Cape Town itself is small. That doesn’t mean it is without
its charms. It has large open streets, clean markets, a great East
Village-esque area, and that Waterfront, but that does make it a bore (unless
you want to spend two weeks living the East-Village-esque life). Most of the
main attractions in Cape Town, outside of Table Mountain, are outside the city
itself, with the most remote being the drive towards Cape Point (aka Cape of
Good Hope). Luckily for me and any others willing to spend at least half a day
going there, it is arguably the most beautiful in the Western Cape. My voyage
down towards the most South-Westernly point of Africa would only start at 1:00
PM, so that left me with a good portion of the day free to do what I please (in
a way, I’m free to do what I please for almost all days in the near future).
I got up around 9:00, unsure of what to do. I didn’t really
have a structured plan for the mornings. I knew where I was going for lunch
(Arnold’s) and I knew where it was, but I wasn’t sure what to do until then.
The District Six museum is close by, but for some reason that escapes me as I
write this, I didn’t go there. Instead, I meandered around Long Street, the
heretofore mentioned East Village of Cape Town. It is home to many bars, clubs
and various backpacking establishments that I forewent to stay near the
waterfront. I probably won’t say this is a bad decision, as I don’t plan to do
much partying in Cape Town, but I do feel like I missed out on a more central,
if less beautiful, location. Long Street was as advertised. It probably wasn’t
as budget-friendly as it claimed to be, which was strange given the
preponderance of people traveling on a budget living close by. Anyway, I didn’t
stop at any place on Long street, though I will at some point. My destination
was further down, on Long’s quieter twin, Kloof (Long Street becomes Kloof
Street, for those who didn’t get that – probably everyone). Arnold’s was
located down Kloof Street, a nice little place with a ton of outdoor seating,
and great views of Table Mountain, Table Peak and Lions Head. The food there is
more traditional (almost every main item is served without sauces) but they
still had the special African meats, something I missed when reading over their
menu in the research for my trip. Arnold’s also had a bunch of people there
eating breakfast around noon. Now, maybe they were going there for the
breakfast, which they serve all day, or maybe it was that like Spain and many
other European countries, the people of South Africa don’t really ‘work’. I
like to think it is the second one.
The food at Arnold’s was very, very good. I haven’t had bad
food yet in South Africa, but even though it wasn’t as trendy and wasn’t as
‘gourmet’ as Sevruga, it was effective in its simplicity. First was Crocodile
Ribs. I’ll admit, I was totally caught off-guard by just how good Crocodile
Meat is. The Ribs were done in the flavor of normal ribs, but the Crocodile
Meat was softer, and had a really great tangy taste (that was probably the
sauce). The hidden secret with Crocodile: the interior bones are edible, just
slightly crunchy, but absolutely tasty. The second course was an Ostrich
Burger. Again, it was just a normal burger (though it had some great
caramelized onions on top), but it was Ostrich meat. After having Ostrich
twice, I am ready to pronounce Ostrich meat as absolutely brilliant. As our tour
guide (you’ll meet him soon) would randomly say later, Ostrich meat is the “red
meat of the future.” I don’t know about that, but it is apparently really
healthy and it is definitely really tasty. Another good meal in Cape Town, made
better by another great scene.
From Arnold’s itself I was picked up by one of the African Eagle Tours’ vans, and met my driver, Ulaf. There was only one other person in the Van at the time, an older British lady whose name I can’t remember, and for a few minutes I feared that the tour would just be the two of us. Then, the tour van gratefully stopped at another location, to pick up Frederick, a late-20’s German guy. The van then stepped two more times, first picking up a young Danish couple (the Benson’s – the woman, by the way, was absolutely stunning) and an American guy from Vegas, Kenneth. It was a real mix of accents and ages, but really, the people on the tour were very much secondary to the sights that we all saw on the tour (yeah, even the Danish woman was secondary after a while). Ulaf was a more than capable tour guide, spinning some good stories among his endless collection of facts. A good tour guide is a must for this trip because a majority of the time (6 hours in this half-day trip) was spent in the car. We went down the Waterfront in Cape Town to ‘Sea Point’, and then left Cape Town, and the real journey began.
Crocodile Meat, as good as it looks, unless you think it looks odd, then it is much better than it looks.
From Arnold’s itself I was picked up by one of the African Eagle Tours’ vans, and met my driver, Ulaf. There was only one other person in the Van at the time, an older British lady whose name I can’t remember, and for a few minutes I feared that the tour would just be the two of us. Then, the tour van gratefully stopped at another location, to pick up Frederick, a late-20’s German guy. The van then stepped two more times, first picking up a young Danish couple (the Benson’s – the woman, by the way, was absolutely stunning) and an American guy from Vegas, Kenneth. It was a real mix of accents and ages, but really, the people on the tour were very much secondary to the sights that we all saw on the tour (yeah, even the Danish woman was secondary after a while). Ulaf was a more than capable tour guide, spinning some good stories among his endless collection of facts. A good tour guide is a must for this trip because a majority of the time (6 hours in this half-day trip) was spent in the car. We went down the Waterfront in Cape Town to ‘Sea Point’, and then left Cape Town, and the real journey began.
The drive down to Cape Point is just one long game of ‘Can
You Top That?’ of picturesque scenery. The drive to Cape Point was made
primarily along the Western Coast of the Western Cape, which meant a drive
along the ’12 Apostles’ (Twelve peaks overlooking four beaches and a bunch of
really expensive homes), down to Hout Bay, Camps Bay and a few other Bay’s
whose names I have forgotten. We then entered into the Chapman’s Peak part of
the drive. Chapman’s Peak is known for being one of the best stretches of road
in terms of scenery in the world. Knowing this information before hand, I was
actually slightly underwhelmed. That isn’t to say it isn’t beautiful, as it
most certainly was, but nothing really separated Chapman’s Peak from the drive
that preceded or followed it other than the road being at its most windy. We
were given our first photo-stop at Chapman’s Peak, and the results are below.
It is really hard to describe this stretch of land. In one
way, it is a stretch of road that is present in a whole bunch of countries,
from the US in California, to the Amalfi Coast in Italy. But this combines the
hugging-the-water-and-mountain aspect of those drives, but the mountains
themselves resembled Banff National Park in Canada. It was the best of both
worlds in that way. For the drive to the Point, the mountains were primarily on
our left as we drove South, and had what been to our right been just fields of
wheat instead of beautiful blue water crashing into white-sand beaches or
treacherous rocks, it still would have been great. We then cut across the Cape
to the Eastern Side to visit Simonstown and the famous African ‘Jackass’
Penguins, so called because the noise they make resembles a donkey. Once again,
I was exhibited no evidence of this, but the penguins were adorable
nonetheless. They all clustered around the boardwalk where we could take
pictures of them. They weren’t really close enough to really interact with, but
it was fun being that close to Penguins in the wild, something I haven’t ever
done.
The next part of the trip was the drive down the Eastern
part of the Cape, which surrounds False Bay, so named because some sailor
hundreds of years ago mistook the peaks of the Cape of Good Hope for the Cape
that envelops the opposite side of the Bay, and got stuck for days trying to
maneuver his way from the ‘False’ cape. Having the shadowy outline of mountains
in the distance makes the scene just that much more haunting. The final stretch
saw us enter the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Before we entered, our guide
warned us of avoiding the baboons. Apparently, these are a type of
super-aggressive baboons that were so insatiable that they would open your back-pack
to get food (but also civilized enough to give the backpack back in decent
condition if they didn’t find any food). Sadly, our drive to Cape Point once we
entered the reserve was uneventful in that respect. The beautiful scenery was
still was there, as were the Protea Bushes (little, perfectly half-spherical
shrubs) and the rest of the flora. It took about fifteen minutes after we
entered the reserve to reach Cape Point. It is commonly known as the
Southernmost point of the African Continent, as well as the place where the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans merge. Neither of these claims are true. Strangely,
both of these claims are true about a different Cape. It is quite obvious that
Cape needs a better marketing director, considering it is the southernmost place and the place where two oceans meet, but
I digress.
Cape Point is gorgeous. There is really no good way to do
Cape Point (not to mention many of the other parts of the drive) justice in
words, or even pictures. Standing at the lighthouse on top of Cape Point, you
immediately are overcome with a sense of “Am I really here”. The amount of
ancient sailors that viewed Cape Point as the point where their long journey
around Africa was complete. Back in the day, sailing around Cape Point was at
times the only way to get from Europe to Asia, and just knowing its importance
in that sense is quite meaningful. You get a perfect view of the larger bay
between Cape Point and the Cape to its East, a wonderful panorama of blue water
surrounded by mountains that look alive in the forefront, and mystical in the
background. Cape Point marked the conclusion of the drive’s purpose, and
outside of the great scenery on the way back, the return to Cape Town was
mostly without incident, except for the cameo of the baboon.
For years when I was younger, I had visited Six Flags Great
Adventure, home of their own Wildlife Safari, which was home to a collection of
mischevious baboons that would climb on cars, eat the food the patron’s threw
at them, and basically caused constant mayhem. These baboons were no different.
There were four different baboons that took roost on top of one of the cars driving by. The rest were
crossing the road, following their leader, and doing all of the things baboons
are known to do when they come across humans. Our guide took precaution by
locking the door immediately. It was probably for naught, as the baboons seemed
more interested in climbing atop cars than going inside them, as three or four
went on top of cars ranging from another tour van (who’s passengers were
probably excited) and a nice, new BMW (whose passengers were probably scared
terribly for their car). Our driver deftly guided the van past the pack of
baboons, and we were off, back to Cape Town.
The drive back was mostly uneventful, as the driver took the
Eastern route for the most part, avoiding driving us by Chapman’s Peak and Hout
Bay again. The only notable scenery was as we entered back into the Cape Town
area, with large tree-lined streets and canopy trees at the foot of the mountains
next to us. I was quite tired and unwilling to spend much more time in cars, so
instead of venture back to Long Street, I went to the Waterfront, which is
probably too close and convenient for my own good. I went to Quay Four Tavern,
the only ‘cheap’ place there, but their food was still quite good. Better was
the view, right in the heart of the waterfront. They also had great live music
playing from when I came (9:15) past when I left (10:30). I then headed to the
Waterfront’s main bar, Michelle’s Brewery, to catch the end of the Real Madrid
– Barcelona Copa Del Rey (which Madrid quite dominantly won 3-1). Even at this
spot, thousands of miles away on the tip of the other side of the earth, futbol
is still the world’s game, I guess. Being a Barca hater, the night ended well,
but even had I not watched the game, it would have ended well anyway, with a
great, music-filled night on the Waterfront of Cape Town.
The V&A Waterfront at Night