Travel

South Africa (2020)

Cape Town – One adventure chases the next

The night drive to Cape Town unfortunately turned out to be not nearly as pleasant as the previous drive to Port Elizabeth. The bus was only a so-called Mainliner which meant that it was not a sleeping bus, although it drove overnight. Unfortunately the two drivers did not behave calmly at all. They did not really talked but rather screamed throughout the whole bus (this could not be called a normal conversation anymore). Sometime around 3 o’clock in the morning one of them got off the bus and we got a few more hours of sleep. This bus also had a small TV in the front where a Christian children’s series called “Superbook” was running in an endless loop. Shortly before our destination the bus had to turn around again because it accidentally left two passengers at a gas station. All in all it was a very bizarre bus ride, although luckily not as bad as the Mokhotlong bus in Lesotho 😉

Arriving in Cape Town we first went to our AirBnB. It was a nice big house where a middle-aged couple lived, Brian and Ruth. They offered the free rooms in their house via AirBnB and also some students lived there for a longer period of time. Besides us, there was one student from Kenya and one from France, even though we hardly saw them. Brian and Ruth also had two incredibly sweet and lovely cats, as well as birds and fish. In addition they had a dog named Naruto. Their daughter had given the name to the dog, because she seems to be a big anime fan like us. We talked a lot with them during our stay. For example, we learned that their daughter was an English teacher in South Korea at the time. All in all it was a really great accommodation.

Our first walk led us to a real insider tip, which we received from a South African work colleague: The Old Bisquit Mill, a place with small art shops. We were lucky that it was just Saturday, because every Saturday there is a market with many culinary specialties from all over the world and with live music. We tried our way through the stalls. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was really good. There were even stalls with German food. Among other things, a stand with German “Flammkuchen” and a big sign: “Don’t call it Pizza!”. Strengthened, we went to the smaller shops where I bought a nice new dress. We can only recommend to visit the Old Bisquit Mill if you are in Cape Town on a Saturday.

Unfortunately, we had already noticed in Port Elizabeth that we had forgotten the charging cable for our camera in Germany and so slowly the battery was running out. Therefore, our next way should lead us to a big camera shop, which I had searched out online before. As we approached the shop, we already noticed emergency vehicles and a crowd of people in front of it. We knew immediately that something was wrong. We found ourselves in front of a barrier. Behind it was a parking lot and the actual store. In the parking lot there was a man who had been shot and the paramedics were desperately trying to reanimate him. We went on quickly to escape the mob of onlookers. Later we learned that there had been an armed robbery at this very camera shop. The man we saw there on the floor was the security guard and unfortunately he did not survive. Still today I get a queasy feeling when I think back on it. If we’d only gotten there half an hour earlier, this could have been us. Here is one of the news articles about this incident: https://www.iol.co.za/weekend-argus/news/security-guard-killed-in-cape-town-cbd-store-robbery-43279097

The next camera shop was in Waterfront, a very nice area directly on the coast with hotels, shopping malls and lots of tourists along wealthy, mostly white, South Africans. On the map it did not look that far away. And so we made a mistake, which we actually should not have made after about 2 weeks in South Africa. Before we walked to Old Bisquit Mill we had asked Brian if it was safe to walk there, which he ensured us. Because of the safe footpath to Old Bisquit Mill and not very reflective because of the shock at the first camera shop, we started walking towards Waterfront. This was not very recommendable. Our way led us through several “unsafe” areas of Cape Town, such as the train station area. As foreigners and especially as white foreigners we were partly easy game there. The first incident happened when we crossed the station building. Suddenly a cleaning lady ran towards us. At that moment we noticed a group of teenagers running away behind us. They had tampered unnoticed with the zipper of Kevin’s backpack, but luckily he didn’t have anything important in it and they were chased away by the lady in time. She escorted us safely through the building and we thanked her. Of course it is not nice when someone tries to rob you and I often mentioned the high crime rate in South Africa. But it is nice to see that there are still people, like this lady, who intervene without hesitation and help you. A little further on, just before Waterfront, we actually felt safer. We were in an area of the city with many skyscrapers in which luxury hotels were located. At a traffic light a man approached us and asked us for money. I neglected and we went on quickly. However, he began to follow us. At the next traffic light I shouted to him to stop following us. He then took out a large pair of scissors from his jacket. We immediately turned on the heel and moved away from him. He was still following us. At the entrance of the next luxury hotel I approached a security guard who could finally scare away our pursuer. The security man was visibly worried about us and explained us how to get to the Waterfront on the fastest way, where we luckily arrived without any further incidents.

Robben Island

The next morning we took the first ferry to Robben Island. This island became known as prison island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Although I am not a big fan of guided tours, but prefer to explore new places on my own, it is a different thing on Robben Island. On the one hand, one can only visit the island as a tourist within a guided tour, on the other hand, the guided tour was qualitatively one of the best that I have experienced so far. Once we arrived on the island, we were divided into several buses. There, we were welcomed by a very motivated guide who addressed us tourist group in every second sentence with “Good People”. The bus drove us to the entrance area of the prison complex, where another travel guide welcomed us. He had a very special relationship to this place, because he himself was imprisoned here and so he did not only dryly present numbers and dates, but also put the focus on his personal experiences and stories. This made the tour something really special. Afterwards we went back to the bus, where the first travel guide gave us a short tour to learn more about the history of the island. All in all, this is was interesting, even if it is a shocking place but still definitely worth a visit. During the tour, we learned a lot of new things and thanks to the personal stories we could get an impression of what it meant to be imprisoned here.

Lion’s Head and Signal Hill

Cape Town is especially famous for its impressive Table Mountain. Besides Table Mountain there are other mountains, of which Lion’s Head is also quite famous. Since we already had the first tour to Robben Island early in the morning, we had enough time to climb Lion’s Head. Somewhere I had heard that you could climb this mountain within 30min. In retrospect this seems utopian to me. In addition, we walked up in the blazing midday sun. A classic hiking trail led up the first part of the mountain. After about three quarters of the way the path suddenly became stony and a sign informed us that the ascent was at our own risk. Of course I didn’t want to turn back so close to my destination. But Kevin had a rather bad feeling about the whole thing, especially since his fear of heights became apparent. Besides, the heat was already tugging at his strength. So we negotiated a deal. Kevin sat down on a nearby bench and I would walk the last few meters and take some nice pictures at the summit. So I started to climb along the ever growing rocks and meander along narrow paths. In some places there were ladders, in other places metal handles helped to climb up the rocks. At the beginning I pulled out my camera and filmed parts of the path. But the higher it went, the more I needed both hands. Finally, I reached a crossing where there was a signpost. One of the ways was described as “Stables and Chains” with another warning to use it at your own risk. The other route was titled as an alternative route with the addition that this route is recommended. Admittedly the sign was quite deterrent and so I felt compelled to take the alternative route. While I was standing in front of this sign and thinking, a couple came up from this alternative route. They stood next to me and said loudly: “Well, which way do you think she’ll take?” As I turned to face them, the man went on to say that they had taken the Stables and Chains up and the alternate route down. The woman added that although the path was a little scary, it was fun and much shorter. This was sufficient to convince me and so I started to climb up the metal handles and chains. In retrospect I am grateful to both of them for motivating me to take this path, because “scary but funny” describes this path perfectly and I was really proud once I made it. Even after the “Stables and Chains” trail I had not yet reached the summit. Shortly before the finish, the two trails met again and from here on one has to pass an almost endless number of stones that get bigger and bigger. This last passage was the most exhausting one. There were also ladders to climb again. And then suddenly I was at my destination. I was very proud to have made the ascent and the view was worth it in any case. To my right was Table Mountain, in front of me Cape Town and to my left the sea. I fulfilled my mission to take lots of pictures before I went down again after a short break. On the descent I met people at several places who asked me how far up it was. I cheered them on during the ascent and was proud to have already made it. When I finally got back to Kevin, he told me about a great experience he had. On the bench there was a great view of the sea and in the meantime a whale had indeed appeared off the coast, which he could watch through his binoculars. To see such an animal in the wild is something very special. And so we both had our own experiences. Together we descended only halfway and then turned off towards Signal Hill. Signal Hill was a smaller mountain to its highest point where one could quasi descend from Lion’s Head. A special feature of Signal Hill is that one can do paragliding from there. Unfortunately it was too windy for that on that day. On Signal Hill, there was also a big parking lot from where we could call an Uber back to our accommodation, where we fell almost directly into our beds and slept very deeply.

Table Mountain and Skeleton Gorge

Since the previous day with the ascent to Lion’s Head was already quite exhausting, we wanted to take it a bit easier the next day by taking the cable car up Table Mountain in the morning and then hiking down, since downhill is supposed to be easier than uphill. How naive we were! We had made the mistake not to buy our cable car tickets in advance. Thus we had to queue up in an endless long queue.

The cable car was even quite well made, because during the ride the platform on which we were standing turned around its own axis, so that one had a 360° view all around. Once we arrived at the top, it was first typically touristical with an overpriced restaurant, a souvenir shop and lots of people. Of course, the view was still very nice and the flat stone formations that are typical for the table mountain were very interesting to look at. Thus, we walked a little bigger round over the plateau until we dared to descend quite soon. There were of course numerous routes. From a colleague at work we got the tip to take a descent called Skeleton Gorge, which was a little further away than the other descents, but it looked quite feasible. We would come out at the path at the botanical garden Kirstenbosch, that is also supposed to be very nice. Google Maps told us that it would take us about 1 3/4 hours from Table Mountain to our destination.

What came next could be summed up with the statement: Google Maps was wrong. We started the descent and were still in good spirits. Here and there some big stones had to be jumped down much more than climbed, but with united forces we mastered the passage. To our encouragement, we met people even more often in the beginning. So it could not be that bad. In the course of our descent, however, after a few crossings we met fewer and fewer people. To make things worse, the Table Mountain National Park, through which our path led us, not only had absolutely no telephone reception, but also the GPS was not working properly, so that we could no longer rely on our smartphone navigation systems in the long term. At some places we got lost and at one point we had to take a detour because the actual path was blocked. The 1 3/4 hours were quickly over and the end of our way was not in sight. There was hardly any shade and the midday sun became the afternoon sun. In short: It was really very exhausting. Nevertheless, the Table Mountain National Park is incredibly beautiful and we partly had the feeling to have it for us alone. Thus, we also met some of its inhabitants. As I walked alongside some bushes, something hissed angrily at me out of the branches that I could not really see but of which I am pretty sure that it was a snake that probably wanted to tell me that I got too close to it. Later, two klipspringers crossed our path and we took a longer break in which we took extensive photos of them and followed them unobtrusively for a while. Finally, we found the first signposts that showed us the way to Skeleton Gorge. Relieved that our beautiful but incredibly long hike was slowly coming to an end, we approached the descent. Shortly before Skeleton Gorge the surroundings changed. We were now in a forest area where the path was hardly recognizable. Instead of over stones, we climbed over tree roots sticking out of the ground. Then the path suddenly stopped in front of a kind of stone slope. Slightly confused I examined the surroundings after the continuation of our way without finding anything. From further away we heard some voices. Apparently there were other people behind us on the way. We decided to wait for them and explore the rest of the way. After about 10min they had caught up with us. It was a group of young people about our age with a strong South African accent. They greeted us and asked us if everything was ok and I took the chance to ask them about the missing path. One of the men pointed to the stone slope and indicated to us that we had to climb down there. So this stone slope was Skeleton Gorge and it lived up to its name. The group knew the way quite well, since they had already come up here and went down again. We decided to join them and so from then on we walked together. At some places there were ladders to get down the stones and tree roots. “Ladders!” Kevin murmured reluctantly to me. Yes, Kevin was not very enthusiastic about the ladders and the route itself. Let’s be honest here, it was really very strenuous and I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t found the group. In retrospect, however, it is one of those experiences that one remembers with a smile. At one point a sharp branch cut Kevin’s upper arm open. It was not a very bad wound, but still he has a scar at that spot today. When we think back, we joke about the fact that Kevin can now report how he has conquered nature in Africa when someone asks him about his scar. Totally exhausted, we finally arrived at the botanical garden with united forces. We thanked the group and said goodbye. In total, instead of 1 3/4 hours we needed 7(!) hours for the whole descent. Every further step hurt us. With our last strength we shuffled into a restaurant located in the garden and allowed ourselves an absolutely deserved meal. While Kevin ordered something more normal, I crowned the day with a flambéed kudu filet. In fact, the meal brought us back just enough strength to take a little tour through the botanical garden. Besides numerous guinea fowls with their chicks, we also discovered an albino squirrel, which quickly attracted other people. This was another small highlight of this incredibly eventful day. Finally we left the botanical garden and drove back to our accommodation.

Cape Point and Boulders Beach

Although we had already visited a lot in Cape Town, we still missed two places, which fortunately were quite close together: Cape Point with the Cape of Good Hope and Boulders Beach, the famous penguin beach. Both places were too difficult to reach by public transport or via Uber, so we rented a car again for the day. Thanks to the rental car we could also drive over Chapman’s Peak Drive, an unbelievably beautiful road between cliffs and sea with very nice view points. Our first destination was the Cape Point National Park, where we went in a classic touristic way to the famous sign with the inscription “Cape of Good Hope”. We parked our car and did what everybody did: We joined the queue for a photo. After we finished this compulsory part, the original plan was to walk over to the “Flying Dutchman” lighthouse. In view of the exertions of the previous days, Kevin, fortunately, prevailed and we still continued by car. Next, we parked at the cable car station to get up to the lighthouse, but compromised that if we didn’t walk the whole distance, we would at least do this last part on foot. It was uphill, but it was a rather short distance, so that we were up in less than 20min. After more obligatory photos we went back to the car and on to Simon’s Town, where Boulders Beach was located. Admittedly we were a bit disappointed. Of course it was full of tourists who crowded the narrow footbridges, (the beach itself could not be entered directly) squeezed through and pushed to take the best pictures. To be honest, we liked the SANCCOB in Port Elizabeth much more. Later we learned that there was also a more remote part of the beach where you could have approached the penguins. Besides the penguins, we met a rock hyrax that was sitting comfortably on a tree and eating leaves. Secretly this was our real star of Boulders Beach 😉

As we had some time left until we returned the car, we drove back to Cape Town and then to Camps Bay, an incredibly chic area directly at the Atlantic Ocean, where supposedly some Hollywood stars have their villas. In the Hard Rock Café we went on a little shopping tour before we settled down in one of the numerous restaurants with sea view and had our last dinner in Cape Town. Actually we wanted to go to the beach on one of the days in Cape Town, but we didn’t really make it in time. Of course, we didn’t have any bathing suits with us that day, but at least we could take off our shoes and walk a little over the Camps Bay beach. So the day came to a relaxed end.

Signal Hill Paragliding – A worthy farewell

Our stay in Cape Town was coming to an end. Shortly after noon our bus was due to leave for Johannesburg. The weather forecast for the morning was promising and there was one thing I still wanted to do. So the previous evening I secured my first morning appointment for paragliding on Signal Hill. We got up in time and jumped into an Uber. During the ride I proudly told the rider about my plans. The excitement rose slowly and the small talk loosened the mood a bit. From far away we saw the table mountain, where an interesting picture presented itself. It was quite foggy up on the mountain, but the fog fell down at the edges. This looked as if the clouds would fall down from the table mountain, which was a great sight. Arrived at Signal Hill we found the responsible people quite fast. A sporty man with sunglasses and tattoos, I unfortunately forgot his name, greeted me and explained the course of the flight. After the obligatory paperwork some men helped me into the equipment. Next, I was ready for take-off. The start as such is already the scariest moment when paragliding. My pilot and I started jogging loosely towards the cliff. Halfway there was a sign and we started to run towards the abyss. This is a strange feeling, as the natural instinct of self-preservation usually prevents you from doing something like this. But ironically, as soon as the ground disappeared from under our feet, the fear was completely gone. I had expected it to be a bit more shaky, but it felt much more like flying over the city in a chair. It was even really comfortable. The most breathtaking thing was the view. All the buildings below you, the sea and the horizon in front of you, the table mountain next to you. As far as the weather was concerned, I was incredibly lucky because slowly fog was coming up. During my flight this was still ok, but many flights did not take place after me because the visibility was more and more limited. However, because it was so early in the morning I still had full visibility and could admire the natural spectacle from above. Shortly before landing my pilot asked me: “Do you like roller coasters?” Actually I always liked roller coasters, but hanging on a big umbrella I was not sure if I should answer this question in the affirmative. In the end, what followed was one of the most fun things about flying. The pilot steered the glider left and right to position it for landing. It went up and down, like on a roller coaster. The comparison was appropriate and it was really a lot of fun. We landed on a green area on the promenade of Sea Point. A lady took us back up to Signal Hill in her car and during the ride the pilot copied all the photos and videos of the flight to my mobile phone. Paragliding is a great experience and I would not be averse to do it again sometime. In Cape Town with this unique landscape, paragliding is once again a very special experience, which I can absolutely recommend. For me it was an absolutely worthy farewell for this city in which we have experienced so much. Satisfied we set off for our next destination: Johannesburg.

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