Republic of SOUTH AFRICA 3rd Day:- Cape Town - March,24,2019 Hout Bay, Cape Point

Republic of SOUTH AFRICA     

3rd Day:- Cape Town - 24.03.2019

Hout Bay, Simons Town, Cape Point

After the breakfast in our Hotel Lady Hamilton, around 09.00 o’clock, our bus ‘Mega Coach’ took us to coastal road on the West of the Cape Town. We drove through Bantry Bay and then reached to the Camps Bay. It was around 10.00. Our bus stopped in a parking lot and we gave a short break for taking pictures.

Camps Bay, South Africa

Camps Bay is the beach where the Portuguese discovery ships came and established their first camp in the last decade of 15^th century. The pioneers to discover this part of the world where Barthelme Diaz and Vasquez de Gama on behalf of the Portuguese king.

Their goal was to turn around South Africa to the East where the spice was coming from.

After half an hour we continued our trip on route M6 which is the so-called Victoria Drive to the direction Hout Bay. The scenic road Victoria is connecting Hout Bay to the Cape Town Since we were heading to the South, the blue and endless ocean was on our right hand side. The sky was partially cloudy but the sun was promisingly shining.

We arrived at Hout Bay around 11:00 o’clock.This is a small fisherman’s’ town. Our bus came to park. We walked in the Mariner’s Wharf. There were a couple of seals around. Small ethnic groups were making music and children were dancing for the tourists.

I bought a coffee. Then we waited for our scheduled boat trip. Our boat took us to a small

rocky island just 2-3 miles away from the coast. There are colony of seals on and around the small island. Our boat approached to the island and we took pictures.

Then we sailed back to the Mariner’s Wharf.

Hout Bay, Mariner's Wharf

Open Souvenier Shops, Hout Bay

Dancing children at the Hout Bay

Marina at the Hout Bay

Just before boarding for the seals

Seal colony living on a rocky island

Seal Colony

We seated in our bus and we started to drive. Leaving Hout Bay, at a view point we stopped only to take few pictures. We continued on the Chapman’s Peak Drive. This is a panoramic road which is good for passengers but not for the drivers. The road is with many curves and getting narrow from time to time. The elevation of the road is changing between 60 and 120 meters from sea level. According to the existing rules it is a one direction route is for big buses. It is a dangerous road section but most scenic as well.

Chapman 's Peak Drive (foto taken from The Vibe Guest Studios' page)

We came to the Simons Town which is on False Bay side. Our bus drove us further down. We passed at the side of the naval base of Republic South Africa.The symbol of this naval base has used to be a Golden Retriever. It was a devoted and sympathetic dog of the base in the past.

Further down we came to a place where a big Penguin Colony is leaving. We were at the East coast of the peninsula. We walked on the sandy beach to the penguins. They were bordered by the wooden hand trails all along the walking deck. We took a lot of pictures and while walking back to the bus I bought delicious ice cream from one of the nice looking ice cream corner.

Penguin Colony in Simons Town, South Africa

A penguin warming the egg.

We arrived at the pre-booked restaurant at the sea side. They served us with sea food, fish and green salad. I took also a cold South African beer. After the lunch we continued our road on M4 to the Cape Point. When we came to the Cape Point the weather changed badly and a thick fog was around. We bought the tickets for the funicular which takes the people to the light house which is located at approx. 180 meter from sea level. It is a huge and powerful light house visible from 100 miles. We took a few pictures and then came down with the funicular. There is a souvenir shop at the lower funicular station and I bought a key ring with Cape Point symbol as a gift to my son. One of the interesting thing and danger was about baboons leaving there everywhere. These animals are eating any food that the visitors have in their pockets or in their bags. Be careful against baboons in the parking lot and on the hill up to the light house as well. They are suddenly stealing the bags and sometimes attacking people for getting the food stuff.

Light House of Cape Point

After that our bus took us down to the place “Cape of Good Hope.”

There is a symbolic wooden sign showing the geographical location at the coast looking to the West. It is a place to remember by photographs. After having some pictures we continued on our bus back to Cape Town. It was a trip back to our Hotel of about 1 ½ hours. It was approx. 18:30 when we came back to our Hotel.

I didn’t fixed the reason exactly but my stomach was hurting me when we were back. The fish or one of the food products on the lunch could be spoilt. I spent the night at the Hotel.

Republic of SOUTH AFRICA:- 2nd Day:- Cape Town, March,23rd 2019.

Republic of SOUTH AFRICA     

2nd Day:- Cape Town - 23.03.2019

Table Mountain, Paarl, Stellenbosch

After we had breakfast in our Hotel Lady Hamilton, around 09.00 o’clock, our bus ‘Mega Coach’ took us to the Table Mountain. After a short trip we arrived at the Lower Cable Station. We bought the tickets. The weather was beautiful and warm. Sky was clear and there was no wind at all. There were a lot people in the queue waiting for the aerial cable car. We waited approx. 40 minutes in order to take the cable car.

Cable car of Table Mountain

Endemic animal of the Table Mountain

Looking the west from the top of the Table Mountain

Top view over the city Cape Town

Looking to the North from the Lower Cable Station

Table Bay view

The cable car has a rotating circular floor. Without holding the handrails or sidewalls of the car everybody can have a circular view around the car. There are two cable cars each with a capacity around 50-60 passengers. While one of them is ascending, the other one is descending downwards. The view from the top of the Table Mountain is fantastic. It is open to 360 deg. In the North direction there is Birdseye view over the city Cape Town.

If someone look to the West direction there is endless/ indefinite view over the Atlantic Ocean. Just in the skirts of the Table Mountain, in the West direction there is Camps Bay.

There are summer houses of some famous people at the Camps Bay. However, the beach and the sea is well attractive there is no interest to obtain benefit out of this. It is said that the water is cold even in summer and there is the risk of the white sharks here around.

Camps Bay :- Where the first discovery ships of Portugal have landed.

The so-called Lions Head (rocky extension about 670 meter from sea level) is also one of the remarkable views from the Table Mountain and from the cable car. We walked on the top of the Table Mountain approx. one hour and took a few pictures of the surrounding.

Lions Head Hill from the Table Mountain skirts.

We took again the cable car in order to go down. There are also trekking routes around the Table Mountain (1087 meter from sea level) and someone can see these in the skirts of the mountain. When we arrived at the Lower cable Station our bus continued in the direction (N1 Road) to the Paarl. There are a lot of vineyards in the East side of the Cape Town.  Paarl is also one of the regions where there are vineyards and wine producers.

After almost 1½ hour we reached to the wine producer KWV Wine Emporium. It is a well-known factory and in the world list top 5. They produce many kinds of wine, brandy.

We paid a tour in the factory and then we stopped for wine testing. The lady offered us 6-7 different kind wines and one brandy. After that we bought a couple of things in their shop.

Imoya Brandy of KWV is advisable.

Wines aging in the Oak Barrels

Biggest oak cask I have ever seen :- 202,301 liter of wine.

Wine Testing

We continued on the bus in the direction of the small city ‘Stellenbosch’. This is a small university city with a very nice and picturesque surrounding. The green and colorful gardens of the houses and the clean streets are romantic. We stopped in a park place and then walked to the restaurant. It is a nice and big restaurant with clean tables and garden.

We sat outside in the garden and ate nice food under the comfortable weather condition.

After the lunch we started to walk to our bus. Our bus took us at a street where we waited some of our people walking slowly. Then we had a small walking in the street. There are nice and friendly coffee houses, souvenir shops and art galleries at both sides of the calm street.

After half an hour we stepped into the bus and the bus drove us to the Cape Town, to our Hotel Lady Hamilton. We took a rest and around 20.00 we called an UBER taxi and this one took us to the Bree Str where there is the Tapas Bar/Restaurant which we had planned to go. It is approx. 4-4 ½ km from our Hotel. Since it was Saturday the street is busy in the night. There are a lot of people in the restaurants, taverns and cafés.

We sat in the ‘La Parada Bree Street’ (107 Bree St, Cape Town City Centre). We ordered

some of their specialties and enjoyed our dinner with a couple of beers.

After that we started to walk along the Bree Street in the direction to our Hotel. The street was safe but in some place we had to be careful. The people do say that usually there is crime in the city. We followed the Kloof Street heading our Hotel.

We were lucky it didn’t happen any bad thing and reached to our Hotel around 22:00.