CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

• Penguins seen: &€%#8€&
• Whales seen from a train: 3
• Kilometres driven on Cape: 658km
• Southernmost point of a continent: check, Africa

Cape Town welcomed us with a party. It had been a long time since we were in a western country and everything seemed really bizarre again: we landed on a buzzing street with bars and throbbing music so loud we could hear it in our Airbnb a few blocks away. Since it was a Saturday night, and despite being tired after the 6-hour flight from Nairobi we decided to go for a beer just because attending nightlife felt strange. 

Cape Town is quite a beautiful place with its old architecture, hilly environment, waterfront shops and restaurants and many parks. It actually reminded me a lot of Auckland! The food was great, beer cheap, supermarkets well-stocked, Uber abundant, people friendly. People speak Afrikaans and English, and a few dozen tribal languages, some of which we learned from an Uber driver. The only thing I found disturbing was the amount of poor people on the streets. In most places you just get the occasional beggar sitting on the street asking for money, but here they start following you, begging for food. Some did not have shoes on, and one particularly horrific encounter on our morning run was with a dirty, smelly homeless man dressed only in black plastic bags. Most towns around the Cape have a section called a township where people seem to live like in slums, very cramped, dirty, dangerous and no facilities. To our astonishment the apartheid times are still affecting this place.

The main train station was bustling with beggars, dirty as hell, and the trains seemed to be from another era: old metro wagons, graffiti all over them and so dirty inside you had to look where you can sit, once you actually found a seat whose cushions were not ripped off. The walls inside were covered with stickers offering services such as boob and bum jobs and witch doctor services. Because we love trains, it was still a good experience, especially when the train route neared the coast and we could see the ocean from the train window. We spotted whales just sitting on the train! We were headed to Boulders Beach which is known for its penguin colony. And penguins we saw, many of them, just lying there, not caring about us humans staring at them. 

After a few days of city life, enjoying the privileges of yoghurt for breakfast, TV in lodging, walkable distances and the ability to go out after dark, we rented a car hoping to see some more of Western Cape. We did a little stroll up the Table Mountain, as we did not want to queue up for the cable car (1 hour’s wait) and visited Signal Hill for a spectacular view of the said mountain and the city. Headed for the Cape of Good Hope and towards the wine lands surrounding Cape Town the route was quite amazing and varied from coastal beauty to the marvels of mountains. We even dipped into the freezing cold sea! Arriving to Franschhoek village, known for its wine, we checked into our Airbnb, a cute cottage in the middle of a fruit farm. I enjoyed the splendid views while sipping complimentary sherry and catching up with some work. The mountains surrounding the village were marvellous, and the fruit trees in full bloom perfected the scenery, it is spring after all.

The following day may well be one of the best days in my life. We went on a wine tram tour! That means wine and trams - two things I absolutely love. We started early in the morning, walking 1km up to the town where the tram departed, hopped on the bus and off we went to our first winery of the day. Although the clock had not even struck 11 am yet we had a little wine tasting and enjoyed the vineyard scenery. The next winery offered us a cellar tour and we learned that they even have a school there on the premises for the winery workers’ children. How convenient! Next up we boarded the tram and even got to taste some wine while traveling! It was an old style, double-decker, open roof vehicle with a balcony at the front and we were sitting there in the open air, cool wind blowing on our faces, sipping a crisp Chenin Blanc (from a plastic cup, a minor detail, but disappointing.) Lunch was beautiful, delicious, efficient, lovely mushroom lasagne and pulled pork wrap with paired wines, of course, and a mouth watering piece of carrot cake for dessert. At this point I was feeling so high on everything - and a little tipsy from all the wine - I thought I would not make it through the day. Luckily another ride on the tram freshened me up and I had energy for the last winery. And it was the best one! Spectacular gardens, farm shop, restaurants, tasting room… and the wines were good too. So good we nearly missed the last tram back as we were preoccupied with enjoyment. 

Next up, after the wine lands, was a small village by the sea called Betty’s Bay, where we drove via a little detour: down the mountains and all the way to the southernmost point of Africa. With one foot on the Indian Ocean side and another on the Atlantic side, we looked directly south in the freezing breeze, hoping to see Antarctica but realised it is thousands of kilometres away! The sun had almost set once we reached our Airbnb in the Bay, and were greeted by a courteous man named Rudolph whose business was solely renting the two rooms in his brand new house. He cooked us the best breakfast we have had in a long time! Betty’s Bay is known for its large penguin colony and we spent a long time just staring at those funny creatures, spotting some penguin babies, dassies and birds as well. Near the botanical gardens we hiked up the hill to a beautiful waterfall with magnificent views of the sea behind us. 

We are currently already in Swaziland, nowadays known as the Kingdom of eSwatini, a curious little country nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. I will write more about this and our last days of the world trip soon.