Travelogue: The Longening
So, yes, South Africa! We're really here! We've written up several paragraphs on the trip so far, behind a cut because, as my teachers have often pointed out, I tend to get a bit wordy in my descriptions...
K_beckett:
Writing from the lobby of the guest house reception building in Cape Town, where my computer believes it to be 3:30am, but I know the "truth" that it is actually 9:30am and we are finishing our breakfast.
The trip was largely uneventful, with only a few hiccups when the names on the tickets did not exactly match the names on our IDs. But what would air travel be without that? With that sorted out, all that remained was 15 hours + some airport time to "Joburg" then a little further layover and a 2 hour flight to Cape Town. We made it to our guest house around 3pm local time and got the tour.
A brief nap later and we ventured out for our dinner... eventually settling on Toni's, a Portuguese/Mozambique cross-over restaurant. Tasty food, for which we will have to supply the photos later. Daemo's Espanata was a suspended skewer of beef and the scene stealer of the table. We also had a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Klawer Cellars (http://www.wine.co.za/directory/about.aspx?PAGEID=775), a West Coast South African wine maker in the Olifants River Valley (http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/olifantsriver-attractions.htm). The house secret sauce is called "Peri peri" and the known ingredients included parsley, garlic, and chilli and several secret ingredients. It was nicely spicey and the wine offset the spice well.
After dinner, we returned home, made an effort to stay up as late as we could before turning in.
daemo:
Sunday morning was beautfiul and clear, which is unexpected for winter, so we rushed out to the cable car that led us up to Table Mountain, a large flat topped mountain that cradles Cape Town. After an interesting ride (the floor of the cable car rotates to offer all the passengers a view of the city and the cliff side) we walked out to some incredibly stunning views. Below us the cliff fell away dramatically to a shore and ocean still blanketed under clouds, giving us a sense of grandeur and isolation at the same town. Since the top is so flat, it was easy to walk around, clambering over a few stones and boulders, and we were treated to many, many wonderful views of the area. Although there were a number of people there (inlcuding some Chinese monks!) it was easy to find solitude staring out over the neighboring peaks. We also met one of the "dassies" a guinea pig-looking creature who's actually most closely related to elephants! After too short a time on the mountain, we got on the open roofed City Sighseeing tourbus, which had a great audio tour playing as it drove, and got a good orientation to the city. Unfortunately we missed the last boat to Robben's Island (where Mandela and other politcal prisoners had spent decades) and then discovered that, being a Sunday, many museums closed early or weren't open at all. After consoling ourselves with a nice lunch at Der Anker, a restaurant at the waterfront with a lovely view, we continued on the sightseeing bus and saw several landmarks including District 6, a formerly bustling black neighborhood that had been razed during apartheid and was now abandoned, and the "Castle," really an old Dutch fort. Somehow, it was arranged for the citysightseeing tour bus to make a special stop only a few blocks away from our Guest House. Coincidentally, it was less than a block from a quiet and but delicious smelling Torrino chocolate shop. That night we had our own "high tea" on the terrace of our guest house, with tea and chocolates from the aforementioned chocolate shop as we watched the setting sun flame against the side of Table Mountain.
Monday was our first of two day trips.from Cape Town. The first day trip started in the morning when we met our guide Keith and driver Randall. We drove through the city to get to Camps Bay, a beautiful area of formerly segregated beaches and currently ritzy housing. We also got to know our guides and learned about their opinions on the politics and culture of South Africa. As we talked we drove through some very beautiful scenery, learning a little bit about Cape flora and fauna as we looked at the tiny blooming flowers, silver leafed trees, wild ostriches and ocassional antelope. We went on a particularly dramatic drive up Chapman's Peak, with amazing views of the bay and small towns below us and the clouds pouring over the gaps in the mountains next to us. The drive had been closed a few years ago to re-engineer it to prevent rock falls, and we ae very happy to report that they did an effective job. We then went to see the Cape of Good Hope, where we admired the boulders, crashing waves, important sign, and many other tourists. We then did a short but tiring hike up to Cape Point and its lighthouse. The views from there were spectacular, encompassing two different bays and dramatic cliffs We (okay, maybe just me) were very disappointed that we didn't get to see any of the baboons that all the signs warned about (they are dangerous animals that are attracted to food!) but luckily there was a small troop of them sitting by the side of the road on the drive out, casually crossing back and forth, babies and all. We took many pictures, and even broke a few rules by going right next to them with the windows open. We joked that they were so relaxed around cars and people that they would have jumped in to join the tour if we'd opened the door! Next we went to Simon's town and got to see a small group of jackass penguins very, very close up - it was off the beaten path so it was just them and us playing hide and seek around a few bushes and a small beach. They had a tendency to lie flat in small burrows, so we had to watch out that we didn't step on them by accident! We also saw a pygmy puma, though my mom claims it was just a black cat. We then rushed back to Cape Town before the markets closed to check out the Greenmarket Square Market and the Pan-African Market to buy our souvenirs - otherwise how would we remember anything?! We ended the night relaxing at home and then enjoying a very special and delicious meal at Aubergine with a bottle of Stellenbosch special variety wine Pinotage (this one from the Beyerskloof winery).
Tuesday, we ventured out to the winelands, courtesy of much joint research by K_beckett and his Dad. Before we got the booze, however, we went to the gorgeous Kirstenboch gardens. We admired the vivid golden Mandela flower, enjoyed the dramatic cliffs rising above the gardens, smelled our way through the Useful Gardens and saw the remnants of the almond hedge that Jan van Riebeck had planted in the 1600's in what was likely the first attempt at apartheid. After we strolled out under the shade of the large and strong smelling camphor trees, it was off to the vineyards! We went to four different wineries, all in stunning locations to the east of Cape Town. In between tastings we talked more about the culture of the area, including the languages, the successes and failures of the current president, and the changing realities of the townships. After lunch we went to our last tasting at the historical winery Lanzerac and got to taste a Pioneer Pinotage, in honor of the first time this uniquely South Africa grape (a hybrid of tasy pinot noir and good-growing hermitage) was bottled and sold by Lanzerac. Oh, and I got a shot of honey liquer in a chocolate cup, so the day was declared a sucess. After a short visit to the Bo-Kaap museum, which talks about Cape Town's "colored" quarter, a predominately Muslim population descended from freed slaves from India, Indonesia and Malaysia, it was time for a sad good bye to our guides and back to more packing for us, as we prepared for Wednesday's plane ride to George.
We're currently in Knysna, about to head off to a Forest walk. K_beckett is going to drive for his first time on the wrong side of the road, so wish us luck!
K_beckett:
Writing from the lobby of the guest house reception building in Cape Town, where my computer believes it to be 3:30am, but I know the "truth" that it is actually 9:30am and we are finishing our breakfast.
The trip was largely uneventful, with only a few hiccups when the names on the tickets did not exactly match the names on our IDs. But what would air travel be without that? With that sorted out, all that remained was 15 hours + some airport time to "Joburg" then a little further layover and a 2 hour flight to Cape Town. We made it to our guest house around 3pm local time and got the tour.
A brief nap later and we ventured out for our dinner... eventually settling on Toni's, a Portuguese/Mozambique cross-over restaurant. Tasty food, for which we will have to supply the photos later. Daemo's Espanata was a suspended skewer of beef and the scene stealer of the table. We also had a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Klawer Cellars (http://www.wine.co.za/directory/about.aspx?PAGEID=775), a West Coast South African wine maker in the Olifants River Valley (http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/olifantsriver-attractions.htm). The house secret sauce is called "Peri peri" and the known ingredients included parsley, garlic, and chilli and several secret ingredients. It was nicely spicey and the wine offset the spice well.
After dinner, we returned home, made an effort to stay up as late as we could before turning in.
daemo:
Sunday morning was beautfiul and clear, which is unexpected for winter, so we rushed out to the cable car that led us up to Table Mountain, a large flat topped mountain that cradles Cape Town. After an interesting ride (the floor of the cable car rotates to offer all the passengers a view of the city and the cliff side) we walked out to some incredibly stunning views. Below us the cliff fell away dramatically to a shore and ocean still blanketed under clouds, giving us a sense of grandeur and isolation at the same town. Since the top is so flat, it was easy to walk around, clambering over a few stones and boulders, and we were treated to many, many wonderful views of the area. Although there were a number of people there (inlcuding some Chinese monks!) it was easy to find solitude staring out over the neighboring peaks. We also met one of the "dassies" a guinea pig-looking creature who's actually most closely related to elephants! After too short a time on the mountain, we got on the open roofed City Sighseeing tourbus, which had a great audio tour playing as it drove, and got a good orientation to the city. Unfortunately we missed the last boat to Robben's Island (where Mandela and other politcal prisoners had spent decades) and then discovered that, being a Sunday, many museums closed early or weren't open at all. After consoling ourselves with a nice lunch at Der Anker, a restaurant at the waterfront with a lovely view, we continued on the sightseeing bus and saw several landmarks including District 6, a formerly bustling black neighborhood that had been razed during apartheid and was now abandoned, and the "Castle," really an old Dutch fort. Somehow, it was arranged for the citysightseeing tour bus to make a special stop only a few blocks away from our Guest House. Coincidentally, it was less than a block from a quiet and but delicious smelling Torrino chocolate shop. That night we had our own "high tea" on the terrace of our guest house, with tea and chocolates from the aforementioned chocolate shop as we watched the setting sun flame against the side of Table Mountain.
Monday was our first of two day trips.from Cape Town. The first day trip started in the morning when we met our guide Keith and driver Randall. We drove through the city to get to Camps Bay, a beautiful area of formerly segregated beaches and currently ritzy housing. We also got to know our guides and learned about their opinions on the politics and culture of South Africa. As we talked we drove through some very beautiful scenery, learning a little bit about Cape flora and fauna as we looked at the tiny blooming flowers, silver leafed trees, wild ostriches and ocassional antelope. We went on a particularly dramatic drive up Chapman's Peak, with amazing views of the bay and small towns below us and the clouds pouring over the gaps in the mountains next to us. The drive had been closed a few years ago to re-engineer it to prevent rock falls, and we ae very happy to report that they did an effective job. We then went to see the Cape of Good Hope, where we admired the boulders, crashing waves, important sign, and many other tourists. We then did a short but tiring hike up to Cape Point and its lighthouse. The views from there were spectacular, encompassing two different bays and dramatic cliffs We (okay, maybe just me) were very disappointed that we didn't get to see any of the baboons that all the signs warned about (they are dangerous animals that are attracted to food!) but luckily there was a small troop of them sitting by the side of the road on the drive out, casually crossing back and forth, babies and all. We took many pictures, and even broke a few rules by going right next to them with the windows open. We joked that they were so relaxed around cars and people that they would have jumped in to join the tour if we'd opened the door! Next we went to Simon's town and got to see a small group of jackass penguins very, very close up - it was off the beaten path so it was just them and us playing hide and seek around a few bushes and a small beach. They had a tendency to lie flat in small burrows, so we had to watch out that we didn't step on them by accident! We also saw a pygmy puma, though my mom claims it was just a black cat. We then rushed back to Cape Town before the markets closed to check out the Greenmarket Square Market and the Pan-African Market to buy our souvenirs - otherwise how would we remember anything?! We ended the night relaxing at home and then enjoying a very special and delicious meal at Aubergine with a bottle of Stellenbosch special variety wine Pinotage (this one from the Beyerskloof winery).
Tuesday, we ventured out to the winelands, courtesy of much joint research by K_beckett and his Dad. Before we got the booze, however, we went to the gorgeous Kirstenboch gardens. We admired the vivid golden Mandela flower, enjoyed the dramatic cliffs rising above the gardens, smelled our way through the Useful Gardens and saw the remnants of the almond hedge that Jan van Riebeck had planted in the 1600's in what was likely the first attempt at apartheid. After we strolled out under the shade of the large and strong smelling camphor trees, it was off to the vineyards! We went to four different wineries, all in stunning locations to the east of Cape Town. In between tastings we talked more about the culture of the area, including the languages, the successes and failures of the current president, and the changing realities of the townships. After lunch we went to our last tasting at the historical winery Lanzerac and got to taste a Pioneer Pinotage, in honor of the first time this uniquely South Africa grape (a hybrid of tasy pinot noir and good-growing hermitage) was bottled and sold by Lanzerac. Oh, and I got a shot of honey liquer in a chocolate cup, so the day was declared a sucess. After a short visit to the Bo-Kaap museum, which talks about Cape Town's "colored" quarter, a predominately Muslim population descended from freed slaves from India, Indonesia and Malaysia, it was time for a sad good bye to our guides and back to more packing for us, as we prepared for Wednesday's plane ride to George.
We're currently in Knysna, about to head off to a Forest walk. K_beckett is going to drive for his first time on the wrong side of the road, so wish us luck!