Africa Part I - Cape Town, South Africa!

We recently returned from a fantastic trip to Africa.  We have so many pictures and great experiences to share. I'm going to break our Africa blog into three parts:  I - Cape Town, II - Safari, III - Swakopmund & the desert.

Dave and I had talked for years about going to Namibia to see a high school friend of Dave's, John Wheeling. We decided to finally make it happen.  Since we were headed to that part of the world, we wanted to make sure to visit Cape Town, South Africa too.  Our friends from South Africa and our friends that have visited have talked about what a beautiful and interesting country it was to visit.   We are so glad we made that choice.

SOUTH AFRICA - CAPE TOWN

Cape Town, South Africa

At the airport in Amsterdam before our flight

Day 1 - After our long trip overnight through Munich and Johannesburg, we finally arrived in Cape Town. One of the great things about traveling there from Europe is that there is only a one hour time difference. No jet lag, we were just tired from the overnight trip.

It was warm and sunny, quite a change from the rain and cold in Amsterdam. We had a late lunch on the rooftop of our hotel.  Our hotel was the Cape Royale (http://www.caperoyale.co.za).  Although it was a hotel, our room was actually more like a small apartment.  It was a great choice for our family. The travel desk there also was very helpful.

That evening, we took the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. Although the weather had been nice at the bottom, at the top it was very windy and quite cold. The views were amazing though.

From the pictures you can see that part of the time we were in a cloud.

Girls trying to keep warm!

The last picture was at the top on our way back down in the cable car.

Day 2 -  We had an early start and made our way to Simon's Town for sea kayaking (http://kayakcapetown.co.za/pages/penguintrip.html). It was a very different experience than our sea kayaking trip in Scotland. We were in a little bit of rougher water here and we had two on the top of each kayak.  Simon's Town is a navy town and we paddled by a South African Navy ship and could also see a visiting ship from the British Royal Navy.  We saw a seal playing in the water and then went close to a large African penguin colony. A group of penguins headed out to hunt near us.

We stopped midway through our trip at a small beach. There were a few penguins nearby here as well.

After we were finished we went to a spot where you could observe the Penguins by walking to an observation deck

We then headed to the most southern part of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. We enjoyed the beautiful views once we walked up to the top of Cape Point.

That night we ate at a restaurant that served an African meal consisting of many small dishes to share.  The girls did a good job of trying everything. The ostrich was quite good, but they didn't really care for it.

At one point during the meal, the waiters and waitresses played the drums and sang.

It was a restaurant definitely geared toward tourists, but we enjoyed the experience.

Day 3 - This day was spent getting to understand parts of South Africa's current day as well as its past. In the morning, we visited Langa, a township of Cape Town. Townships are areas in South Africa that were segregated under apartheid for occupation by persons of non-European descent (definition from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/township). It was just our family on a walking tour with our guide that lives and grew up in the township.  Our guide's name was Nathi.  The company was http://www.townshiptourscapetown.co.za.  He was friendly, easy to talk to, and willing to answer any questions. It was an eye opening experience to see a township first hand. It was a very interesting experience for the girls as well. We met a man that had built his shack completely out of materials he had found over time. He had been quite creative. There was no running water for the shack, but shacks do have access to electricity if they are able to pay for it.  There was also water available nearby.

Nathi took us through the streets, stopping to greet and talk to people as we went. The girls were impressed with how social everyone was. People interacted much more than we do with our neighbors since they spend so much time outside of their small accommodations. Some of the residents live in buildings and some live in shacks while they wait for a building.  A few other families have houses of their own.  We passed some local boys playing a game of street soccer.  Our guide and Grace joined in the game.  Amanda was wearing flip flops so she just watched.

Penalty shots when the game ended 0-0.  Our guide, Nathi, was the man in the yellow shirt.

It was a great way to spend our morning and it also made us very thankful for all that we have.

The day Dec 16, was actually a national holiday. While we were having lunch on the balcony of a restaurant next to our hotel, we saw a large protest. The protesters were very peaceful and some had drums and played music. They were protesting against the current President Zuma of South Africa. Again, it was interesting to see in person something that we might normally only see in a news article or on TV.

In the afternoon, we visited Robben Island. It is the island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his imprisonment.  We took a ferry to and from the island.

Once there, we took a bus ride around the island. The guide asked where everyone was from and would then make a point to explain what connection that country had in the history of Robben island, or in gaining freedom from apartheid. We were the only Americans on the tour.   We stopped to see the beautiful view of Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town from the island.

The best part of the tour was in the actual prison. The tour guide there was an ex-political prisoner  that had served time on Robben Island. He was there from 1983-1990. It was fascinating listening to him speak about his experiences. We also were able to see Nelson Mandela's cell. It was a very thought provoking experience that was hard for me to comprehend happened for several years during my lifetime.

The ferry back was quite rocky.  If was fun, but may not be a good time for anyone that gets seasick!

That evening we had dinner on the waterfront and enjoyed our last night in South Africa.

There were several more things we would have liked to do in South Africa but we ran out of time.  A few people told us that three nights in Cape Town would not be enough and they were right.  We are thankful for the time we did have, though.  We loved South Africa!