Cape Town

 Stellenbosch Train Station 

 One of the wineries in Stellenbosch

 Stellenbosch

 Lions Head in Cape Town

 Long Street 

 Long Street

 On the train ride out to Simon's Town

 Table Mountain

 Simon's Town and the African Penguins

 Train ride to Simon's Town

 Shark Cage Diving

 Example of the cage we were in for shark cage diving

Map showing where Cape Town is in South Africa and where Simon's Town is as well

Well in my last blog I had just taken off on Air Botswana on my way to Johannesburg. I forgot to mention that of course on my last morning sleeping in my homestay house, I get woken up by a knock on my door by my uncle who says someone is on the phone and wants to talk to me. It turned out to be my host mother who wanted to say good bye one more time which was strange as we never talked during my 4 months living in her house and she didn’t even give me a hug good bye the night before. Oh well.

Anyways, arrived in Joburg airport, got through immigration rather quickly and then I had to find Ashley who had taken an earlier flight from Gaborone to Joburg. I was lucky enough to find her and my bags right away. I did some rearranging and repacking then Ash and I found the Joburg lockers to lock up our larger bags that we did not want to lug with us all the way to Cape Town.  The whole process turned out to be a lot easier than expected. Next step was to eat lunch (at Nandos of course), check in for our Cape Town flight and then board the plane.

We flew Kulula Air which I only mention because it was the brightest lime green plane!! And the flight attendants wore the weirdest office; blue striped shirts, lime green ties, dark skirts..crazy. Arrived in Cape Town to a Christmas decorated Cape Town airport before finding the pre-arranged shuttle we had to take us to our hostel on Long Street. Now Long Street is crazy! It is known for all of its late night partying and noise which Ashley and I aren’t really into but it is also in a superb location in the city, close to the train station, table mountain, etc. When we arrived on Long Street and to our hostel, which was actually on the 6^th floor of this really old, cool building, we could see what all the fuss over Long Street was about. People on the sidewalk were stumbling around, yelling, the bass from the building next to our hostels was pounding, people in the hostel were running around getting ready to go out. Eish! What did Ashley and I get ourselves into??? We were staying in the 22 person dorm room and there were only two beds available separated way apart from each other but what else were we to do. Went to bed right away and had one of the worst nights’ sleep just because it was so loud and people came into the room at all times of night.

Day ONE:

Anyways, we woke up way before the others and got ready to start exploring Cape Town. Our idea was to buy tickets for the red double decker bus that drives you around the city allowing you to hop on and off as you see fit. First stop we hopped off at was St. George’s Cathedral which is where Desmond Tutu once preached and was known was accepting people of all races during the apartheid. We then hopped back on the bus and traveled through some more of Cape Town’s historic areas such as District 6 and Good Hope Castle built in the 1800s. District 6 was really cool because it was an area where blacks and whites lived together during apartheid and refused to move. The government responded by bulldozing all the houses in the district besides churches so to this day a lot of area (80%) remains empty fields. There was another strip of brightly colored houses which is where freed slaves settled and painted the houses so brightly because while enslaved they had to always wear gray or black. Very interesting facts here and there.

We got off at Table Mountain and decided to climb all the way up. Although it was a beautiful climb, beautiful day and wonderful weather it was a pretty intense hike. It took about 2 hours and was basically a stair master for 2 hours. Ash and I didn’t realize how steep it was going to be and after not working out that much over the past four months, it for sure caught up with us. Needless to say we did reach the top and the view was beautiful and completely worth it! Table Mountain became one of the new 7 Wonders of the World and we could see why. You can look over all of Cape Town and the surrounding neighborhoods as well as see far into the Atlantic Ocean.  After walking around the top of the mountain for a bit and eating lunch up there we took the cable car back down the mountain which only took about 5 minutes but was really cool. The inside of the cable car turns in a circle allowing everyone inside to see the entire 360 view from the car.

After returning down from the mountain we got back on the red bus and continued our tour of the city. The tour was gorgeous as the road borders the coast on one side and the back of table mountain on the other. We passed the Clifton Beaches and Camp Bay which is where a lot of South African celebrities like to stay as well as some American celebrities before getting off at the Waterfront. I loved the Waterfront so much. It reminds me of Baltimore’s inner harbor a little bit. There are shops all over, street performers, a larger mall, ships, an outdoor stage and a great food market where of course Ash and I went and sampled everything from pie to pizza.  

We decided to hop back on the bus and go around the city one more time just stopping at Good Hope Castle to take pictures and look around. However once back on the bus Ashley began to feel terrible so that night we just went back to the hostel so she could rest. While she slept I wrote in my journal, ordered a pizza and played on the internet for a bit.

Day Two:

Luckily Ashley was feeling better today because it was Wine Tour Day in Stellenbosch! We woke up early in order to catch the train for our hour long train ride to wine country. The train ride was great because it allowed us to see even more of South Africa and the changing scenery from the coast of Cape Town to the mountains of Stellenbosch.  We got off at the Stellenbosch station, which was a bit tricky as there is no conductor telling you the stations nor are there really any indications of what stop you are at, and Ashley had forgot to write down the address of where we were supposed to meet for the wine tour. So we walked around for a bit and finally found a gorgeous hotel and went inside to ask for their help. They were nice enough to look up the company on the internet and call them to have them pick us up at the hotel. The only downside was that Ashley and I had planned on eating breakfast in Stellenbosch but because of the mix up were unable to do so, not exactly what you want right before a day of drinking wine.

Our driver picked us up from the hotel and by 10:20 we were on our way to tour the wineries of Stellenbosch. The first place we went to was Tokara which ended up being my favorite of the four we visited that day. They allowed us to pick which ones we wanted to try and both Ash and I lean towards white wines or rosés so tried some of those. Then tried the most amazing dessert wine ever. It tasted like honey and was so delicious. We also got a crash course in wine making and the differences between white and red.

We hopped in and went to another winery where the wine was good, not amazing but the scenery was gorgeous. After trying about 5 or 6 wines here and looking around at the beautiful grounds we went to a little town called Franschoek for lunch. Franschoek is Afrikaans and relates to how the French first inhabited this area and taught the South Africans how to make wine.

After lunch headed to our third winery which had the  most beautiful scenery allowing us to overlook vineyards and vineyards as we sipped their wine. Then our last winery was Fairview where we had a great time talking with the server and learning more about the wine making process. Not to mention we had a cheese tasting at this one which was a lot of fun. We ended up buying wine here; I bought a very sweet dessert wine for me and my mom and a nice Pignotage for my dad. Pignotage is actually a wine that was developed in Stellenbosch! This was our last winery before heading back to the train station to catch the train back to Cape Town. However we got to the station way before our train was supposed to leave and spent some time walking around the town. It’s a cute town but it was really empty with not much to see or do so we just decided to wait at the train station.

But nothing in Africa is easy so halfway back to Cape Town the train comes to a stop at some random station and we are just sitting there for ten minutes. We decide to exit the train like all the other passengers and soon learn that our train was going out of service and we would have to wait for the next train. We are waiting and waiting and then an announcement is made that we have to move platforms. We look around us and everyone starts jumping into the tracks to move to the platform. Imagine the metro and jumping down into the tracks to get to the other side and you can understand how weird Ashley and I thought it was but what else to do? Even older women and men were jumping into the tracks and having people pull them up on the opposing platform. Well, when in Rome….

Got back to the hostel and Cape Town without much more craziness and decided to head out to this nicer Italian restaurant to end our exciting wine touring day.

Day Three:

Today we were going to get out of Cape Town one more time and decided to take the train to Simon’s Town, about 45 minutes away from Cape Town where they have African Penguins on the beach. On the way towards the train station we are walking along Long Street and look up to a patio off one of the hostels and on it see three other UB international students. They weren’t in our program, CIEE, but since they had lived on campus and saw them around we knew them. What was funnier is they were the same kids we ran into when we were in Zambia a couple months earlier. Small world!

The train ride out there was beautiful, right along the coast the entire way with beaches and mountains popping up here and there. As we neared Simon’s Town we saw that they have built these really cool tide pools which were underneath the water during high tide and filled with ocean water during low tide. It was one of the coolest things.

We arrived in Simon’s Town and walked from the station to the park with the penguins which was a bit of a walk but with beautiful scenery. Simon’s Town is very cute with quaint architecture that has some German influence and a little of American colonialism. We got to the national park, paid our entrance fee and before we knew it were laughing at the “awkward on land” penguins (direct quote from the park signs).  These were African Penguins that are found just on the southern coast of Africa. What’s cool about Simons’ Town is that unlike Cape Town, it borders the Indian Ocean so the penguins were swimming in a completely different ocean than the one we saw in Cape Town (see the map I posted).  They were such funny animals as they wobbled around. Once in a while would fall down on land especially when they were near the tide and would get dragged into the water.

After watching them struggle and sleep for a bit, Ashley and I headed back to Simon’s Town for a great lunch and then caught the train back to Cape Town. Once back in Cape Town we had originally planned to go to the Water Front again but had spent so much time in Simons Town that instead bought some souvenirs (and doughnuts) and ate our some of our goodies on the roof of our hostel watching the sun go down over the city of Cape Town and reminiscing and reflecting on our travels the past four months. Once we gained our appetite again, we walked around Long Street some more and the surrounding areas taking in the architecture and Christmas Lights before heading to a café right next to our hostel for our dinner.

Had to get to bed early today because we were getting up early the next day for shark cage diving with the Great White Sharks in Gainsbai.

Day Four:

Up and early we awoke, changed into our bathing suits and were picked up to make the drive out to Gainsbai, about a two hour drive from Cape Town. The drive was great as it took us around Cape Town as we picked up other divers, showed us the shanty towns that I feel are overlooked when people talk about Cape Town, and showed us even more scenery of South Africa. It was interesting because there was  a Pine Tree Forest even. The pines were imported and they grow much much quicker in South Africa because of the warm climate. But since they grow so quickly they are not as sturdy and strong as American pine. At some points it felt as if I was driving through New England but then I would see a baboon and remember I am still in Africa.

Arrived in Gainsbai to a delicious lunch and briefing from our master diver before heading out on the boat for the 15min boat ride out to the middle of the bay.  The way it works is that the sharks come into the bay for 3 or 4 days before they leave and move on. Therefore it is not always the same sharks that they see. Once out in the middle of the bay, the dive team throws fish juice into the water to attract the sharks and before long we had attracted a big guy, about 3 meters.  We had gone up to the top of the boat to see them and it wasn’t as scary as I expected but you do see that long, dark shadow right at the surface of the water swimming around. As we were looking at the shark our dive master gave us the deal with the diving. The cage would be put in the water right at the side of the boat. Five people would go in and basically just float in the cage. Once a shark was near the crew would yell and we were to use the cage bars to pull ourselves down into the water to see the shark. They attract the shark by throwing chum into the water attached to rope. Once the shark approaches, they pull the chum towards the cage so the shark swims right towards us in the cage without ever getting the chum (they don’t want to provide the shark with a continual food source and make the sharks dependent on them). At times the sharks could bump the cage but they would never bite at it. Sharks send out vibrations and can feel the vibrations from the metal of the cage and do not actually see us within in instead believing it to be a big solid mass.

Before long we were getting into our wetsuits complete with footies, hoods and goggles and we were lowering ourselves into the cage. I wasn’t afraid of the sharks but was freezing. The water was so cold that I started hyperventilating and could not catch my breath. However before I could register how cold I was I heard the crew yell, “Down, Down” so I ducked down and saw my first great white. They were huge and another beautiful creature. We were in the cage for about 15 minutes before it was another groups’ turn.

I went back in a second time and overall got to see some amazing things. At one point we saw the shark get the chum and write back and forth as it tried to free it from the rope. We also saw a shark breach where it comes up out of the water, two sharks going after the chum at the same time, one shark hit my cage, one breach with his mouth open and just be amazed at the grandiose of these creatures.

Headed back to shore, which was the coldest ride of my life and tried to warm up as we had snack back on land. While we were eating we got to hear some facts about the sharks we saw; they were Great Whites,  females are bigger than males, females tend to have scars on the back from where males bite them and hold on during mating, they also have scars from seals that swim behind them and bite them and the ones we saw ranged from about 2-3.5 meters but they can get as large as 6 meters.

On the ride back to Cape Town we stopped and tried to see if there were still some whales in the area but we weren’t that lucky. We got back to the hostel pretty late, around 7pm and had just enough time to shower and change before meeting up with one of my mom’s coworkers, Hilary. While waiting for Hilary to pick us up from the hostel who do we run into but the other UB students, again! Crazy.

Hilary is from South Africa and just so happen to be in Cape Town the same time we were so all of us went out to dinner just a couple of blocks from the hostel. It was a wonderful restaurant and really interesting to hear about what is was like growing up in Cape Town during apartheid. What a great night to end our Cape Town travels.

Day Five:

Last day on the continent! Although Ash and I had loved Cape Town we were so ready to go home and the day was finally here!! We ate a lovely breakfast at a coffee shop on Long Street before making our way to the bus that for only 50 rand would take us straight to the airport.  We had some time at the airport to kill but before we knew it we were boarding that lime green plane once more to take us back to Johannesburg. GOOD BYE CAPE TOWN!! Baie dankie (thank you very much in Afrikaans-the only thing I really learned).