African Safari 2007

We awoke at Colona Castle to a bright sunny day with blue skies all around. We had breakfast in the dining room with a view out to False Bay. We decided head south down to Cape Point. Along the way we stopped at Boulder Beach for one of the highlights of the trip: Penguins! As everyone knows, Rick (along with the rest of us), loves penguins! He was very excited as we arrived and walked along the wooden boardwalk down to the area of the beach reserved for them. The colony lives here year round.

There were a couple of hundred of them spread across the sand and up into the low brush on the upper parts of the beach. So cute! We spent a while taking a couple of hundred pictures and a bunch of video of them. (Check out the next page, it has many more penguin pictures!)

Afterwards we drove back into Simon's Town for lunch and some coffee. Then we continued down the cape to Cape Point where we took the funicular and then climbed up to the light house to view the point where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. Continuing on we drove up the west side of the cape and then back across and back to the hotel.

We had a short break, then headed back out for spa appointments at a very nice hotel, The Stillness Manor, about 15 minutes away. After returning to the hotel and changing into nicer clothes (the first time we had done so on the trip!), we took a taxi to the Harbour House restaurant in Kalk Bay. It was right on the water with floor to ceiling glass walls and pounding surf right outside, very nice. We all had fun talking about the trip over some (or was that far too much?) tasty seafood.

Another bright and sunny morning, but less windy. This meant that the Table Mountain cable car was running, so we headed directly there after breakfast. It turned out that this was a three day weekend, so things were pretty busy, but it still only took us about 45 minutes to get through the line and make it to the top. The views were spectacular in all directions and the weather was gorgeous.

After descending back down to the parking area we drove west down into Camps Bay where we stopped at a cute street-side cafe for lunch. After Dan and Assana poked toes into the ocean by the beach, we were back on our way south. We saw a very expensive and exclusive neighborhood, LLandudno, nestled into the hillside down to the beach. We hugged the coastline and went down to Chapmans Point then stopped at Scenic Beach for a bit. It turned out that we were very lucky as the coast road had only been opened a few days before after a lengthy closure due to landslides. The views along the way were amazing.

Back at the hotel we all retired for a bit of down-time, it had been a busy day! We met back up in the lounge at 7:30 for a taxi ride to the Steenberg Hotel and Winery where we were to have dinner. The food was good and accompanied by a very nice Pinotage wine. After a bit of a mixup calling our cab, we made it back to Colona Castle around 11 for bed.

This morning Dan and Assana took the car out to the wine country to the east of town, while we decided to go into town and to the botanical garden. Our driver for the morning was Ricky, who was very knowledgeable about the history of the area. It was raining a bit as we left, but we weren't worried. We started out by driving through the Bo Kapp neighborhood where many slaves moved to after emancipation. Then we drove down to the waterfront area where we wandered around and saw the Victoria Mall which was all geared up for Christmas. The rain stopped just as we arrived.

We next drove to the castle fort in the center of town and then to the District 6 museum. Unfortunately it was not open, but Ricky told us quite a bit of the history of the area. In the 50's, South Africa began to enforce the apartheid laws and declared many areas of the city 'whites only'. The district 6 area was cleared and all of the houses raised, the only buildings left standing were mosques and churches. Due to all of the turmoil that followed, very little of the land has ever been redeveloped. It's a lasting reminder of the time of apartheid.

From the town center we drove up into the hills to the botanical gardens, the largest in South Africa. Ricky dropped us at the upper gate where we had a tasty lunch and then slowly made our way through the beautiful gardens. The grounds are amazing, with a fantastic variety of plant life in a wonderful setting. Rick was really enjoying seeing the similarities and the differences from our plant life back home. We met Ricky at the lower entrance to the park, just as it was starting to rain again. The weather had definitely cooperated. We talked some more with him on the way back and then thanked him for an enjoyable and educational morning.

Later in the afternoon Dan and Assana returned. They had driven east along the coast, and then north up into the wine country. It had been really picturesque with lots of small nicely manicured vineyards. They finished up in Franschhoek for lunch. They picked up a some wine for dinner and then headed back through Stellenbosch on their way home. As it was the last night for all four of us, we decided to have a nice relaxing dinner at the hotel. The food was delicious and the setting was wonderful. Strangely, the power failed just before dinner, almost the same as what had happened to us in Costa Rica a couple of years earlier!

After dinner we said goodbye to Dan and Assana, their flight was leaving very early the next morning. Then we headed up to bed.

We woke up to a mostly sunny morning, had breakfast at the hotel, then hopped in the car for a drive. We headed east along the edge of False Bay, towards Pringle Bay. Along the way we passed an incredible range of housing, ranging from multi-million dollar waterfront properties to giant tracts of shanty towns that look like they were built out of random construction debris. It was a clear indication that the remnants of apartheid are still lingering in this country.

Just past Pringle Bay in the Stoney Point penguin colony, which was the real reason for our drive. It turned out to be a much larger colony than the one at boulder beach, with lots of adorable penguins all over the rocks. Lots of fun!

We also stopped at the Harold Porter Botanical Garden which was smaller than the Capetown garden, but very nice.

Back in Muizenberg (where the hotel is) we found an internet cafe to use to check in for our flight, then headed back down to Kalk bay for lunch. It turned out that most of the people in Capetown had the same idea! It took us about 45 minutes to travel the 2 miles. We were lucky and found parking right by the Harbour House restaurant (where we had eaten a few nights earlier). Back at the hotel we packed, showered and then said goodbye to Nicole and Michael, thanking them and their staff for such a wonderful time.

We had a 11 hour flight on British Airways to London, then another 11 hours to San Francisco. Fortunately British Airways business class has very comfortable 'lie-flat' seats!

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