The Cape of Good Hope

Bonjour,

We had heard that many consider Cape Town, South Africa to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I thought that meant that the cityscape would be spectacular, super chic, and European feeling. Turns out, that's not what I think most people mean when they talk about the beauty of this place.

Compared with other parts of sub-Saharan Africa that we visited, it certainly feels European. And there are some nice buildings and excellent restaurants. But Cape Town wasn't what we expected.

The city has an edgy feel -- the lingering tension between black/white and rich/poor seemed obvious to us (and fairly understandable, given the history and extremes of rich and poor). I was more uneasy walking around there than I ever am in Morocco.

But Cape Town also has one of the most beautiful natural settings I have ever seen, along with spectacular shoreline along the Indian Ocean coast and even more so, the Atlantic Coast.

We spent our first full day there driving and hiking through the peninsula, first stopping at Boulders Beach to see the penguin colony with birds that summer in Antarctica and winter in South Africa.

Wait, that's not a bird...

We then stopped for a picnic lunch by a deserted beach that looked perfect.

But just as we were starting to eat and true to a few warnings posted, we attracted the attention of a troop of baboons. You won't be surprised to hear that I was a bit alarmist (or maybe not alarmist enough, as it turns out) when I noticed them about a block away, but Bob was a bit too casual. Shortly after we got up and started running to our car, the kids and I were surrounded by snarling baboons, and in my panic, I dropped our food. The largest baboon then parked himself only about 20 feet away and ate the entire bag of hand cut rosemary and sea salt potato chips while another scarfed down my roasted veggie/chevre pocket sandwich.

The whole thing was kind of harrowing, although they were really just after the food.

No photos of the nasty baboons.

After all of that excitement, the rest of the afternoon was uneventful (although we saw other baboons attack a French family trying to eat too). We hiked to the lighthouse at Cape Point, near where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, and visited the Cape of Good Hope, the southwestern most part of Africa.

We saw some nicer wildlife.

We found a better beach to hike along and had the opportunity to take the obligatory beach pictures of the kids.

Finally, we drove back to the city as the sun was setting.


A bientot,

Kim