Tag Archive for 'Cape Town'

A week of holiday has passed in the blink of an eye.  It feels like just yesterday that I’d left the office at the start of my week long sojourn.  I can say that it was indeed a great break away from it all.  Its been refreshing to do all those touristy things that one never gets to do during the normal course of a working week.  Waking up late and relaxing at home has been the best way to clear my mind of worry and stress after an eventful start to the year.

I had two main things I wanted to accomplish this past week: get done with my work assignments for qualification purposes and to travel around Cape Town a bit and see some tourist spots with my father.  So with that in mind we agreed upon setting aside several days to use as our ‘tourist’ days where we would drive around Cape Town and see the sights.  So it was that we took to the N1 this past Tuesday and headed off to the Waterfront in Cape Town.  Other than the traditional traffic jams as we entered Cape Town we had a smooth ride and  managed to find one of the few remaining free parking bays as we pulled into the shopping centre.  We idled around a bit inside the centre and checked out some jazz players performing as well as taking some snapshots of the Waterfront and random boats in the harbour.  We wanted to revisit the Maritime museum as I’d last been there with my father more than 15 years ago.  Checking a map we managed to find the museum and made our way there only to see that they were currently in the process of renovating it.  Luckily it was still open and we quickly made our way inside and started browsing the displays.  Unfortunately as a result of the renovations there wasn’t much to see other than some displays regarding a World War 1 ship that sunk and several impressive model boats.  Nonetheless it was enjoyable and we then made our way through to the Aquarium where we spent upwards of 90 minutes looking at all the fish and displays.  The aquarium must be one of the most interesting places locally and provides a wealth of information about our oceans and the life that teems in them.  I can’t recall a better and more relaxing way of spending the day than walking through looking at all the animals.  The Giant Spider Crabs are still one of the scariest looking things I’ve ever seen We rounded off our trip by partaking of some delectable hake and chips at Quay Four before winding our weary way home to relax at home and make ready for our next trip.

The next day held a trip to Cape Point in store for us with a drive through the beautiful coastal towns of Simonstown and Hout Bay.  The weather that greeted us at dawn was just perfect so we took to the road and drove slowly through some of the most beautiful scenery in the province.  Its amazing to see how the towns in the Southern Suburbs move from Afrikaans names to English ones as you approach the Northern Suburbs.  Some of the buildings on our route are extremely old and date back from the 19th century.  The highlight of the drive was Simonstown, with its Naval atmosphere and seaside charm.  My father had been stationed there in his stint as a naval officer and regaled me with tales of what they used to get up to in their nights on the town.  Once through there we managed to avoid a troop of baboons on our way to Cape Point before entering the Cape Point Nature Reserve.  After paying our entrance fees we slowly drove towards the Point itself all the while marvelling at the beauty surrounding us.  Once we hit the parking lot we were greeted by the sight of hordes of tourists (most from Germany it would seem) and we hopped in line to ride the funicular up towards the top where we admired the majestic views that must have greeted the Portuguese explores hundreds of years ago as they approached the Cape for the first time looking to travel around Africa towards India.  With our curiosity satisfied we made our way down and drove through to Simonstown where we grabbed lunch at Dixies before driving over Ou Kaapse Weg on our way home.

One thing that I can say is that the Cape is without a doubt the most beautiful region of South Africa.  We are surrounded by an immense bounty of wonders and beauty that we seem to take for granted.  I really do intend to travel a bit more around Cape Town and do some hikes to see what other secrets it has in store for me.  Operation Holiday = success.