Cape Town – a city where you get 4 seasons in one day and more!!!! The weather was rough when we arrived (hence the ship collision!) and it continued for our first few days. However, there’s lots to do here (and we’ve not done half of it) so we did a winelands trip (in a storm!), did the 2 routes of the Hop On and Off bus which give you great views of the surroundings as well as the city, explored the V&A Waterfront watching the boat repairs in the dry docks, the sailing ships going about their business, the seals having fun chasing the boats, listening to some great music from locals performing in the area, eating some fantastic food in the Time Out market and admiring the creative talents on show in The Watershed (I could have bought it all – if only!)
We didn’t get out to Robben Island due to the weather. This is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years, but we did get to see his statue in front of Victor Verster prison, where he was finally released from.
We took a day trip around the Cape Peninsula. There is gorgeous scenery all the way, but especially around Hout Bay and the stunning Chapmans Peak Drive.
We were lucky enough to spot Ostrich, Eland, and Baboons, too.
Then we travelled on through the Cape of Good Hope nature reserve, down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (or Cape of Storms as it was to be named). Then up the other side through Noordhoek with its beautiful wide bay and rolling waves to Simonstown for delicious fish and chips. And finally to Boulders Beach to check out the lovely colony of African penguins that settled here in 1982. There were quite a few chicks to be seen, so it looks like the colony is doing well.
This is definitely a trip worth doing.
Then we hired a car for a few days to go out and explore on our own, and our first stop was Stellenbosch – the Village of Oaks. Named so because the streets are lined with oak trees, although they were busy clearing up after the storm damage from the previous week.
We enjoyed a walking tour, learnt the dutch put the street names on the kerbs
and some houses have 2 street numbers (dutch and english but they both used different systems so they don’t match, even the odds and evens were on different sides of the street!!), visited the museum with its 4 historical houses narrated by locals in costumes of era of each house, loved the cafe culture and the very reasonable restaurants, and the 23 art galleries – there are some stunning sculptures around the streets
– admired the historical thatched and gabelled buildings and visited the beautiful church (Moedergemeente) that has undergone various changes and was moved after the first one was destroyed by fire.
The stained glass windows are lovely and made to a French method using thick coloured glass embedded in concrete!
After the university town of Stellenbosch, we then spent a couple of warm, sunny, autumnal days in beautiful Franschhoek. Set in a valley surrounded by stunning mountains you don’t tire of watching
and, of course, among many vineyards and fruit farms. You can do one of the 5 lines on the wine tram if you wish – a good way to do some tastings and not drive. It was fun to see the old double-decker tram rumbling along the tracks
and the vineyard farm trailers waiting at stops to take people to the estates for tasting experiences. However, weirdly we were a bit “wined out” (is that even possible?) and so went to Babylonstoren for the day – an enterprising concern of winery, farm, hotel, restaurant, spa, farm shop and beautiful gardens (as visited by Monty Don 5 years ago).
It is well laid out and easy to explore, with staff happy to stop and chat about what they are doing – whether it be in the orchards or finding out about the weaver nest I spotted in a tree.
From May to October ish they try to be self-sufficient with their fruit and veg production. They have 800 staff looking after 3000 hectares of various different crops. We tried their delicious Gliding Platter, featuring their persimmon, radish, smoked trout terrine, smoked salmon and hummus, and accompanied by a glass of rose and a cloudy pear juice for the driver (Andy!).
Franschhoek itself is lovely to walk around, with lots of high-end shops and restaurants to try out along with the wineries.
We had one more day in Cape Town after returning from Franschhoek and it was full thick fog in the morning but thankfully it cleared so we eventually got to go up Table Mountain and goodness me, was it worth the wait. We took the cable car up, which actually rotates during the 4 minute journey so everyone gets a good view
(you can check online to see if the mountain is open, what the conditions are and how long the wait times are for the cable car which is really useful. We bought a combined hop on and off and cable car ticket). It was stunning on the mountain, and we spent a good 2 hours walking around the top, watching the sea fog swirl around the coastline, making it look very eerie.
And so it was time to say farewell to South Africa (for now) and sadly end our Grey Gap Year with a flight back to the UK.