| Many of our family vacations have been unplanned. By unplanned, I mean
that we knew where we were going but we didn't have much more than one
or two events on our itinerary. We like to get the feel for a place and
then decide what is worth experiencing. When traveling overseas, a
little more knowledge of the destination is required for obvious
reasons. Cape Town is a city of tremendous history. Most notably, it is the city where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for years before being freed and becoming the leader of South Africa. His prision was the famous Robben Island. It is an island just a few miles off the coast of Cape Town. Tours are offered and led by the freed prisoners. Unfortunately we were not able to travel to the island because the water was too rough and the ferry was not able to make the trip while we were there. Even though we could not go to the island, there are plenty of places to go to learn about the island and the prisoners held there. Going to the Robben Island website, you can look at an interactive timeline and hear from former prisoners. |
| One of their biggest tourist attractions is Table Mountain. It is a huge, flat-topped mountain that casts a shadow over the whole city. There is a cable car to transport people from the base to the top. From the top you are treated to a stunning view. This view shows the cable car and Lion's Head peak. It is sometimes too windy to allow the cableway to run. Because it is such a unique and heavily traveled habitat, there is a WWF fund to "protect and restore the natural wilderness of the Cape." |
| This is the view of the city from the top of Table Mountain. Robben Island can be seen just off the shore. Near the water it is possible to see Cape Town Stadium that was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Pay attention to Signal Hill to the right of Lion's Head, it made the next picture possible. |
| We were driving near Lion's Head, seeing what there was to see. We noticed people with parachutes running and jumping off the smaller, Signal Hill nearby. We were watching them when we were approached by someone asking if we wanted to try it. Of course I said yes and of course my parents said no. So my sister and I got geared up and jumped while our parents drove down to the landing site, on the beach! | |
| We traveled through the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. It is the oldest neighborhood with buildings dating back to the 18th century. All of the homes were white originally and the people who lived in them were slaves brought from places like Malaysia and Indonesia. Some of their descendents still live in Bo-Kaap. They decided to give the neighborhood new life by painting all of the houses vibrant colors. | |
| The
other portion of our first week was spent in the region's wine country.
Surprisingly, South Africa has abundant wineries. The region is called
Stellenbosch and there is even a university named for it. We visited
Spier Wine Farm. The unique part about Spier was not its wine, it was
the fact that they also housed a bird reserve on the property. My
sister and I were immensely more interested in the birds than the wine.
We parked the car, got out and my parents went into the building to
a wine tasting. Libby and I went to the other side of the parking lot
to see the birds. |
 | There are few things more beautiful than eye contact with a barn owl. We were able to have close encounters with some of the owls. We walked into a room full of owls and were given gloves to protect our hands and arms. Then we offered treats to the birds as they perched on our arms to eat. Photo Credit: Libby Smith |
| While not on the same property as the wine and birds, Spier is also affiliated with the Cheetah Outreach facility. They had all kinds of species of cats and even a family of meerkats. Their goal is to educate people about the cheetahs. In South Africa, cheetahs are being shot in large numbers by farmers who think the cats are eating their livestock when nocturnal leopards are really to blame. This particular cheetah, Joseph, is twelve years old in this picture and spent his life as a cheetah ambassador and an actor. He was in a movie with Patrick Swayze! |  |
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