Cape Town by Bus

Monday evening the other two physical therapists (PTs) arrived. We decided to take quick overview tour of CapeTown. We purchased the Red and Blue Bus passes. Earphones were provided in order to listen to the facts and information about what we were seeing. We arrived in time to sit on the top deck of the double decker bus. The "tourguide" recording could be heard in English, French, and several other languages I don't remember. The buses can be used as transportation as one can get on and off at the stops throughout the day (they come roughly every 20 minutes). We, however, only had time to stay on. Some stops were longer than others depending on the number of people getting on/off.

We saw downtown, passed by the hospital where the first and second successful heart transplants were done, the university, neighborhood that the slaves went to when freed (the buildings are painted bright colors in response to having to wear drabe colors for years), beaches, Table Mountain, Kristenbosch Gardens, wineries, informal settlements, and the waterfront.

We did stop at Kristenbough gardens again. It was sunny making it even more beautiful than Sunday. We walked up to the back of the gardens to see Proteas.  We were rewarded with a view of CapeTown below in the distance. We also toured through the tree canopy bridge, cydads, and statues.

It was also great to see the beaches near CapeTown on the bus tour. It was sunny Tuesday, but it was foggy Sunday as we drove this area. The beach front/cliff properties are very valuable. Even Russians are purchasing the properties. Some people have lifts outside their homes, this allows them to bring their groceries and the like up without climbing many many stairs. One of the towns has 4 distinct beaches depending if single, young, older, local, traveler. Each town has their own personality and identity.

Cape Town has something for almost everyone (I hesitate to make a blanket statement and say everyone). I was able to scratch the surface. Hiking, biking, running, boating, paragliding, animals, fish, kite surfing, surfing, walking along beach front, concerts, museums, tours, shopping, wineries, restaurants, public transportation, hotels, hostels, and markets. One can choose to explore on foot, bus, guided tour, boat, helicopter, cable car, ferris wheel, and taxi.  People and food literally from around the world can be found within a very small area. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Cape Town, I highly recommend taking advantage of it.

Dry Docked Ship

Ship in dry dock with Table Mountain backdrop

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One of buildings on Long Street

Green building is one of the brightly colored ones. The others were farther up the street

View from Table Mountain

Table Mountain cablecar

A portion of the Twelve Apostles (there are really 17)

One of the beaches near the "no wind" zone. As you can see, it is not the no wind zone the realtors like to claim

Two of the languages available on the bus tour

Stadium constructed for the 2010 World Cup. It requires 100,000 RAN  a month (I think) to maintain it now. 

Fun with reflections at a bus stop

Evidence the Dutch were here for several years

University of Cape Town

An informal settlement

How to Make the most of your Limited Time 

Surprise, you are unexpectedly given 36 hours to tour Cape Town and surrounding area on a budget (my own savings, not money from support raising). Cape Town and surrounding area is beautiful. My traveling style this year has continued here. A sampling of what the place has to see and do. Knowing that I had a very limited time in this city, Kalinda and I both wanted to really wanted to see the penguins. I saw a blurb in a AAA travel magazine just days prior to coming that one of the largest gardens in the world was here. I wanted to see it. Kalinda and I had received several tips from native South Africans for how to see the most in a very short time. Our guide at the safari suggested the whole peninsula tours, and the woman who sat beside Kalinda on the plane recommended the Red and Blue bus tours. With our priorities and advise we booked a whole day peninsula tour, which translates to whirlwind tour of beautiful scenery and brief stops ranging from 20 minutes to 1 hour at some of the top tourist places. Another blessing from God, the lady who ran the tour company had toured Africa Mercy and gave us a discount.

Kalinda and I were to meet the tour minivan at 815 Saturday morning on the main road. When we arrived, we saw thousands of runners in a race. Apparently the tour company did not know/arrange for the roads being closed due to 10K and 1/2 Marathon. After waiting and watching the runners for awhile, we sprinted across them to meet the driver. Much to the driver's frustration, we drove in circles for about 10 minutes trying to get around the race route. We ended up driving through a neighborhood rather than along the coast. It was neat to see the mix of buildings and people in daily life too. It was very foggy/misty (as they say) along the coast. The driver had the additional challenge of negotiating bikers on the narrow road.

Along the way, the tour guide provided information and history about what we were seeing. I do not remember most of it, but it was fascinating to hear. Our first stop was Hout Bay. It has a beach, boat tours to see seals, shops and restaurants, and a neighborhood.We took 20 minutes to walk around and saw a man feeding a seal fish by placing a fish in his mouth. This coaxed the seal to jump up out of the water and eat it from his lips.

View of Hout Bay from Chapman's Peak

Next we enjoyed the scenery along the cliffs above the ocean before turning inland. We drove through OceanView which is one of the areas the Blacks were forced to move during the par-tide. The effects are still felt today as the area is known for drugs and murders. We saw Fynbos (fine bush) bushes as we entered the national park where Cape of Good Hope is located.  We had 40 minutes there. Kalinda and I walked up the steep paved trail and climbed many stairs to reach the lighthouse. It was very foggy, but while we were up there the fog cleared some making the flowers on and blue ocean on the way down pop with color.   We then made a quick stop to take a photo at the sign designating Cape of Good Hope.

I probably should wait to tell you this until after I have successfully sailed around it, but it was originally named Cape of Storms by the first Portuguese explore, Dias, to successfully sail around the southern tip of Africa and back to Portugal in 1488. When he returned to Portugal to tell King John II, King John wanted to name it Cape of Good Hope, so explores would continue to sail around Africa to India and the East for spices. Marketing techniques worked even back then.  Although the Portuguese sailed around it frequently, it was the Dutch who were the first Europeans to settle in the Cape in 1652. The Khoikhoi were the natives who had been living there for about 1500 years. Later the British conquered the Dutch.

Seen with fog

Fog being blown away within the course of 10 minutes. 

On the way down, When fog was lifting. Cape of Good Hope in the background

Cape Point Lighthouse about 2/3 of the way up the trail

Fog lifting and following the landscape

Cape of Good Hope the most southeastern point of the African continent

The German couple, family from Tanzania, Kalinda from Canada, Me, and the guide from South Africa piled back into the mini bus and drove along False Bay where a railway is on the edge of the cliffs. Kite surfers, surfers, and a few brave swimmers can be spotted in the water. Due to the bay being relatively protected from huge storms whales and sharks make their home there. Sharks...Someone sits up high on the cliffs watching the water for sharks. There is always a flag flying on the beaches. Black if no sharks have been seen; white if a shark has been spotted. In other areas, a special yellow net has been put in place. It is dropped during the day and lifted at night to protect people from the sharks. Months if not years of testing were done to insure other small sea creatures would not become caught in the small holes in the netting. The net has been working well now, and no small creatures have been stuck. 

We wound our way to Simon's Town which is name after someone important that I forgot :). Today, penguins live here. African Penguins that is. Boulder Park has built boardwalks through the short trees out to the beach where the penguins can be seen sleeping, walking, swimming. There are also little houses for them to sleep in under the trees. It was great fun watching them. There was a beach for public use near by which was utilized by many different nationalities. 

Penguin coming in to shore after a swim 

Note the penguin in the middle's wings are out. They did this as soon as they came out of the water to "air dry" alittle

Walking

Beautiful blue water and white sand that surround the peninsula

Platform for humans and the two large groups of penguins

Adolescent  

Napping in the shelters

We turned inward some to travel to Kirtenbosch National Gardens of South Africa. In the most recent history John Rhodes (The man whom the Rhodes scholarship is named after) left the land to South Africa Nation. It contains more than 300 acres of planted area. The garden's land continues up the mountain side. Only about 100 workers care for the grounds. The garden is well laid out into different sections. Many locals and people on vacation enjoy picnics on the grounds. Local school groups were also seen in the garden. Every Sunday in their summer (our winter) live music can be heard from a stage in front of the backdrop of mountains. Now most of the plants in the garden are native to South Africa. After the garden, we returned to the waterfront/the Mercy Ship.

World Heritage Site

Nelson Mandela cultivated these golden Birds of Paradise

Proteas with the Table Top Mountain Range in the background

Cydad trees

These trees have been around since the dinasours. Some think they were not eaten as the leaves are very thick and hard to break. 

One of the many fields/areas of multiple beautiful flowers. 

A Yellowwood trees bark and leaves. The National Tree of South Africa

 Cape Town Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

Cape Town is a wonderful city from my limited experience. Its population is about 4.8 million. The scenery the peninsula is surrounded by beautiful blue water in the harbors and bays with the Table Mountain Range in the center. The mountain range is composed of sandstone and is covered with short bushy-like plants called fynbos. There are over 2,000 species of these plants on the peninsula. 80% grow nowhere else in the world.The plants have shallow roots and small leaves. The small leaves regulate the minimal water loss due to evaporation. One of the families of these plants is portea. One species (I think) is called pin cushion. (More pictures of that in another blog)

Table Mountain with a "Tablecloth" of clouds as seen from Waterfront District

Pin cushion Protea in bloom

The Africa Mercy is currently docked in the prime, central port space on the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. The Waterfront is the most visited place in Cape Town. It is around a working harbor. It contains a huge mall, over 80 restaurants, aquarium, craft markets, ferris wheel, and live entertainment. The waterfront was named after a Queen and her second son. In last 30 years (I think) some developers bought the land. Taking advantage of looking at the development of San Francisco and other waterfronts, they developed this area combining vacation with work in one place.

 This stop in Cape Town has been a wonderful public relations stay for Mercy Ships. They had a article in newspaper, announcements on radio for ship tours (over 4,200 people came over the weekend), video on a jumbotron in the waterfront, and a vehicle and table in a central location in the mall.

All the flag were out. The ship was dressed her best for the guests

Many different cultures come to CapeTown for vacation. I thought it was great to have these three girls playing with the world simultaneously

Vehicle and information table set up in the mall

One of the tourist sailboats that goes around the harbor

harbor at sunset

Ferris Wheel ride at night. They were generous and gave a discount for volunteers on Mercy Ships. It was neat to see the area light up at night

The round building in the center is the 2010 World Cup Stadium

One of the entertainment/music groups

One of musicians/performers

Clock Tower to go with Signal Hill where the shoot of a cannon at noon daily. Originally it was used by ships to set the exact time for navigation purposes