Day 105 of places making us smile – It’s time for Cape Town South Africa…
Our flight journey to South Africa is really long…longer than the time it takes to go from Mumbai to Europe. As we prepare to land the view from the air is picturesque..green and brown colours of the landscape, red and yellow tiled roofs of homes mixed with blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, interspersed with pockets of fluffy white clouds. We are actually at the southern tip of the African Continent….!
Here we are at the place about which we had read so much in our history books….the Cape of Good Hope…the port around which the Portuguese Vasco da Gama sailed in his historic sea route to India…the place later ruled by the Dutch, now this scenic place is the capital of South Africa called Cape Town.
Our friendly guide keeps chatting as he drives us through his hometown, and is proud about his role model Nelson Mandela. He drops us at our hotel at the Victoria Waterfront to recover from our unexpected jet lag.
So begins our journey of discovery at a place influenced by hundreds of years of trade and colourful culture. As we pass many native South Africans they seem to be well built, self expressive and jovial in nature. There are many whites around and surprisingly very few Indians
Next to the very interesting food market on the Victoria and Albert waterfront is the Nobel square honoring the four Nobel Peace prize Laureates. We passed the red clock tower which looked majestic next to the many boats docked on the wharf. We just have to pause to appreciate the fact that we are just 6131 kms away from the South Pole.
Time for listening to the many live bands, playing some lively local music. Time for shopping for African inspired jewellry, clothes, and also a jacket to combat the chill factor of this spring evening. Time to sample some food and local drink at the many eateries in the many malls around the place. Time to appreciate colourful local art and culture…time just flies by at the happening Victoria waterfront!
We also took another half day to drive through the modern central business district of Cape Town. The glass facade of the new Cape Town International Convention Centre was not as impressive on long street as the reliving of history at the square where Nelson Mandela addressed the crowds after being released from spending eighteen years in the Reubben Island prison. The Dutch castle also served as a prison and hides some more secrets of the practice of slavery on these very lands. We even saw the place where slave trading used to happen which now has a statue of a local leader. The slave museum that housed the slaves for sale must have been a scary place to even think of entering in those days. We had to drive past the present Parliament too, and also the church and the stadium.
Soon we had one of the most picturesque drives on the Camps Bay with swanky homes on hills on one side and beaches on the other. We saw many vintage cars zoom across as well as a huge number of cyclists pedaling away to glory as they took part in the local races organized in Cape Town. At the Mariners wharf in Houts bay we took a boat trip to Seal island to see an unforgettable sight of thousands of seals playing, swimming, of just basking together in the sun.
But the highlight of the second day was a visit by cable car to the world famous table mountains, the natural flat topped range, sometimes covered with table cloth of white clouds! Luckily we got a birds eye view of the other peaks around it,like the Lions head, the Signal hill, the Devils peak…all flanking the reclaimed city bowl land in the centre. The scenic views around us literally felt as if we were on top of cloud nine!
We drove back through the colourful painted cottages of the Malay quarter now called Bo Kaap where the original Asian slaves settled after their freedom. After the history of apartheid just a century ago, it is really a sign of good hope to see people of different races and nationalities now living in harmony in Cape Town.
So what place gives you smiles?
Be thankful always for the places that make you smile!
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