Cape Town: If You Do Not Like the Weather, Wait 5 Seconds

After 7 days in the bush, it was a bit of a shock to be back in a city.  There are no direct flights from Richards Bay (the airport closest to Zulu Nyala) to Cape Town so we had a 3 hour drive to get to Durban. At the halfway point to Durban we stopped for a bio break and lo and behold, they had a Krispy Kreme in the travel plaza (we did not try)! The flight on CemAir was nice and to our surprise the less than 2 hour flight included a sandwich service followed by a beverage service followed by a chips service followed by another beverage service and finally at the end, they gave out Mentos so we could chew as we descended to avoid ear pain.  When we landed in Cape Town, I heard something I have not heard in my 45+ years of flying…”Is there a medical doctor on board?”  Not sure what happened but an elderly gentleman was having some issues.  They even had the ambulance waiting as we deplaned.

After meeting up with the Dragonfly representative, we collected our bags and were off to the Victoria & Alfred Hotel at the V&A Waterfront. What an amazing view we had and the location was great!

For our time in Cape Town, Bongani was our driver and guide.  Bo was the perfect pick for us as he gets us and makes changes on the fly to ensure we have what feels like the “shortest 8 hours”.  The weather in Cape Town is probably more unpredictable than any place in the world so Bo would make the call each morning as to what we would do for the day based upon the hourly forecast.  He also gave us a few options to change up the planned agenda.  For example, we were scheduled to go to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens but he mentioned we could switch it out for a wine and chocolate pairing at the oldest winery in South Africa.  I am sure you can guess what we picked!  If you ever head to Cape Town and need a guide, let me know and I can connect you with Bo…I told him he has been added to my “I have a guy” list 🤣

The 12 Apostles

We saw these guys driving up to Cape Point…and here we thought wildlife was only in the bush in South Africa!

I can never pass up a funicular ride and this one took us to the top of Cape Point. This is chicken funicular style 😂

Meanwhile at Boulder Beach…

Our view from lunch one day…we even saw seals!

Due to the problem with sharks off the coast and on the beaches of Cape Town, they have these Shark Spotters along the public beach areas. There is always 1 if not 2 spotters in the hut at all times during the day. Their sole job is to look at the water and sound an alert should a shark be spotted. 

Remember when I said Bo gave us the option to go to the oldest winery in South Africa versus the botanical gardens? Well our final stop one day was Groot Constantia. They produce both red and whites and offer a variety of tasting options. We selected the wine and chocolate pairing which was quite lovely. Tyrone treated us to a surprise 6th tasting with a glass of Grand Constance…their famed dessert wine. Jane Austin called out the Grand Constance in “Sense and Sensibility” and said it is the only thing to cure a broken heart. It is said that when Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena he had provisions of Grand Constance and requested a glass on his deathbed. After our tasting, I can understand Jane and Napoleon’s love of the wine.

As I mentioned, the weather in Cape Town is very unpredictable and can change in a heartbeat. Because of this, when the clouds were very little, we had to jump on the chance to take the cable car to the top of the mountain. If the weather is not good, the cable car does not run but you can still make the 2 hour hike up the mountain (no thank you!). Bo’s timing was perfect as we had clear skies and as soon as we came down, you could not see the top! You have 2 options for the tickets…a regular ticket where you can queue for 1-3 hours or a fast pass ticket where you bypass the line and only have to wait for the cable car to come down…we opted for the fast pass and it was well worth it!

Bottom of the mountain

Cables and cable car house at the top that got us safely up and down the mountain.

Top of the mountain (3,563 feet)

If you are so inclined, you can repel down the side of the mountain.  Do not even think for a minute we were crazy enough to do something that insane!

I do not know who came up with the “clean up” feature in the iPhone 16, but they are a genius!  Here is the before and after “clean up” photo.  If you cannot read the royalty mark, it is from King Edward VII (1901-1910)…king of England when South Africa became a self-governing dominion within the British Empire…they gained independence in 1961.

Time to head back down the mountain…23 people can fit into the cable car.  Not to spoil anything but the floor of the cable car rotates giving riders a 360 view as you go up and down.

After coming down the mountain, we headed over to Camp’s Bay.  You can barely see the top of Table Mountain so once again we are glad Bo had the foresight to make that our first stop of the day…clearly not his first rodeo with the weather in Cape Town.

The crazy people parasail off this cliff…we are not crazy people!

Robben Island…Nelson Mandela arrived in 1964 and was imprisoned here for 18 years.

Lion’s Head

The Bo-Kaap neighborhood is known for its colorful houses.  Most of the homes were built in the late 1800’s and the area is a National Heritage site.

Cape Town does not have a traditional public transportation system like we are accustomed to using. Instead most folks use taxis (or Uber) and shared rides in these type of 15 passenger vans to get from point A to point B.

Little hot chocolate break

Our cousin, Joan, told us about GOLD Restaurant after her visit to Cape Town and said we had to go.  They serve a 14 course meal representing many different countries in Africa along with entertainment.  After dinner at GOLD, we can add ostrich to list of things we have tried on this trip.  Surprisingly it did not taste like chicken but rather more like roast beef…it was quite tasty.  The night we had dinner at GOLD we toasted Alyssa as it would have been her 23rd birthday. 

During dinner, one of the entertainers came around and painted flowers on the ladies.  

We spent our final day in Cape Town on a tour of the Winelands…about an hour outside of the city.  Our first stop was Fairview.  This is the winery that produces “Goats Do Roam” that we can find in the US.  This morning’s paring was 6 wines with 6 goat cheeses.  It seems everywhere we go we run into people from Texas (aka The Promise Land) and this day was no exception as the other group in our tasting was from outside of Ft. Worth.

En route to lunch, we passed more baboons in the road, sitting on fences and in the field!

Speaking of lunch, we had the absolute best meal we have had in South Africa for lunch at Zorgvliet Wine Estate! We learned our lesson and have started ordering small dishes and sharing as there are just so many things that look good on menus.  For our lunch at Zorgvliet, we started with a snack of Droëwors (African dried sausage…think jerky), then the chef sent out an amuse bouche of a bao bun with pork belly & pickled onions, we then had a calamari app, for our main course we shared a slow roasted lamb ragu with pappardelle and then finished off the meal with a shared brownie & ice cream. OMG it was absolutely unbelievable!

Our last stop of the day was at Waterford Estate and included another wine and chocolate pairing.  It was a lovely winery that reminded us of a Napa vineyard.  The sommelier was pleased to learn we had only been to 2 other wineries as she said often times people try to get in 7-8 wineries in a day and are not able to really enjoy the wines.  We told her we are about quality over quantity and just want to have a nice experience.  The whole day was the perfect ending to our time in Cape Town.

We truly enjoyed our time in Cape Town!  While there are so many wonderful things to do and see in this town, it really is the people that made their mark on us.  In all our travels, we have never met so many friendly and happy people.  All of the people we encountered in the hotel, shops, restaurants and tourist sights were so very kind and welcoming and seemed to truly enjoy their work.

Many thanks for the memories Cape Town…we are off to Zimbabwe in the morning.  Our 5am wake-up call is going to be rough but we cannot wait to see what Victoria Falls has in store for us!