I am way behind! 2019 is a new year and I realized I completely forgot to post the blog of my most favorite city I've visited! Back in February we visited Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. I have already posted about our time in Jo-burg. However I got behind before I could post about our time in Cape Town! Cape Town was magical! It was an amazing trip! We spent about four days here. When we first arrived in Cape Town, we had a little trouble with our rental car. Rental car is the best mode of transportation for this town, but make sure you reserve online before hand especially if you want an automatic. The terrain is very mountainous so unless you are a pro at driving stick, you are going to want automatic! We visited this area when the drought dilemma was happening so we took precautions. We brought our own bottled water from Joburg, and we brought hand sanitizer and those camping wipes to limit our showering to 2 minutes each day. We made it to the hotel and went to bed early for an early start the next day!
Our hotel breakfast buffet, was included in our stay and it was really good! They served steak for breakfast and had a huge spread! This day we booked our snorkel with seals excursion through Bucket List Adventures! The crew was awesome! This experience was absolutely amazing. You meet at the harbor where they brief you and hand you a very insulated wet suit. The water is 50 degree farenheit which is very cold for water to swim in! Then you take a small boat for about 15 minutes to 70 foot deep water to a colony of seals! The wet suits are so insulated that you are able to float to observe the seals swim under you. There were literally THOUSANDS of seals! The younger pups are the playful ones and they swim and zip all around you! It was amazing!
You can see behind us to the right all the seals that are living on those rocks!
These were taken off a GoPro we rented for the day through the tour company! The wet suits work phenomenally. I was able to stay in the cold water for about 40 minutes! After about an hour or snorkeling, they take you back to the dock and serve very hot, hot chocolate! After we got back we ate at a pizza place at the harbor. South Africans love pizza, however their flavorings are a bit bland in comparison to how Americans eat pizza.
Our next stop for the day was a drive to the South African penguin colony! This was amazing! You pay a small fee to get in and you are so close to the penguins! You get to just watch them and they are all coupled up! It is the cutest thing! Also your entrance includes entry to Foxy Beach, which was way less crowded and many people didn't know about. Here you can actually swim with the penguins and get very close to them!
There were so many penguins! The top picture is the first viewing area the bottom is at Foxy Beach.
It was so romantic seeing all the penguins in love! Also all over this area, and on Table Mountain, there are these cute (but feisty) little creatures called Dassies! They cohabitat with the penguins.
Aint he cute? The penguins are located in Simon's Town Which is a really cute little area with shops and all kinds of things! We then continued our mini road trip of the day to The Cape of Good Hope park. We drove through and we were able to see mongooses, baboons, and wild ostriches! We saw the Southern Western most point of Africa! The waves against the shore were incredible!
The drive in total through Simon's Town to Cape of Good Hope was about 2 hours but the drive is beautiful! I would advise not driving at night because you are driving through the mountains on cliffs! We made our way back to our hotel in Cape Town.
The next day we woke up early to take the Cable Car up Table Mountain! Table Mountain is the iconic mountain located in Cape Town. Many people enjoy hiking the mountain, but we opted to ride the car to optimize time. On top of Table Mountain, you really can see God's beautiful creation, and you literally feel on top of the world.
We were going to hike Lion's Head (another iconic mountain) but the workers at the hotel said there had been a lot of muggings lately so we did not get to hike that trail. The next touristy spot I wanted to hit was the colorful neighborhood of Bo Kaap! Which parking is a nightmare here so be patient, but the pics were so worth it!
The buildings are colorful and there is a ton of Middle Eastern food places. It was such a quirky place I loved it.
Next stop was the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. This is the most impressive botanical garden I have ever visited. There are three restaurants there and just so many beautiful trees and plants. There were also the largest bonsai trees I have ever seen!
That night we had a nice dinner at the V&A Waterfront. We ate at the Fish Market. We split prawn croquettes and a kingclip fish. Both were amazingly fresh and had great flavor! We walked around the marina area and shopped. Our hotel offered a free shuttle so we utilized that to get there.
Our last day we went drove to Muizenberg to go surfing, which is one of the best places in the world to learn to surf! Our instructors name was Biscuit. The waves are small and consistent and the water here is warmer that other coastal areas. I sadly did not get any pictures due to not bringing my camera because the beach is so busy. This was Chris' favorite day. We both picked up surfing pretty fast! One tip I would share if you're interested in surfing on the first day call a surf school and ask the best day due to current forecast of the week. A lot of pro surfers were also there surfing and it was amazing to watch them. We ate lunch at Tiger's Eye which had a tex mex vibe with pizza and we continued to watch the surfers. Surfing is also exhausting and the rest of the go go go finally caught up with us we crashed early that night to prepare for the 26 hour trek home.
South Africa was THE best vacation. It checks all the boxes. Adventure, Animals, Culture, Nature. I highly highly recommend. The people are appreciative and so friendly. I cannot wait to go back to Africa!
