South Africa
The lighthouse on Cape Point, South Africa. Where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic.
After spending a couple of nights in Johannesburg we were off to Cape Town for two weeks! I was looking forward to FINALLY unpacking my duffle bag after just living out of it for the past 2 and a half weeks.
We were dropped off at the airport and there waited our first travel fiasco. After being gone from home for nearly 17 days now and been on roughly ten flights during those days, I knew one of these was bound to happen because all of those flights had gone smoothly…almost too smoothly. Anyways, I would like to note the day before this - we were were able to check in to our flight and get our mobile boarding pass just fine. We look around for Kalula Airlines check in and notice we cannot find it. We walked around to find their help desk and it was gated up and had a sign on it to email this email address for questions. Danny was looking at his email for information on what was going on and he though maybe we were too early for our flight (we arrived about 2.5 hours before our “scheduled” flight) and the email said to check our bags no earlier than 2 hours before our flight. So we waited for about 30 minutes and I just knew something wasn’t right. I had been on flights before where I was still able to check a bag earlier than 2 hours before my flight (thanks to my airport anxiety and just general anxiety). We finally saw an attendant by the Kalula bag drop area and asked her what was going on to which she so kindly replied “Oh, I thought Kalula Airlines went out of business. Yeah, they are no longer operating.” So, Danny was frantically checking his emails wondering if he had missed a vital email letting us know while I was googling “Kalula Airlines out of business” and there it was - “As on May 31 British Airways will ground all Kalula Airlines flights. A refund will be issued for blah blah blah…” So, not only were they flat out not running, they did NOT issue a refund and they did NOT even email us to say “hey we quit so find another flight.” Pretty bad business if you ask me!!! I’m sure it was a 2 minute clip on the news in England and South Africa but us Americans had no clue.
We scrambled to figure out how to get to Cape Town as our AirBNB was scheduled to start that night. Each desk we went to said there were no more seats on flights to Cape Town until Monday or Tuesday (it was Friday). So thank goodness Danny knew different towns in South Africa because he had to come up with different ideas for possible connections in order to get us to Cape Town (the attendants at the customer service desks weren’t that helpful at all). Turns out we could fly to Hoedspruit and then fly to Cape Town after that. We priced out staying at the airport hotel for 3 more nights and the money we would loose on our already paid for AirBNB and those flights were much cheaper than any other option. So we flew to a super small town in South Africa and had about a 2 hour layover until our flight to Cape Town. Our 3 hour direct flight to Cape Town turned into an 11 hour travel day. Although it was a bit of a stressful day, we were just thankful that everything ended up working out.
The view from our AirBNB after a long day of traveling!! Finally in Cape Town!!
After we arrive in Cape Town, FINALLY!!!, we gather our bags and head to retrieve our rental car. We are finally on the road (the opposite side of it, rather) and settle into our lovely AirBNB in Camps Bay. There was not a cloud in the sky on the drive over and we pulled off to watch the sun set for a little bit. I will truly never get over the African Sunset. The sun setting is pretty cool but the best part is honestly after the sun sets. The whole sky, it seems, grows orange and just when you think it can’t possibly be more beautiful or more orange, I am proved wrong. Pictures never do it justice. I chose our AirBNB back in February or March and had consulted with Danny to see which area would be best since he had been to Cape Town several times. He did not have much of a preference but suggested either Camps Bay or Hout Bay. I had no idea which to choose from and honestly I chose Camps Bay because it was more western facing, making it a more ideal location to watch the sun go down. Can you tell I like sunsets? We were in a 2 bedroom lower level (but still above ground) basement apartment. It had a huge patio out back with a perfect view of the Atlantic! The owner lived right above us with his family which was super nice because he was able to suggest a lot of things to do and restaurants to eat. He was always available to help. That night we went down to the strip in Camps Bay where all the shops and restaurants were and ate at a little cafe. I had a pretty big headache which was growing more intense so we ate pretty quickly and went home to unpack and get some rest.
The next morning we checked the forecast and noticed it was supposed to be cold and rain most of the day. In fact, it was supposed to be cold and rain most of the 14 days we were going to be there. I quickly realized that I packed all wrong and brought only one sweater and one pair of jeans. We spent the day at the mall so I could grab some more pants and sweaters and kind of just enjoyed down time and unpacking. On Sunday, Danny found a great local market in Hout Bay to go to and since it was supposed to be rainy again we were happy to spend the day there. This market had excellent vendors (I think we bought everyone in the family a couple of things) and even better food market. We had dumplings and pot stickers and hung out to listen to the live music.
The next day, it was indeed raining again. Has anyone ever watched the show “Somebody Feed Phil”?? I was told about this show while working back in January by one of my charge nurses when I told her about our plans to travel for a while. It’s about a quirky guy named Phil who has a documentary series (on Netflix) where he travels the world and tries different restaurants, food markets, and street food. Each episode is in a different country. I’ve watched the whole series probably 3 times. Anyways on his Cape Town episode he goes to this place called the Golden Dish were he eats this GIANT sandwich called a Gatsby. I had been telling Danny about it and that we had to go there when we were there. We chose this rainy day to go and it was quite the journey in a rather undesirable part of town. We ordered one chicken Gatsby and drove back home to eat it. I’ll attach some pictures of the sandwich because it was incredible. And incredibly LARGE. It was filled with chicken, french fries, lettuce, tomato, and had some amazing sauce on it. It was the size of Danny’s forearm. I took about 3 bites and was immediately full. It was easily the best sandwich we’ve ever had. So if you’re ever in Cape Town go to the Golden Dish, I highly recommend it.
We spent the next day (which was sunny!) driving to the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-western point in Africa. The area was absolutely stunning and it was so refreshing to actually see the mountains meet the ocean. We walked out along a path where we could see the light house at Cape Point. This is where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. We hiked around the area and decided to do a little hike down to Dias Beach. I counted around 200 steps down which meant about 200 steps back up. It was well worth it and the waves on beach were huge! Danny snuck a beer into our backpack which we shared on that beach. It was a lovely day for sure.
The weather was on our side for the weekend and we chose to spend it in Franschhoek, Western Cape. Franschhoek is the cutest little town settled in a valley surrounded by mountains and wineries. What more could you want? My friend, who had visited Cape Town, told me about a wine train that hopped around different wineries. Danny and I weren’t hesitant at all to book two tickets on the tram and it was WELL worth it. Instead of driving to each one, a little tram took us to each winery and it was on a rotating schedule so we were able to spend about an hour at each one which was plenty of time. I do love wine but am by no means educated enough to properly go on wine tastings and I think Danny is the same way. We had a pretty good time and by our 6th stop, we were having a reallllly good time. We were staying the night there (thankfully) and were suggested a restaurant by someone on the tram with us. We wandered around the town and then had the most amazing meal at Reuben’s which was good because we had only a charcuterie board to eat at one of the stops for the whole day.
The day after was Bastille Day, and since Franschhoek is mainly a French town, there were plenty of celebrations going on. We swung by a market and then made a random decision to drive to Hermanus which was about 2 hours away. We drove over the mountain pass and made it by lunch. On the drive over, I had figured out that Hermanus was one of the best places to see the Southern Right whale and by lunch, we had spots on a boat that would take us out to see them. I was so thrilled because I had never seen a whale in the ocean before. We were able to see plenty of them that day which was marvelous! They come up from Antarctica to the warmer waters of the Indian Ocean to mate for the winter. We ended that day traveling back home to Camps Bay and eating some fresh fish! That weekend was one of my favorite weekends. Perfect weather, perfect company, and a perfect time.
We spend our last week there hiking and eating, to sum it up. We hiked Lions Head and Devils Peak. Lions Head is a pretty crowded trail but has fantastic views of Camps Bay and Cape Town. Devils Head has a 360 view of Cape Town, Table Mountain, and all the way to Simon’s Town (where Dave Matthews is from). Devils Head was a pretty tough hike and we were pretty much the only ones on the trail that day. We copped out and took the tram up Table Mountain, though and I’m glad we did. Danny had been looking into hiking up it and when we were hiking up Devil’s Peak, we were able to get a good look at the trail we were looking into and it was pretty much switchbacks for 1.8 miles with a vert of 3,000 feet. Maybe next time in Cape Town we will do the hike and hopefully I’ll be in better shape by then!
Our time in Cape Town quickly came to an end and I’m sure I’ll say this about everywhere we go to, but I would 100% move there. Its filled with the most beautiful mountains, great food, amazing markets, good wine, nice people, and great hiking. Everything is relatively cheap (which is probably why my bag was so heavy leaving). There was surprisingly a lot we didn’t get to do while we were there which only means one thing- we’ll be back!
Onto the next one, which I will say is the most random place I’ve ever been. Which isn’t saying much, but Danny agreed it was for him as well, which is saying a lot.
The sunset on the way to our next destination, Réunion Island!