Other than getting up early, our trip to Cape Town was not nearly as bad as the previous day’s trek. We were greeted by our & Beyond driver who brought us to the Cape Grace hotel in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront district of Cape Town. The area is up-and-coming and we can see why. It has the harbor on one side and looks up to Table Mountain on the other. Along the waterfront are hotels, shops, restaurants and bars. It felt almost like Faneuil Hall but more modern. We dropped off our bags and headed toward the wine region.
The first winery we visited, Fairview, was in the Paarl district which was only about an hour from Cape Town. The region is beautiful with the vineyards guarded by towering mountains of granite. In addition to wine, Fairview also makes cheese. In additional to regular wine tastings, they offer a wine and cheese tasting which we took advantage of experiencing. Like with any tasting, we liked some better than others but it was a very good experience.Our next stop was in probably the most famous South African wine district, Stellenbosch. In addition to being home to many wineries, Stellenbosch is a college town and is quite charming. We arrived at Delaire Graff Estate a few minutes after closing time. No worries. Our driver/guide, Ali, convinced management to allow us an abbreviated tasting. After sampling a few of their wines, we headed back to Cape Town for dinner.
Our next day was a full one. After breakfast, Ali picked us up to start our sightseeing day. Our first stop was Table Mountain, perhaps the regions best known attraction. We left the Waterfront district and passed through several other desirable areas of Cape Town including Sea Point, Clifton and Camp’s Bay which is known as a Mini South Beach.
All of the areas were very beautiful coastal towns. The volume of cars lining the entrance to Table Mountain during the “slow season” was evidence as to the popularity of the attraction. Unfortunately, just as we were about to get in line there was an announcement that they were experiencing a mechanical issue that would take an unspecified amount of time to address. We decided not to wait but instead to continue down to Cape Point and come back to Table Mountain at the end of the day. We passed through several beautiful coastal towns as we drove. One, called Llandudno, is where star Charlize Theron owns a home. I had no idea who Ms. Theron was…. luckily Aasma was able to explain that she was a beautiful actress from South Africa. Funny that I didn’t know that.
As we drove around Hout Bay, we decided to stop for a photo because our guide noticed that there were right whales passing into the harbor. That was a cool bonus. We also passed by something you expect, an ostrich farm. It turns out that ostriches are one of the top agricultural products from South Africa. Our next stop was Cape Point Nature Reserve. We took the funicular, the Flying Dutchman, to the top of the point to visit the lighthouse there.
The views were amazing. We continued on through the Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope which I thought was the southern tip of Africa, but I learned that it isn’t. It is the most south-western point on the continent.
In case you need to know in order to win a trivia contest, the southernmost point is actually Cape Agulhas (about four hours further east). Next we headed to Boulders Beach to see a colony of African Penguins. These penguins are one of a few breeds in the world that live in warmer climates. They’ve constructed a boardwalk which allows you to get really close to this breading colony of jackass penguins as they’re also known due to their donkey-like call.
Ali insisted that he had the perfect place for us to have lunch before we headed back to Table Mountain. He said it wasn’t very touristy but the food was excellent. His recommendation was spot-on. The restaurant, Harbour House, was located right next to the docks and had a great view of the coast. The seafood couldn’t have been better. I think it was probably the best meal we had on the entire trip. We were cutting it close, but we hustled back to Table Mountain to hopefully get to the top before they shut down the gondolas.
We made it with a few minutes to spare. From the top, you can clearly see back to Cape Town and out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. I think it ended up working out better that we went at the end of the day instead as we ere able to see a beautiful sunset from the top.
It was a full day and Ali dropped us back at the hotel where we would relax for a couple of hours before our flight home at 10:05 pm. The unfortunate thing was that our flight was actually at 8:05 pm. Realizing this at just before 7:00 pm was a bit of a shock. Even with the help of the hotel and some aggressive driving, we weren’t able to make our flight and had to re-book for the next night. Luckily, the hotel still had availability so we headed back there for the night.
The next day we decided to stay close by the hotel, relax a bit and check out the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area. We started with the ferris wheel which provided really nice views of the area. We then checked out the Diamond Museum which was interesting but really more of a sales pitch.
We then checked out the shopping area and then grabbed a beer at one of the pubs. We sat outside as the bar inside was really smoky. We noticed a sign that said that by regulation smoking was only allowed inside which we thought was rather odd. Later we grabbed some sushi at one of the waterfront restaurants recommended by a family from Cape Town that we met at Klein’s Camp before heading to the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight home.
We flew to London overnight and then back to Boston the next morning, which was 17 1/2 hours of flight time, a long way! In the end, our trip to Africa entailed 15 different flights (7 just on the safari) in 2 1/2 weeks, perhaps a bit aggressive but we had an amazing time and would go again anytime.