RTW Diary: Day 3 (2/26)

Day 3 – Getting to the ‘Point

Cape Town itself is small. That doesn’t mean it is without its charms. It has large open streets, clean markets, a great East Village-esque area, and that Waterfront, but that does make it a bore (unless you want to spend two weeks living the East-Village-esque life). Most of the main attractions in Cape Town, outside of Table Mountain, are outside the city itself, with the most remote being the drive towards Cape Point (aka Cape of Good Hope). Luckily for me and any others willing to spend at least half a day going there, it is arguably the most beautiful in the Western Cape. My voyage down towards the most South-Westernly point of Africa would only start at 1:00 PM, so that left me with a good portion of the day free to do what I please (in a way, I’m free to do what I please for almost all days in the near future).

I got up around 9:00, unsure of what to do. I didn’t really have a structured plan for the mornings. I knew where I was going for lunch (Arnold’s) and I knew where it was, but I wasn’t sure what to do until then. The District Six museum is close by, but for some reason that escapes me as I write this, I didn’t go there. Instead, I meandered around Long Street, the heretofore mentioned East Village of Cape Town. It is home to many bars, clubs and various backpacking establishments that I forewent to stay near the waterfront. I probably won’t say this is a bad decision, as I don’t plan to do much partying in Cape Town, but I do feel like I missed out on a more central, if less beautiful, location. Long Street was as advertised. It probably wasn’t as budget-friendly as it claimed to be, which was strange given the preponderance of people traveling on a budget living close by. Anyway, I didn’t stop at any place on Long street, though I will at some point. My destination was further down, on Long’s quieter twin, Kloof (Long Street becomes Kloof Street, for those who didn’t get that – probably everyone). Arnold’s was located down Kloof Street, a nice little place with a ton of outdoor seating, and great views of Table Mountain, Table Peak and Lions Head. The food there is more traditional (almost every main item is served without sauces) but they still had the special African meats, something I missed when reading over their menu in the research for my trip. Arnold’s also had a bunch of people there eating breakfast around noon. Now, maybe they were going there for the breakfast, which they serve all day, or maybe it was that like Spain and many other European countries, the people of South Africa don’t really ‘work’. I like to think it is the second one.

The food at Arnold’s was very, very good. I haven’t had bad food yet in South Africa, but even though it wasn’t as trendy and wasn’t as ‘gourmet’ as Sevruga, it was effective in its simplicity. First was Crocodile Ribs. I’ll admit, I was totally caught off-guard by just how good Crocodile Meat is. The Ribs were done in the flavor of normal ribs, but the Crocodile Meat was softer, and had a really great tangy taste (that was probably the sauce). The hidden secret with Crocodile: the interior bones are edible, just slightly crunchy, but absolutely tasty. The second course was an Ostrich Burger. Again, it was just a normal burger (though it had some great caramelized onions on top), but it was Ostrich meat. After having Ostrich twice, I am ready to pronounce Ostrich meat as absolutely brilliant. As our tour guide (you’ll meet him soon) would randomly say later, Ostrich meat is the “red meat of the future.” I don’t know about that, but it is apparently really healthy and it is definitely really tasty. Another good meal in Cape Town, made better by another great scene.

 

Crocodile Meat, as good as it looks, unless you think it looks odd, then it is much better than it looks.

From Arnold’s itself I was picked up by one of the African Eagle Tours’ vans, and met my driver, Ulaf. There was only one other person in the Van at the time, an older British lady whose name I can’t remember, and for a few minutes I feared that the tour would just be the two of us. Then, the tour van gratefully stopped at another location, to pick up Frederick, a late-20’s German guy. The van then stepped two more times, first picking up a young Danish couple (the Benson’s – the woman, by the way, was absolutely stunning) and an American guy from Vegas, Kenneth. It was a real mix of accents and ages, but really, the people on the tour were very much secondary to the sights that we all saw on the tour (yeah, even the Danish woman was secondary after a while). Ulaf was a more than capable tour guide, spinning some good stories among his endless collection of facts. A good tour guide is a must for this trip because a majority of the time (6 hours in this half-day trip) was spent in the car. We went down the Waterfront in Cape Town to ‘Sea Point’, and then left Cape Town, and the real journey began.

The drive down to Cape Point is just one long game of ‘Can You Top That?’ of picturesque scenery. The drive to Cape Point was made primarily along the Western Coast of the Western Cape, which meant a drive along the ’12 Apostles’ (Twelve peaks overlooking four beaches and a bunch of really expensive homes), down to Hout Bay, Camps Bay and a few other Bay’s whose names I have forgotten. We then entered into the Chapman’s Peak part of the drive. Chapman’s Peak is known for being one of the best stretches of road in terms of scenery in the world. Knowing this information before hand, I was actually slightly underwhelmed. That isn’t to say it isn’t beautiful, as it most certainly was, but nothing really separated Chapman’s Peak from the drive that preceded or followed it other than the road being at its most windy. We were given our first photo-stop at Chapman’s Peak, and the results are below.

It is really hard to describe this stretch of land. In one way, it is a stretch of road that is present in a whole bunch of countries, from the US in California, to the Amalfi Coast in Italy. But this combines the hugging-the-water-and-mountain aspect of those drives, but the mountains themselves resembled Banff National Park in Canada. It was the best of both worlds in that way. For the drive to the Point, the mountains were primarily on our left as we drove South, and had what been to our right been just fields of wheat instead of beautiful blue water crashing into white-sand beaches or treacherous rocks, it still would have been great. We then cut across the Cape to the Eastern Side to visit Simonstown and the famous African ‘Jackass’ Penguins, so called because the noise they make resembles a donkey. Once again, I was exhibited no evidence of this, but the penguins were adorable nonetheless. They all clustered around the boardwalk where we could take pictures of them. They weren’t really close enough to really interact with, but it was fun being that close to Penguins in the wild, something I haven’t ever done.

The next part of the trip was the drive down the Eastern part of the Cape, which surrounds False Bay, so named because some sailor hundreds of years ago mistook the peaks of the Cape of Good Hope for the Cape that envelops the opposite side of the Bay, and got stuck for days trying to maneuver his way from the ‘False’ cape. Having the shadowy outline of mountains in the distance makes the scene just that much more haunting. The final stretch saw us enter the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Before we entered, our guide warned us of avoiding the baboons. Apparently, these are a type of super-aggressive baboons that were so insatiable that they would open your back-pack to get food (but also civilized enough to give the backpack back in decent condition if they didn’t find any food). Sadly, our drive to Cape Point once we entered the reserve was uneventful in that respect. The beautiful scenery was still was there, as were the Protea Bushes (little, perfectly half-spherical shrubs) and the rest of the flora. It took about fifteen minutes after we entered the reserve to reach Cape Point. It is commonly known as the Southernmost point of the African Continent, as well as the place where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans merge. Neither of these claims are true. Strangely, both of these claims are true about a different Cape. It is quite obvious that Cape needs a better marketing director, considering it is the southernmost place and the place where two oceans meet, but I digress.

Cape Point is gorgeous. There is really no good way to do Cape Point (not to mention many of the other parts of the drive) justice in words, or even pictures. Standing at the lighthouse on top of Cape Point, you immediately are overcome with a sense of “Am I really here”. The amount of ancient sailors that viewed Cape Point as the point where their long journey around Africa was complete. Back in the day, sailing around Cape Point was at times the only way to get from Europe to Asia, and just knowing its importance in that sense is quite meaningful. You get a perfect view of the larger bay between Cape Point and the Cape to its East, a wonderful panorama of blue water surrounded by mountains that look alive in the forefront, and mystical in the background. Cape Point marked the conclusion of the drive’s purpose, and outside of the great scenery on the way back, the return to Cape Town was mostly without incident, except for the cameo of the baboon.

For years when I was younger, I had visited Six Flags Great Adventure, home of their own Wildlife Safari, which was home to a collection of mischevious baboons that would climb on cars, eat the food the patron’s threw at them, and basically caused constant mayhem. These baboons were no different. There were four different baboons that took roost on top of  one of the cars driving by. The rest were crossing the road, following their leader, and doing all of the things baboons are known to do when they come across humans. Our guide took precaution by locking the door immediately. It was probably for naught, as the baboons seemed more interested in climbing atop cars than going inside them, as three or four went on top of cars ranging from another tour van (who’s passengers were probably excited) and a nice, new BMW (whose passengers were probably scared terribly for their car). Our driver deftly guided the van past the pack of baboons, and we were off, back to Cape Town.

The drive back was mostly uneventful, as the driver took the Eastern route for the most part, avoiding driving us by Chapman’s Peak and Hout Bay again. The only notable scenery was as we entered back into the Cape Town area, with large tree-lined streets and canopy trees at the foot of the mountains next to us. I was quite tired and unwilling to spend much more time in cars, so instead of venture back to Long Street, I went to the Waterfront, which is probably too close and convenient for my own good. I went to Quay Four Tavern, the only ‘cheap’ place there, but their food was still quite good. Better was the view, right in the heart of the waterfront. They also had great live music playing from when I came (9:15) past when I left (10:30). I then headed to the Waterfront’s main bar, Michelle’s Brewery, to catch the end of the Real Madrid – Barcelona Copa Del Rey (which Madrid quite dominantly won 3-1). Even at this spot, thousands of miles away on the tip of the other side of the earth, futbol is still the world’s game, I guess. Being a Barca hater, the night ended well, but even had I not watched the game, it would have ended well anyway, with a great, music-filled night on the Waterfront of Cape Town.

The V&A Waterfront at Night