and his trial as a political prisoner. We learned about life at the prison and this part of the tour cumulated with seeing the cell where Nelson Mandela spent his years. From there we took a bus tour of the rest of the island – seeing the small village (some several hundred people are still living there) and the quarry where a lot of the prisoners worked. After the bus tour, we returned to the mainland via a very choppy ferry ride through the bay. Despite the choppiness and slow ride, we were able to enjoy a seal siting with a large group swimming next to the boat on the way back flipping around like dolphins. Back on land, that night we had a delicious seafood dinner on the water front and spent some time listening to live music covers before heading back to our place.

The next morning we finally awoke to sun and clear skies which meant it was time to head to the top of Table Mountain for unobstructed views all around Cape Town. We took the cable car to the top and spent some time walking around and enjoying the beautiful views in all directions – Table Bay on one side, False Bay on the other, all of the coastal towns in between and the ‘city bowl’ as the downtown area is called below us. It is flat for the most part on the top (as the name Table Mountain might suggest) with lots of bushes and rocks. The views from the top over the ocean are spectacular. After a bit of wandering around we found a nice place to sit on the back side of the mountain and enjoyed the picnic lunch we had brought with. After we walked around a bit more, the wind started to pick up and it began to get much cooler. We decided it was time to head back down to the bottom – unfortunately with a 1 hour wait for the cable car.

On our last day we left Cape Town in the morning to do our own tour of the Cape Peninsula. We started with a stop in Clifton Beach, where we walked down around beach for a bit. The weather was a bit cloudy and cool but that didn’t prevent the action sports from continuing. The beach was filled with surfers and kayakers mostly in wetsuits and the beach volleyball courts were full. Above us towered the extravagant houses of the wealthy of Cape Town that we admired prior to moving on. We continued the drive along the coast, passing towns such as Camps Bay, with its California vibe and the fishing town of Hout Bay. Our drive then took us to the famous Chapman’s peak part of the drive, which is a skinny road hugging tight to the side of the mountains next to dramatic cliffs and the sea below. It is often referred to as one of the most beautiful drives in the world, and we certainly thought so as each turn brought us new sweeping views of the cliffs.

A little further along we came to the cape peninsula and the national park which contains the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. We drove a bit through the park to reach these most southwesterly points of Africa. The Cape of Good Hope is well know as the place many European explorers first rounded the African continent on their way to the Far East. It’s also known as the place where many shipwrecks occurred which we could certainly imagine as we saw the rough seas of the Atlantic and felt the strong winds. We decided to make the trek to the top edge of the Cape of Good Hope through the whipping winds and were rewarded with more stunning cliffs and views (even if it felt like the winds might blow us over the edge at times). As we headed to our car we had a glimpse of the not so friendly baboons which live in the park. There are warning signs everywhere about not feeding them and keeping your car windows closed if you see them. We saw quite a few jumping on top of cars and one trying to break an antenna off the car (lucky for us we didn’t have any encounters with our rental car). We even saw a ‘baboon management’ vehicle on the road – these animals are no joke!

From Cape Point we headed to Simon’s Town and the well know Boulders Beach which houses a colony of African Penguins. It was cool to see so many penguins in their natural habitat – swimming in the ocean, lounging on the beach, and waddling along. There are over 2000 penguins in this colony.

Finally it was time to make our way along the eastern coast of the peninsula as we headed back toward Cape Town and into the cape wine lands. We passed more coastal beach towns of Kalk Bay, St. John’s and Muzienburg before turning back inland and heading toward our next destination for the next few days – Stellenbosch.