South Africa: Captivating Cape Town

After a phenomenal safari experience in Kruger National Park, we rounded out our stay in South Africa with a trip to Cape Town, famed for its beaches, wineries, and much more. Kelly and I spent these few days with her parents, as Julie had to head back to Amsterdam for work.

You may have read or heard about the water shortage in Cape Town, which is a HUGE problem with the current multi-year drought they’re experiencing. We almost had to change our plans to go elsewhere because the water to the city was scheduled to be SHUT OFF during the time we’d be staying. Thankfully, the predicted “d-day” was pushed back after some rainfall, and we were able to keep our plans. That all being said, we didn’t feel the water shortage as much as I thought we might while there. There were huge billboards at the airport and on the roads, and the hotel had placards reminding you to take brief showers, not to let faucets run, etc. The only noticeable differences were that the plugs were removed from the bathtubs (so you had to take showers), and public restrooms had the water to the faucets shut off and instead offered hand sanitizer.

We stayed at a Protea hotel near the popular V&A Waterfront, a lively marina with seemingly endless restaurants, a ferris wheel, and incredible views of Cape Town’s most stunning feature: Table Mountain. Because we were so close, we spent a good deal of time roaming around this area for meals, souvenir shopping, and to watch the entertaining street performers. We even got the chance one morning to go on a tour of the Leopard catamaran factory and then go see the boats out on the water at the marina. The V&A is also where you can catch tours to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for many, many years. Unfortunately, we didn’t try to book well enough in advance, and tickets were sold out until weeks after we left Cape Town. Lesson learned!

The sunset as seen from our hotel one evening!

The V&A Waterfront with Table Mountain in the background.

The V&A is very touristy, but is also still a functioning marina.

Here you can see a lowered bridge that swings open to let boats pass.

A Leopard catamaran in the marina.

We were lucky enough to get to go on a tour of one!

Couldn’t help but love this sign.

In front of the giant ferris wheel, which we then rode 🙂

Pam posing with one of the many street performers around the area.

Pam shopping for some souvenirs. She actually left this bag in the restroom by accident, but some kind soul returned it to the store that she bought it from (with it’s name on the bag) so she could recover it!

This was one of our first dinners in Cape Town, at a wonderful Portuguese restaurant.

And our last dinner in Cape Town, overlooking the marina.

Another highlight of our days in Cape Town was summiting Table Mountain itself. It is possible to hike up the mountain, but there is a convenient cableway for the less adventurous (plus there’s lots of walking around to do once you get to the top). We went pretty early in the morning, soon after the cableway opened, and boy were we glad we did. By the time we came back down at midday, the lines to buy tickets and get on the cableway were ENORMOUS! I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking :).

Pam is not the biggest fan of heights…

Here we are as the cable car is heading up!

Looking back onto Cape Town from within the cable car.

In case you’d rather check Insta than explore Table Mountain 🙂

Here you can see the hiking path up Table Mountain.

What a beautiful view.

The city below us.

The footing on the rocks on the plateau was not always so sure…

Heading across to the other side.

Looking out across the Twelve Disciples, a series of small peaks (that aren’t too distinct from this angle).

The whole gang!

The walk up top was gorgeous!

Some couple shots…

… with the city in the background below.

This shot gives you a good idea of the sheer drop off from the top.

The view of the cable cars as they travel.

What an awesome experience!

And of course, like in many other cities around the world, we opted to spend an afternoon on the tourist-friendly Hop-on Hop-off Bus that circles the city and provides information at the same time. This was one of the best ones we’ve been on and highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Cape Town. We completed one loop on the bus just to find out what we could learn about the city and it’s suburbs, and then hopped off at a spot we had picked out on the first go around. We decided to get off for lunch at Camps Bay, a lovely beach suburb on the other side of Lion’s Head (another of the mountains flanking Cape Town). We had a nice meal, enjoyed a scenic beach stroll, and even bought some souvenirs off the street before heading back to the V&A for the evening.

Pam snagged us some front seats on this double-decker HOHO bus!

We got off at Camps Bay and enjoyed exploring this little beach suburb.

Eating lunch at a nice Italian place looking out over the ocean.

The palm-lined ocean drive.

And the sandy beach of Camps Bay!

Looking back up the other direction, opposite Lion’s Head.

Our next post will cover our thrilling day tour to the Cape of Good Hope, the southwestern most point on the African continent. Get ready for seals, ostriches, penguins, and a lot of beautiful vistas!

-Adam