Realizing
how easy it was to get around Cape Town and how safe we felt there, we decided
to venture further out of the city using the Hop On, Hop Off bus. In ports with
short stops, we usually take Cunard-sponsored tours to guarantee we don’t get
left behind. The ship will only wait for their tour groups if they are late.
We’ve seen people running to catch the ship only to be left behind. Being in
Cape Town for three days we didn’t have that worry.
The
shuttle dropped us off at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, where we were
able to pick up the bus. We decided to take the Blue route, which would take us
to the other side of Table Mountain and to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
The
bus took us through parts of the city and down Long Street where we got to see
a number of older buildings, some with balconies with iron railings, some
Victorian in style, and others that could have been right out of Amsterdam.
Some seemed to be in competition for which one had the brightest paint color (yellow,
purple, vivid green, etc.). We also went past the First Slave Church of South
Africa, now wedged in between tall office buildings.
Parking
places in the city center are limited, and we watched as numerous “Traffic
Marshalls” ticketed cars that had overstayed their time. One couple told us
that in an area where they had walked (a little off the beaten path) a person
directing traffic stopped cars to allow them to cross and then expected a tip
for doing so—obviously not a legitimate traffic warden. We were also told that
in outlying areas people would approach cars trying to sell magazines and
trinkets. Fortunately, we had no problem on the bus.
As
we left the downtown area, we passed a windmill that could have been right out
of Holland and the hospital where Christian Bernard completed the world’s first
heart transplant. The city named a road after him. We also passed the five-star
Mount Nelson Hotel, where people such as Winston Churchill have stayed. The
recorded tour commentary said that someone once reported a vagrant on the lawn
of the hotel. It turned out to be John Lennon, who had been meditating there.
One
of the advantages of taking the Hop On, Hop Off bus is that you can get off at
one of their designated stops along the route, get back on, or even transfer to
another route. We got off at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, a stop
we highly recommend.
The
Kirstenbosch covers 528 hectares (?) and includes a number of theme gardens,
including Forest Braille Trail, Fragrance Garden, and a desert house that displays
succulents of southern Africa. It is said to be one of the finest botanical
gardens in the world. It certainly was impressive. The gardens are also said to
have one of the oldest variety of trees—one that may have existed during the
dinosaur age. After that long existence, it is close to extinction because of
collectors.
The
paths through the gardens, which are on the slopes of Table Mountain, are a
combination of wide avenues lined with paving stones, smaller trails covered
with shiny cobblestones, and narrow paths covered in mulch. A sign warning
about snakes, including cobras, was enough to keep us mostly to the main paths.
Botanical
Gardens
We
started with the path that was all uphill, but we wanted to go to the Tree
Canopy Walkway, which was a raised walkway through and over the trees of the
arboretum. Because of strong winds, the walkway swayed a bit but provided some
spectaculars views.
Tree
Canopy Walkway
Most
of the plants were unusual to us but especially the Curious Cone, which bares
both cones and flowers (they usually only bare cones). The other one was an Aloe
Tree, which was an aloe plant with a long tree trunk like a palm tree. A long
avenue filled with the remains of Bird of Paradise plants must have been
spectacular when the flowers were in bloom.
One
of our favorite sections of the gardens had large metal dinosaur models. With
Table Mountain looming over us, and being surrounded by trees, we felt as
though we were in Jurassic Park.
Dinosaur
Park
The
bus ride back took us past sandy beaches and beaches covered with large granite
boulders. To the right, we could see the other side of Table Mountain and its
Twelve Apostles, parts of the mountainside divided by long vertical fissures.
As
we got closer to town, we passed large houses that were built right into the
cliffs and high up into the hills along the coast. The tour commentator said
that the area attracted famous people, including South Africa’s Charlize
Theron. The route was so densely developed that many of the houses had multiple
parking places on their rooftops—a single parking place costing as much as a
home elsewhere in the city. Renting several of them out could cover the cost of
your beach house.
The
Riviera of South Africa
We
also passed a beach that the commentator identified as a nudist beach. The bus
went by so quickly, we didn’t see a single nudist—not that we were looking.
Tomorrow,
Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
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