Cape Town - Best City Yet!

When we left the Gansbaai area, we weren't sure what to expect from the second largest city in South Africa, but from what we had heard from other travelers, we were definitely excited! Driving past the first township brought us back to reality. Check out Erin's last post for more on our experience with townships.

Driving through a three-sided tunnel in the side of the mountain along the ocean.

When we arrived at our backpacking lodge, knew we had a lot of ground to cover even in the longer-than-usual 2 weeks we had in Cape Town. This first weekend was eaten up by exploring downtown and then southern part of the peninsula with our car before we had to return it. Because we had changed our volunteering plans, we stopped by our planned volunteer organization area, Hout Bay, which is about 20 minutes south of Cape Town. From there, we worked our way south through Chapman's Peak (awesome views and drive!) towards Simon's Town.

African penguins at Boulder Beach.

Simon's Town is a cool small town with Boulder Beach, the home of a large African Penguin colony that started from 2 couples of mating penguins. After a small fee, we were able to get closer access than I could of imagined (as close as we wanted). Penguins mate for life so it was easy to get some romantic pictures (I guess). They were also losing their old feathers and replacing them with new ones, during which they couldn't swim, so they looked kind of relaxed just hanging out and getting some sun on the beach.

The sunset from Signal Hill.

After Simon's Town, we had a great seafood lunch at Kalk Bay and headed back to Cape Town. We got back early and decided to cross off one of the top things on the "To do list" for Cape Town: watching the sun set from on top of Signal Hill. Cape Town is set in the valleys of many different hills and mountains while these elevated areas are left mostly untouched. These areas are mostly designated as parks of some sort. We drove up the hill with our bottle of wine and got some awesome pictures of the sun setting over the Atlantic. Ocean.

This is the "Coca Cola Man" (not Lego Man) at the Waterfront. It's made completely of crates and cases.

After returning our Budget rental car (an overall good experience) the next morning, we walked to the area known as the Waterfront. If anyone knows San Fransisco's Pier 39, it's comparable to this. There are tons of local and chain shops, restaurants, and entertainment. We ended up seeing some Native Americans playing some of their traditional music in one of the open areas.

Nelson Mandela's cell at the prison on Robben Island.

This is when we decided to change plans an do Robben Island. This compares to San Fransisco's Alcatraz, but instead of actual criminals, Robben Island held many political prisoners including the great Nelson Mandela for 18 years. We took a bus tour of the entire island and learned a lot about the apartheid government and South Africa's history. It was interesting and a first for us to see another country's struggle with race and civil issues. Erin downloaded Mandela's book Long Walk to Freedom the next day...

Kirstenbosch Gardens

The following weekend, we decided to become ultra-tourists and do the Hop-on, Hop-off bus. This bus was about $25 each for us to us the double-decker buses with open tops for all of Saturday and Sunday. We could get on and off as we wanted and they have routes all over Cape Town. The first day we visited one of the best gardens in the world, Kirstenbosch Gardens. We didn't know this, but apparently this is one of the major floral kingdoms of the world. Afterwards, we did wine tastings at two wineries. One of these was the oldest in South Africa (1650s?).

The view of the valley while we had some wine.

We took the cable-car up Table Mountain and hiked down.

It's hard to beat this view.

The second day of our bus tour, we took the bus to the fabled Table Mountain. We decided to do the cable-car on the way up, and hike our way down. The cable car and all of the mountain give amazing views of the Cape, but it is some of the strongest winds I have ever experienced. Luckily, the clouds moved long enough for us to get some good pictures before the 2 hour hike down the steep gorge to the bus station.

It was CRAZY windy, as shown by my hair...

Our third, and last, weekend in Cape Town was still filled with last-minute things we had missed. We were able to climb to the top of Lion's Head on Saturday which was much more extreme than we were expecting, but also gave us the best views (360 degrees) of the Cape Town area. Our taxi driver informed us on our way there that someone had died two weeks before from slipping and falling almost 100 feet, but we made it without a scratch.

Lion's Head gave us 360 degree views of the Cape Town area.

It seems like there is always a good of view of Table Mountain in Cape Town.

We used chains and ladders to get up and down from Lion's Head.

Yesterday, we spent the entire day at 4 different wineries on a tour with African Story Wine Tours. There are many wineries that extend all the way from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. We were able to visit the top three, Stellenbosch, Franshoek, and Paarl. It was a long day, but our guide was great, the food was awesome, and (from what we were told) some of the best wine in the world. Our group had Chileans, Canadians, and another 4 Americans who were from California. It was a blast and they gave us plenty of advice from our time in Chili and Peru.

As you can see, a silly picture was not hard for our group by the end of the day!

We are now waiting for our flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina which leaves tonight. During our short stay in Cape Town, we have come to see this as a special city and our favorite that we have seen so far. We have learned there is SO much to see in Africa and, from our own experience and all the stories we have heard about other places in Africa, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes it's hard not to think of everything you haven't seen and it makes us both want to come back already.

(Written January 29th)

James House

As many of our plans have changed, so did our most recent volunteering in South Africa. We had originally arranged to stay and volunteer at a monkey sanctuary in Pretoria, which is the capital of South Africa and located just north of Johannesburg. But after our time volunteering in the community in Kenya, we had a change of heart and decided that there are probably so many more people in need of our help. We had seen so many community projects that were looking for help just traveling along the way, and we were sure we would come across something in Cape Town too.

Not Imizamo Yethu, but one of the other townships we passed by on the way into Cape Town

What we landed upon was James House; a small non- for-profit in a suburb of Cape Town called Hout Bay.  It is involved in many community projects for the nearby township called Imizamo Yethu. Townships are areas of the town where many people are below the poverty line, so they can't afford land or electricity, and running water or other utilities are no where in site. For this reason, the government provides free space and energy for those that live in townships (which are spread throughout the major metropolitan areas of South Africa).   There are just rows and rows of metal shacks next to each other which are people's homes. We rode up through the township of Imizamo Yethu a couple times and it reminded us very much of the small shacks dispersed throughout Kenya and Tanzania, but they were all on top of one another.  The people that grow up in the townships often have little opportunity to raise their standard of living, but James House is trying to do just this.  Not only is James House an orphanage, it creates workshops for high school graduates to help give them skills to obtain better jobs (or just jobs in general). When there are orphans who have extended family, they offer counseling and services to help keep the family stable and give that orphan a good environment in which to grow up.

The playground at James House.  It's hard to see, but the swings on the right are old tires that were cut up into seats.

 When we called James House, they were very welcoming and said to just stop by the next week.  Their website stated that they accept volunteers from all walks of life for any amount of time, and we were very hopeful.  The project we ended up helping with was called Safe Park.  Every day after school, James House gave the primary school kids from the nearby township, Imizamo Yethu, a place to come play and stay safe while their parents were still at work.  The staff would go out across the busy street to help the kids cross to get to James House everyday.  There was a playground and few toys to keep the kids busy.  Just before they left, they were always given a meal or snack to make sure they were well-fed. 

Time to circle up and sing songs together.

So while we were hoping for a project that was more involved, we learned very quickly that two weeks is very little time to make an impact as international volunteers (unless for a specific work-camp project).  We made it to James House every day just as the kids were getting out of school.  Soccer of course was the most common past time, but we played on their swing set (with swings made out of cut up tires) and colored with them.  A couple of times the ladies on staff would gather the kids in a circle for singing and dancing.

A common sight during play-time.  They liked to use us as their jungle gyms!

Criag (how he spelled it) was supposed to draw a picture of a bear, but it turned into a camel.

On our last day. Asemahle, who was often attached to my hip is on the left.

Most of the kids were between the ages of 7 and 9 years old. Often, the kids would attach themselves to us as soon as they saw volunteers there to play with them.  A little girl named Asemahle always immediately came up to hold my hand, and then she would drag me around the playground the whole afternoon going from one thing to another.  Sam was often a human jungle gym.  Even though we were only there for a very short time, we hope we served as role models  for the kids to look up to.  We are still fundraising for all of the volunteer sites where we are helping throughout the journey.  The money we raise will be divided and a quarter will go to each of the sites when we return to the U.S.  If you want to see more about James House, the website is http://www.jameshouse.org.za/.

(Written January 27th)

Meeting Jaws

Our original itinerary did not include jumping into the cold Atlantic waters with the great white sharks, but after recommendations from at least two couples we met along the way in Zambia and Namibia, we decided to give it a chance.  After visiting Cape Alguhlas, the most southern tip of South Africa, we were off to Gansbaai (pronounced hahns-bye) where the sharks were waiting for us.

We stayed at a cute bed and breakfast right on the water, near the harbor. They let us stay a night for free since we booked the tour with them the next morning.  We woke up bright and early for the owner to lead the way to the harbor at 6:30 am. Here we were served breakfast while we got the briefing of the tour, and we were ready to go.

Our view from the bed and breakfast where we spent the night.

The small harbor in Gansbaai.  You can easily see how the rocks get in the way.

There were 17 of us total that boarded the boat called Nemo.  The harbor was extremely small and had several rocks. We had to take off before low tide or else we would have to wait several hours because of all the rocks in the water. Despite all of the boats needing to take off, we all managed to leave in time and were thrown into the huge rolling waves of the sea.

The Nemo! Of course I had to get in the way and ruin the picture.

We only rode in the boat for about 30 minutes before stopping so that the guides could start looking for the sharks.  The coast was still very much in view, which surprised us beacuse of how close we were (there was no beach in Gansbaai that we know of). During our briefing that morning, the owner stressed at least three times in a row that shark sightings cannot be guaranteed as they are dealing with wild animals. We are not sure if it was just the day we went out, but the guides had much more trouble than we anticipated finding any sharks in the area. We were out on the water searching for them by 7:30 am, but we didn't actually see any until almost two hours later.

During this time, both Sam and myself (and probably half of the other passengers) were just trying not to get seasick. Neither of us have experienced problems with seasickness in the past, but shortly after the boat stopped, we were just slowly rocking up and down. We were amazed the guides fed us such a large breakfast and gave us no warning for this. I kept my post at the side of the boat for a while, trying not to look at all the fish guts that were being mixed for the shark bate just a few feet away.

Mmmm...yummy shark bait.

Finally, a shark sighting!! The guides rushed to out the cage into the water and help the first 6 people inside. The cage stays attached to the side of the boat inside the water. When inside, you are literally completely caged in, including over the top of your head. The top of the cage extends about a foot above the water. Whenever a shark swims by to chase after the bate, the guides yell at you from above to go under water to see the sharks swim by.

They told us we viewed four different sharks in all.

We waited to join the second group in the water. Despite the thick full-body wetsuits, the water proved to be frigid. We only waited a few minutes before the first shark swam near. Sam was trying not to shake so he could take pictures with the underwater camera, but unfortunately the water ended up being cloudy that day.  We only got a good view of one of the sharks underwater whenever it was touching the other side of the cage as it swam by. Surprisingly, being so close to these frightening creatures was not scary at all.

Cheesing for the camera while we're shaking from the cold in our wet suits.

After about 20 minutes in the water, we were ready to get out and get warm again. We headed up to the top deck of the boat, where we were given the best views and pictures of the sharks from the whole morning.

Going after the bait!

The largest shark we saw was over 15 feet long.

During the excitement of seeing the great whites, the thought of our grumbling stomachs took the back seat, but nonetheless returned on the way back. Thankfully, we were back on land in no time and ready to make the short drive into Capetown.

(Written on January 20th)

South Africa and the Garden Route

The Garden Route of South Africa.

After spending a night in the Johannesburg Airport with all gear locked to a post and our valuables strapped to us, we were looking foward to the freedom of a rental car again and security of having our own space. We were easily able to get a car through Budget and this one (a Chevy Optra?) had a trunk so we could hide our gear. We set off for the Seaview Predator Park that morning and were anxious to meet up with Geoff and Sam to see how their volunteer work was going.

A baby giraffe (couple weeks old?) and its mom at Seaview.

A short drive later, and we were in the park watching a baby giraffe and its mom watch us warily. We started walking the grounds of the park where the large lion habitats are and stumbled upon Sam giving a tour. After hunting down Geoff, we got a first-rate tour of the park. They have some of the only white lions in the world. They only exist in captivity because they stick out like swore thumb in the wild without their usual camouflage. The park also houses tigers, leopards, meerkats, baby crocodiles, snakes, and other cats and animals.

It looks like even the big ones can be playful.

One of the biggest white lions at Seaview.

A leopard with a gene that turns its fur black (the black leopard is a different species). You can barely see its spots.

The hilarious looking meerkat. They were extremely curious about humans.

After our tour, we were fortunate enough to spend some time with the lion and tiger "cubs." I say "cubs" because they are young enough to still have their playful demeanor, but they are almost the size of adults! We only spent 5 minutes in their cage, but that was plenty. There are not many other things that I have encountered that can scare me like a nearly full-size lion looking me directly in the eye from an arm's length away. This was after I was told that she doesn't really like men either. Other than this and a male putting its claw on Erin's shoulder, the encounter went smoothly. My favorite was the tigers because they purred and acted just like massive domestic cats.

The tigers looked and acted like massive domestic cats.

This male lion was enjoying the rub-down.

During the encounter, this female tiger climbed the tree to keep an eye on things from directly above us.

This female lion is the one who looked me directly in the eye. Luckily she seemed too comfortable to do anything about a strange guy petting her.

We spent that night in Jeffreys Bay, which is a surf-town about an hour away from Port Elizabeth. We attempted to surf the next morning, but the waves were larger than usual and the largest I have ever seen so, after getting roughed up, we called it quits after a couple hours. The next town was Stormsriver (yes, one word).

The view down from the Stormsriver Bridge.

Erin is not a fan of heights.

We arrived to the start of the scenic Garden Route by spending some time in Tsitsikama National Park. The major attraction here was the mouth to Stormsriver and the end to the Otter Trail, when runs several miles through the park, between Stormsriver and our next stop, the Crags, and takes about 5 days to hike from beginning to end.

The Stormsriver mouth to the Indian Ocean with several hanging footbridges.

The look back to where we parked after climbing to a lookout point. It took longer than expected but it was worth it.

The end of the Otter Trail has crazy rock formations everywhere.

The waterfall on the end of Otter Trail.

There were massive waves that day.

Name one of my favorite childhood movies!

When we got to the Crags, we quickly decided we would rather continue on to Plettenberg Bay after hiking the end of the Otter Trail. This was one of the major upsides to renting a car and driving the Garden Route. Each day, we were free to decide which city to stay because of how close each city was to the next. Plettenberg Bay was larger than the Crags and offered many more activities and beaches.

I got a mouth full of steak and pototoes that we cooked at our backpackers lodge.

Plett had great beaches and spectacular views. After going from place to place with no breaks, we decided a relaxing day at the beach was in order. We rented a beach umbrella the next day and spent the majority of the day reading (Erin) or body-surfing (me). That night, we decided to go see Skyfall to try and get a sense of normalcy. Despite what some travelers we met in Namibia said, we enjoyed and it was worth the $4 per ticket. The next morning we packed up early and headed for the local National Park for a 3 hour hike around the Robberg Penninsula for some great views of the coastline and the local fur seal colony. Wilderness (awesome name) was the next stop on our trip and we were headed there by early afternoon.

Body-surfing these waves was easy compared to when we had to abandon it in Jeffreys Bay because the waves were too big.

The view of Robberg Penninsula.

As we pulled into Wilderness, we realized neither one of us had found much to do there during our research. We visited two lookout points. One of which is called the Map of Africa and, as you can guess, looks like the southern half of the coastline of Africa. The other (Dolphins Point) was nearby and overlooked the ocean. Since we could drive to both, these didn't take much time. We decided to get an early start on next leg of the trip to Oudtshoorn (farther inland) the next morning.

The Map of Africa Lookout Point.

The view from the car from Wilderness to Oudtshoorn.

Oudtshoorn brought us ostrich farms, game reserves, and the Cango Caves. We decided the caves were the best idea and drove straight there, and they were were amazing! The last time I have been in a major cave system was Mammoth Cave and it was a long time ago (guessing I was 9 or 10). This had many of the same attractions from what I can remember (Fat Man's Squeeze = The Love Tunnel at Cango, etc.). We did the Adventure Tour which included several tight squeezes and a decent amount of steps. Claustrophobia was  conquered in the Devil's Chimney which was a skinny climb upwards about 10 feet in a irregular shaped hole maybe 2 feet in diameter. I was one-handed because of our camera, which made it a bit more challenging. After being happy to see daylight again, we were feeling brave and decided to make the 5 hour drive down to Cape Agulhas to try and split up the long drive to Gansbaai the following day. We made a stop at Wimpy's (equivalent to a tricked out McDonalds) and ended up at a backpackers lodge at the southernmost point of Africa with our tent set up before dark.

Ostriches are farmed here along with their massive eggs.

The smallest points of two passageways in Cango Caves. Tunnel of Love (left) and Devil's Chimney (right).

The main gallery of Cango Caves. Only a couple hundred yards into the mountain.

The "organ pipes" in the main gallery.

The second chamber in the caves which is usually said to be the most stunning.

The view from the car from Oudtshoorn to Cape Agulhas. Looks like something out of Lord of the Rings...

Half in the Indian Ocean and half in the Atlantic at Cape Agulhas.

To characterize the Garden Route in a sentence, it's the best parts of the Appalachian Mountains and Florida beaches with more shear cliffs and extreme sports. It was a great road trip and we definitely understand why it's so popular.

(Written January 15th)