Cape Town, South Africa

Here’s a recap of the seven days (our longest stop) we spent in Cape Town, South Africa:

Day 1:

I had a trip planned with SAS at around 1:00, so I couldn’t venture far outside of the dock area when we were cleared to leave the ship in the morning. The place where we were docked, called the Waterfront, was a beautiful tourist area with several restaurants, outdoor stores and a mall. Henry, JR, Rob and I explored the Waterfront and found an ATM inside the mall. Henry loaned me some Rand, which trades at the same rate as the Namibian dollar (about 8 Rand to 1 USD). We did a little shopping in the mall, and I bought a cheap t-shirt, partly because I was starting to run short on clean clothes and we weren’t going to get a laundry day until after we left Cape Town.

The beautiful Cape Town waterfront, just before my camera broke!

After walking around in the mall we headed back to the ship to have lunch. When we went to the pier to join the SAS trip to Robben Island they told us it had been cancelled since the ferries were shut down due to high winds. Henry, JR, Jen, Nea, Sam (3 girls from Rollins College) and I all decided to do a bus tour of the city. We rode into downtown and made a stop at a local market place, and then we went out to Camps Bay, which is an area outside of the main city right on the beach. The water was too cold to swim (we had been told it is in the 50’s during this time of year), but we found a small restaurant where we had a light snack. After riding back to the Waterfront and making a stop at the ship we took a taxi out to Long Street, which is one of the most famous in Cape Town. It runs through downtown and has lots of restaurants, bars and shops. We had dinner at Long Street Café and then checked out a few of the bars in the area.

Long Street, Cape Town

Day 2:

Fred and I had planned to go to Stellenbosch, a town outside of Cape Town, to see a college rugby game. We went to the tourist info center in the mall to try and find out what would be the best way to get transportation to and from the game and if we could stay overnight there. Most of the shuttles they provided were full, but they said taxis would go back and forth (it was about a 45 minute to an hour cab ride from the docks). After lunch on the boat Fred and I headed out to the pier to try and find a ride and negotiate a price (there were cab drivers waiting to take SAS kids – apparently the news of our arrival spread quickly). On the way we found 6 other SAS students who were trying to go to the game too, so we found a driver with a big van who was willing to take all of us.

When we got to Stellenbosch Fred and I walked around the town looking for a place to spend the night, but all of the hostels and lodges were booked; the only thing we could find was a bed and breakfast for over 700 Rand (compared to hostels that would cost 100-200), so we decided to head back to Cape Town after the game. 

The rugby match was fun to watch, especially since it was the first one I had seen. It was between Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town, two big rivals. Stellenbosch went up big in the first half (31-3), but Cape Town made it interesting late, coming up just short, 32-38. The game reminded me a lot of a high school football game, with two standing student sections and some parents and alumni (there were only a few thousand fans).

Afterwards we found the taxi driver who had taken us there (he stayed because some of the kids had wanted to go back that evening), and we made the trip back to the ship. Fred and I spent the evening at a local pub called Mitchell’s, which was only a 4 or 5 minute walk from the ship. We had a late dinner there, and then we tried some of their home brewed beer. Other SAS kids showed up, and two of them said they had just seen Dave Chappelle standing outside of the hotel next to our ship. I wasn’t convinced at first, but a few days later the academic dean told us he had also seen him. After hanging out at Mitchell’s for awhile, I went out to another bar and but Fred stayed behind because he was going skydiving the next morning.

Mitchell's Bar in the Waterfront District

Day 3

I slept in until lunch, and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do in the afternoon because JR had left for a safari and Fred and Henry were both skydiving. Luckily I met up with Stella and Bianca (two girls that Fred and I met early on in the trip) at lunch and we decided to go to some of the local markets in the city. We walked to a large flea market which was in the parking lot where the new soccer stadium is being built (South Africa is hosting the 2010 World Cup). After doing some shopping around and negotiating I bought a watch and a t-shirt, and Stella and Bianca both got some souvenirs. We then took a taxi to the Green Square market, which is another flea market downtown. It was not as busy due to the fact that it was Sunday, but we still looked around for awhile. We eventually went back to the ship before dinnertime, and I met up with Henry. He showed me pictures and videos of skydiving, and he said it was amazing.

Greenmarket Square, Cape Town

We had planned on climbing Table Mountain (a mountain overlooking the city with both hiking paths and a cable car) after he got back, but we realized we didn’t have enough time before it got dark – it takes up to two hours one way. Instead we had dinner on the ship and then walked around the Waterfront. We ended up walking to Long Street and doing some bar hopping, but there weren’t that many people around since it was Sunday. We met some other SAS kids at the Long Street Café and stayed visited with them before going back for the night.

Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background (the world cup
stadium was still under construction, on the right)

Day 4
Henry, Fred and I had arranged to do a tour of the Cape Winelands, so we got up for breakfast and then met our cab driver Lorenzo at the dock at 9:00. He first took us to an area called Franschoek, which was about an hour away. We stopped at two wineries in the area, and at each place we paid a small fee (around 20 Rand) to try a small amount of 5 different wines. After the two in Franschoek Lorenzo drove us to Stellenbosch for lunch, and then we visited three more in the afternoon. I learned a little about wines, but aside from some basic differences it seemed like the most expensive red wines tasted the same as the others.

A lot of the bottles were really cheap (as low as 19 Rand – less than $3), but we aren’t allowed to bring any alcohol on the ship, even if it is meant to be a gift for someone back home. Even so, I still bought a bottle, and when we got back to the docks we sat at a table in the Waterfront and drank it before going back to the ship. That evening JR got back from his safari, and the four of us all went to Mitchell’s. Henry and I took it easy, partially because we had just been wine tasting the whole day, but mostly because we had booked a safari the next morning and it left at 6:00.

Day 5

I got up at 5:30, took a shower, and met Henry, Ashley Morgen, Nea and Darby on deck 5 for our one day safari. Darby, also from Rollins, booked a safari with a tour company the first day that we arrived in Cape Town, and she had asked us if we wanted to join. It was less than $200, and since Henry and I both didn’t have a safari planned (and didn’t do one in Namibia) we decided to go along. The trip out to the park took just under two hours, and there was plenty of beautiful scenery along the way. We passed snow covered mountains, wine valleys and rolling hills with desert-like vegetation.

When we arrived I had one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever eaten – it was a buffet style meal with everything you could think of; lots of fruit, rolls, toast, eggs, sausages, fish, fresh mango juice and more. After stuffing ourselves we went on the safari, which was a little disappointing because the animals were kept in a small area (maybe 100 acres), and it felt more like a zoo. The lions were in their own pen, and there was a cheetah in another caged section. Even so, we got to see a lot of animals – elephants, water buffalo, one giraffe, antelope, rhinos and hippos (from a far distance). After the “safari” we headed back to the lodge and had a great lunch, even though I was still full from breakfast. We had some time after lunch to look around the lodge and the gift shop, and then we drove back to Cape Town. We had dinner on the ship, and then went out to Long Street again to do some more bar hopping.

Day 6

Henry JR and I slept in until lunchtime and then we planned on hiking Table Mountain. The weather wasn’t so good – it was really cloudy with a light rain, but we took a taxi up to the base in hopes that it would improve. The cable car up the mountain was closed, but we didn’t mind since we wanted to hike it anyway. We had to ask about four or five different people where the paths were before we got a definitive answer, and they told us that everything was closed off due to the weather.

Typical sign during Apartheid

Instead of the hike we decided to go to the District 6 museum, which documented the forced removal of thousands of blacks from an area known as District 6 during the apartheid. After looking through the museum we walked a few blocks to the South African parliament building. We wanted to go inside but no visitors were allowed when parliament was in session. 

We got a bite to eat at a local café and then headed back to the ship because we head that Desmond Tutu was coming onto the ship to make a speech at 6:00. Originally this had not been planned, but Tutu, who rode on a full spring voyage with SAS, made some adjustments in his schedule to come talk with us. He was ordained as the first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work during the apartheid.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

We went to the union at about 5:00 and got front row seats for the speech. Tutu came and spoke for about half an hour and then answered a few questions, and we were within feet of him the whole time. At one point he referenced some of the great things SAS alumni have done, mentioning that the inventor of Crocs went on one of the voyages. He then said that any one of us could end up inventing some new product and making millions of dollars; it could be you, he said, walking up to JR (sitting next to me). After the speech we went over to the mall for some food (we wanted to get away from ship food for awhile). After the meal we walked to Mitchell’s for a few beers, and then took a taxi to another bar that the librarian, Molly, had recommended to us. We hung out there for awhile and eventually we headed back to the ship.

Day 7

I had an FDP (Faculty Directed Practica) for my Global Environmental Studies class which took up most of the day. We rode out to Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, which was about 20 minutes outside of the downtown area. We met with a member of the South African National Biodiversity Institute who talked about changing ecosystems in the country due to climate change and extending land-use. We had a Q&A after the presentation along with tea and coffee. When we finished with the talk we went to the botanical garden and had some free time to walk around. It was a huge place but we didn’t have that much time to see it all. We loaded back onto the bus and rode back to the ship by 4:00 pm. On-ship time was 6:00 and there are usually long lines to check in near the deadline, so I stayed on the ship. We left at about 8 pm but Henry and I got a chance to play some basketball while the ship was still sitting at the dock.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens