5 - Cape Town, Drive across South Africa
6/14/00 -- 6/20/00

We arrived in Cape Town early in the afternoon on June 15, right in the middle of a rainstorm!  As we walked across the tarmac from the plane to the airport, the lovely British Airways folks handed each person an umbrella.  We knew there was a chance this would happen, so we took it easy in the afternoon, checking into our oceanside hotel and visiting the V & A Waterfront, a giant shopping mall.  We had dinner and watched an Imax movie before crashing.  Our rental car arrived the next morning...

June 15 - Cape Point

Regis:  "Okay Froggy, for $250,000, what is the southernmost point of Africa?  Is it  a) Cape Town  b) Cape of Good Hope  c) Cape Aguilhas  d)  Danger Point"

Froggy:  "Hmmm, I think it's d) Danger Point"

Regis:  "Is that your final answer?"

Froggy:  "Actually, I'd like to use my 50/50"

Regis:  "Computer, please eliminate two of the answers"

Computer result:  b) Cape of Good Hope  c) Cape Aguilhas

Froggy:  "Regis, the correct answer is c) Cape Aguilhas.  I know it isn't the Cape of Good Hope, because I was there on June 16"

Yes, it's true.  Last Thursday, Joe and I, and our traveling companion, Froggy, visited the Cape of Good Hope.  This was actually our first day with a rental car which was exciting in itself, given that they drive on the wrong side of the road here.  Thankfully, we made it safely down the coast and explored around Cape Point, hiking the shoreline and enjoying the great weather (yes, the weather had improved from yesterday) and spectacular view.

Contrary to popular belief, the Cape of Good Hope IS NOT the southernmost point in Africa.  We weren't sure, and asked the woman working at the gift shop... she said it was. But, as we looked through books in that very shop, we discovered that she was wrong -- and we didn't ruin her day by letting her in our secret.  Nonetheless, our time spent in the gift shop paid off.  While browsing through the same book, we discovered we could also see penguins in the wild on our drive back.  

The penguins were incredible.  Joe spotted one little lonely penguin hiding in a bush in the parking lot of the National Park when we pulled up.  He got so excited, he must have taken 6 pictures.  Little did he know that we would eventually see hundreds of penguins sunning themselves on a beach.  Inside the small park, a wooden walkway led down to the beach through thick bushes and trees.  To our surprise, there were penguins hiding everywhere.  It was clearly nesting season -- we saw tons of little brown penguins being kept warm by their mothers.  Down at the beach, we watched them swim and walk around.   They were a lot of fun to watch -- after nearly being duped into thinking we had visited the southern most point in Africa when we hadn't, this definitely made our day.

June 16 - Table Mountain & Kirstenbosch

On advice from Kevin & Kristine, and from Renee our travel agent-- "when it's clear out, get up Table Mountain"-- when we awoke Friday morning and saw blue sky, we headed for the hill.  Since it was particularly nice, we opted OUT of the cable car, and instead drove around to the back side of the mountain where we could buy a ticket to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, and hike to the top via Skeleton Gorge.

The 3.5 hour hike took us up from 150m to 1085m. The first part was the steepest, and we were a bit surprised that the trail actually went right down the middle of a stream as it cascaded down the hillside. As we reached the top, the fog & clouds started to blanket the mountain... but by the time we hiked to the Cape Town side of the ridge, the sun was back out and we had a clear view of the city and the ocean. Beautiful.

After lunch, we took the cable car down, and returned to our car at Kirstenbosch.  We spent a couple of hours checking out the lovely gardens, then went up Signal Hill to watch the sunset. 

June 17 - Paarl and Stellenbosch Wineries

An easy day touring wineries. You and I will both be happier if I don't write more than two lines about this, eh? Instead, ask us to drink the wines together when our shipment arrives in Seattle.

June 18 - Gansbaii & Danger Point.  (Guess why it's called "Danger Point"...)

A week or so ago when we were at Matusadona Water Lodge, I sat in the lounge and leafed through a National Geographic magazine with Great White Sharks on the cover.  Peter Benchley, the article's author, and the photographers from the magazine had visited Gansbaii, South Africa to observe and photograph the sharks.. it is here that they are said to be most numerous.

A couple of days after we arrived in Cape Town, I made a phone call to find out about getting on a Great White Shark observation/dive boat in Gansbaii, 2 hours away... and June 17 was our day.  We drove to the harbor, met up with a group of people and headed out on the boat. The seas were rough-- 3 meter swells-- but the sun was out, and in "Shark Alley" the ocean was more calm.  

The boat was equipped with a shark cage which they'd drop in the water if and when any Great Whites came to the boat and stayed.  Kristina and I were fully prepared to dive-- we'd even packed long underwear for the cold boat ride back to shore. The sharks however are skittery animals, tending only to investigate boats to see if there's food available, but then take off.  The crew chummed the water, and left a baited hook behind the boat to lure the sharks in. We were hopeful that we'd get to see the rare animals, and kept our fingers crossed. 

After 50 minutes or so, the first shark appeared... about 12-14 feet in length, he bit at the bait, and circled  around menacingly, showing both immense power when he turned with a swoop of his tail and extreme caution as they tried to lure him to the boat. Within 2 minutes, he took off to the deep water, but not before we got a good look and shot some video (see video excerpt below... that buoy is about 1 foot in diameter). 

Over the course of the next 3 hours, the crew called "SHARK" 3 more times, and we got a look at 2 of those 3 sharks.  Sadly, the sharks never stayed around long enough for us to enter the water with them... but it was amazing to see them from the boat.  Now inspired, I'm sure someday we'll return and get an even closer look.

Driving across South Africa

After shark day, we left Cape Town and headed north, taking 2.5 days to make the ~2000km drive into Northern Cape Province and Tswalu camp, where we are now.  Our first day of driving took us to Kagga Kamma camp, a very neat place where we slept in a "cave" room built into red-rock outcroppings from the desert.  In the highlight of our afternoon, we visited briefly with a family of Kalahari Bushmen, who roam the desert living a nomadic life. 

Our second day of driving was the longest-- 8+ hours on the road. Though none of this driving was divided highway, we fortunately had only minimal gravel road and on the long, empty desert-straightaways could routinely cruise at 150 km/hr.  We spent an uneventful night at Augrabies Falls Nat'l park, and this morning left for a 4 hour drive to Tswalu, where we are now.

In 4 days, we leave the continent for Mauritius. Stay tuned for the report on Tswalu, which Kristina and I already agree is the nicest place we've ever stayed...

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PS - the only correct answers we got in the guess-which-game-meat-we-liked-best game came from DALE OVERFIELD and family and ANDREW REISNER...  they guessed right-- it was WARTHOG!   Thanks for playing!