Cape Town

We’ve been in a lot of beautiful places, but as far as cities go, Cape Town may be the most beautiful. I’d like to say it’s hard to take a bad picture, but we managed quite a few….  Here are some of our best plus a couple just for fun.

We spent 3 full days exploring Cape Town and Cape Point—one day on our own and 2 days with a guide who got us to all the right places. On New Years Day we didn’t want to venture far. It’s National Beach Day and roads become clogged with traffic. We headed to Kirstenbosch Gardens, which are amazing. We followed that with high tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel—the original grand hotel, which housed visiting Brits in the 19^th century. With champagne, 2 trays of savories, tea and a dessert table, with at least 30 desserts, we did not leave hungry.

The drive to Cape Point is breathtakingly beautiful—although it started with these fun guys. Picture 1 shows a group of African Penguins, whose home is on the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula, on the way to the Cape. These penguins used to be called Jackass Penguins because the braying call they make sounds like a donkey. But political correctness prevailed! It’s nesting time and picture 1 shows one of the partners sitting on the nest. Their mouths are open in order to keep cool. While we were watching, a gull flew in and robbed an unguarded nest, carrying the egg away in its mouth. The little fellow in Picture 2, was so cute he required his picture taken!

Pictures 3 and 4 were taken in Cape Point National Park, which stretches from Cape Town to Cape Point. The rugged coastline is beautiful. Picture 5 is a picture of the actual Cape Point. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the southernmost point in Africa; it’s the southwesternmost point in Africa. If you look in the distance, across False Bay you can see Point Alguhas, which is actually further south and IS the southernmost point in Africa.

After making the obligatory climb to the lighthouse, we visited the Cape of Good Hope, shown in Picture 6.  People form a queue to have their picture taken with the sign. We’re not very interesting, but the people in front of us were. They were a man and woman and their motorcycle. It took some struggling to get the motorcycle next to the sign, but he said they had to do it. They had ridden over 28,000 kilometers from Austria to get to the Cape and they wanted to record it. It had taken over a year. I asked our guide what the safest route might be. He guessed Egypt, Ethiopia and Uganda, but then you get into some countries that are none too safe—Nigeria? Congo? What an adventure.

While at the Cape, we found some wild ostriches. Picture 7 shows Dad and a couple good-sized babies.

On our way back to Cape Town, we made a brief photo stop in Hout Bay (Picture 8), with The Sentinel looming on the left.

The next day we toured Cape Town. Our first activity was supposed to be the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, but the top wasn’t visible, so that activity was postponed. Instead, we went up Signal Hill, which wasn’t quite in the clouds and watch parasailors taking off and landing on the beach below (Picture 9).

We spent time walking through downtown Cape Town and getting a history lesson. Picture 10 isn’t a great picture, but provides an important history lesson. Cape Town was founded by the Dutch East Indies Company. They were traveling to the Far East to bring back spices and other products. With a journey that long scurvy became a significant problem. They needed somewhere to get fresh fruit and vegetables. Cape Town became that stop. This garden is on the site of the original garden planted by the Dutch. It has been growing in some shape or form for 400+ years. Cape Town also provided fresh water and the fact that grapes grew well there made it even more attractive.

By noon, the skies had cleared—somewhat…. We decided to take the cable car up Table Mountain. Pictures 11 and 12 were taken on the ride up. Picture 11 shows Lions Head and Signal Hill in the foreground and Robben Island in the distance, barely visible through the clouds. Picture 12 looks east toward Devil’s Peak. At the top we were not so lucky. Picture 13 shows the clouds rolling in again.

Picture 14 is special. We have one of these on every trip we take. We call it an “End of the World” picture. We’re great fans of the movie “The Gods must Be Crazy”. At the end of the movie, the bushman drops the Coke bottle off “the end of the earth” because it has brought him nothing but bad luck. We vacationed here 17 years ago and, in our wanderings, happened upon the actual “end of the earth” location in the movie, which was a beautiful vista. Ready to snap a great photo, we got to the point and fog completely obliterated the view. So now we look for an “end of the world” photo on every trip. We’ve had fog on the Inca Trail and at a beautiful lighthouse in Portugal. We should keep a list. For this trip, the “end of the world” is the top of Table Mountain!

South African Wine Country

After a week of “roughing it” in Botswana, we settled in for 3 days of self-indulgence in South African wine country, which is slightly east of Cape Town and encompasses the towns of Franschoek, Stellenbosch and Paarl.

The first thing you learn about wine country is that the scenery is beautiful. Pictures 1 and 2 show the rolling hills, low mountains and ever-present Agapanthus.

One winery served their homemade cheese with their wine (Picture 3). Another paired their wine with chocolates: Shiraz with Marsala Chai in dark chocolate, Cabernet Sauvignon with rock salt in dark chocolate, and their dessert wine with rose geranium milk chocolate (Picture 4). Another served picnic lunches in the garden, with a nice bottle of rosé (Picture 5).

After tasting about 30 wines, we selected 3 to bring back to the ship (Pictures 6-8). As you can guess, we are Pinotage lovers. The Mata Mata is a Cape Blend, which is a Bordeaux-like blend, with Pinotage making up a relatively large portion of the blend. All were $15-$16 per bottle.

Life is good for Americans in South Africa. The exchange rate is 11 rands to the dollar. When I was traveling here on business it was 6-7 rands to the dollar. A 3-course dinner for two at a nice restaurant, with a good bottle of wine, can be had for $50-$60.

The rest of the animals--big and small

You will, of course, recognize these. Big guys.

These hippo pictures were taken from our tent.

Crocodiles were 12-15 feet long.

This is the tiny ground agama lizard. The blue head signifies breeding period.  Other times it is tan desert camoflage. 

Birds

The first set of birds are storks--a couple beautiful and one not so beautiful. Picture 1 is the Openbilled Stork, with a slight space between upper and lower mandibles, so shellfish can be opened. Picture 2 is the Saddlebilled Stork, with the black "saddle" across his bill. Picture 3 is the not-so-attractive Maribou Stork, which stands 3-4 feet high.

Picture 4 is the African fish eagle, which Rick spotted while canoeing in the delta.

Picture 5 is a Kori Bustard, the largest flighted bird in the world, weighing up to 45 pounds. They're usually on the ground, but we actually saw one take flight and it was surprisingly graceful. It may be hard to see, but this male actually has the feathers on his head and tail fluffed up to attract a female--makes him much better looking!

The next two birds are pretty song birds. Picture 6 is the Lilacbreasted Roller, which is much more brightly colored than the picture shows--gloomy day. Picture 7 is a Shaft Tailed Whydah. The long tail feathers grow in the breeding season to attract females and then drop off after breeding season.

Picture 8 is a sad story. This is a juvenile Spotted Eagle Owl and it is about a foot high. Unfortunately, you can see his broken right wing, which means he'll soon be jackal dinner.

Pictures 9, 10 and 11 show a large ostrich family. Sometimes ostriches have a single partner and some male ostriches have a harem. This male obviously had a harem! There are about 20 chicks, which are the size of a small goose or large duck at  this point. There's a dominant female in the harem who owns the nest. Other females lay their eggs in the nest, the dominant female arranges the eggs so hers are better protected and then she and the male sit on the eggs until they hatch--the male at night, since he's black and less easy to spot in the dark. Once hatched, this pair raises the chicks and the other females wander off. While we watched, a bat-eared fox tried to grab one of the chicks and the female ruffled her feathers, ordered the chicks behind her and fought the fox off. Fun watching!!!

Antelope

The number of antelope you see in Botswana is amazing. The following are the main ones we saw.

Picture 1 shows an Oryx. They're in the Kalahari and a favorite food of lions. The horns are amazing. There have been cases when a lion jumps on the oryx's back and the oryx throws its head back and gores the lion. They also use the horns when males are fighting for domination. Consequently, the female horns are longer--no fighting among females!

Picture 2 is a Steenbok. They live in pairs in the Kalahari and are food for about everyone! They're the only antelope that jackals can easily catch. They're small and dainty.

Picture 3 is a Springbok. We saw thousands in the Kalahari! We would see large herds of up to 200 animals. The dominant males live solitary lives until breeding season. Lions, cheetahs and leopards will all eat springbok.

Picture 4 is an adult WIldebeest and Picture 5, a baby. Trivia fact: Wildebeest and Gnu are synonymous. We found these both in the Kalahari and the Okavango Delta. The only cat who can take one of these down is a lion.

Picture 6 and 7 are the female and male Red Lechey--no idea where Lechey comes from, but red comes from the color of the fur on their rump. We found these in the delta.

Picture 8 shows female Impala. Like the Springbok in the Kalahari, these are the most common antelope in the delta. Picture 9 shows 2 male impalas fighting for domination. "Boys will be boys!"....

The final picture is a Kudu. These are in the delta, but not often seen. The male has long horns, that make a turn every 2 years or so. An older male would have gigantic spiral horns. Unfortunately, the Hubers' found only females. We had kudu for dinner one night--not bad.

Cats and Dogs

The predators in Africa are cats and dogs. They're beautiful (in their own way), amazing in how they hunt and just a bit scary. We saw some good ones.

We saw 4 lions--2 male and 2 female. The female in Picture 1 had been mating for 5 days, first with the male in Picture 2 and then with his brother, the male in Picture 1. At this point, she had been sound asleep when he started feeling amorous. She raised up and "smacked him up side of the head". After 5 days, you can imagine that lion conversation. We did see the pair in Picture 1 the next day--still mating--and watched them almost make a kill. Two male oryx (we'll have pictures when we do antelopes) were having a territorial dispute and the dominant oryx chased the other from his territory. The non-dominant oryx walked within 30 feet of the lion pair, not sensing them.They were flat on the ground in attack position, but he was a little too far away from them. Lions are opportunists--they expect their prey to come to them, usually no more than 20 feet away. Lions don't run fast and prefer stealing dinner from a cheetah.

The female lion in Picture 3 was getting ready to hunt for her 3 cubs, which she had hidden somewhere. We stopped for gin and tonic sundowners 200-300 yards away, watching her from a distance. A large male impala suddenly ran through the area close to us and she decided to investigate. She got within 100 yards of us--our guide had  us watching from the far side of the vehicle--and then laid down, planning to wait until dark to find an unsuspecting impala.

The leopard in Picture 4 was asleep when we arrived. After we woke her, she wandered 10 feet away and continued devouring a baby warthog. She eats everything, including bones and intestines, and then vomits the hair up--one giant hairball! In this case, the prey was on the ground, but often the leopard will drag it up into the tree to keep it from lions.

The cheetah in Picture 5 was hunting springbok when we arrived, got annoyed at us for disturbing him and walked away. You have to feel sorry for cheetahs. They can't drag their kill up into the tree like a leopard. Lions and hyenas will search for cheetahs and take their kills. Cheetahs can't put up a fight because they hunt alone and, if hurt by lion or hyena, would be unable to hunt. It's a hard life.

Picture 6 is the first of the dogs. This a bat-eared fox. There's usually a family--parents and kids. They eat pretty small stuff. One day we saw one try to get a baby ostrich, but that failed when Mother Ostrich attacked the fox.

Picture 7 shows the garbage cans of Africa--hyenas. They will eat ANYTHING! Their first choice is to steal someone else's kill. In a pack, they've even been known to chase a lion from its kill. They also eat carrion and will kill on their own if they don't have something that involves less work. This was a pack of 3 hyenas. One was injured--probably while stealing food from a lion. Because they hunt in a pack, the others will find the food and then feed the injured.

Picture 8 is a wild dog. This was the first time we've seen one of these. Their favorite dinner is impala and one of the other vehicles watched 3 dogs take down and devour an impala in a matter of a few minutes. They're vicious killers. They were almost extinct because farmers would poison them, so they wouldn't get their goats. They're now on the endangered list and their numbers are growing.

Picture 9 is a black-backed jackal. A family of jackals might take down a small impala, but in general, they eat smaller prey, like hares. 

What a treat to see these beautiful animals!