Cape Town and Wine Country

In planning our trip to South Africa, we had to add in a lot of buffer days as a lot of activities were weather dependent, like the shark diving and going up to Table Mountain.  It was drizzling our first morning back in Cape Town so our plan to get to the top of Table Mountain by cable car had to wait as it only operates in good weather.  Instead, we started our morning off by heading to World of Birds, the largest bird park in Africa.  To say I was in seventh heaven would be an understatement.  Instead of birds being in small cages, they would have these huge outdoor rooms with tons of different birds flying all over the place.

Duckie love!

Not only did this place have a ton of beautiful and colorful birds, but they also had 38 Squirrel Monkeys.  Since it was raining out, there really weren’t many people at World of Birds, so when the Monkey Jungle opened up for visitors, Greg and I were the only ones inside.  Literally, the moment we walked in the door, these adorable little golden colored monkeys started jumping on us.  Which was kind of funny, but a little scary at the same time because they were pulling at our hoods and were all up on us. They also seemed to have an affinity for the velcro straps on our jackets.

Squirrel Monkeys attack!

Greg with his new buddy.

After we had our fair share of the monkeys and visited with every bird (at least once), we headed off to do the Chapman’s Peak Drive.  It’s a windy road between Noordhoek and Hout Bay and is listed as one of the most spectacular marine drives in the world. After our lovely drive, we hit a winery on our way back and then had fun exploring around where we were staying in the city.

Beautiful views along Chapman's Peak Drive.

Katie & Greg along Chapman's Peak Drive.

The next morning we headed out to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden because I really wanted to see the Boomslang Walkway, and who doesn’t love a good botanical garden.  The gardens really were spectacular.  With Cape Town just entering spring, there were beautiful blooming flowers everywhere, great views of the mountains, and this awesome “scratch and sniff” section where you could touch all the plants to smell their interesting smells. To see all of my pictures of the beautiful flowers, check out our SmugMug page.  After a few hours enjoying the gardens, it was time to head to Franschhoek for some relaxing time in wine country.

Beautiful views at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Beautiful views at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Since we didn’t want to have to worry about drinking and driving, we found the next best thing, the Franschhoek Wine Tram hop-on-hop-off tour.  It was a great way to discover the picturesque vineyards, breath-taking scenery, fine wines, and the 300-year history of the area.  We hopped the Blue Line, which allowed us to hit 6 different wineries in just about as many hours.  While they were all absolutely stunning and we made sure to snack along the way, our one major hiccup was that this was also the only night we could get a reservation at The Tasting Room, a very famous restaurant known for their culinary creations.  We might have overindulged on the Wine Tram, but after a nice nap, we were ready for our nine-course meal (which I think actually turned into eleven courses, each paired with its own glass of wine).  While I really really wish these had been on separate days, the meal was none the less amazing.  We were each served different menus for almost every course so we might have passed plates on a few (I was not all about the octopus or crayfish while Greg was more than ok passing on the beetroot with apple).

Chocolate and wine tasting at La Bri Estate.

Beautiful wine country in Franschhoek.

Katie & Greg on the Franschhoek Wine Tram.

Our original game plan was to try a few more wineries on the way back to Cape Town the next afternoon, but with the amount we drank the day before, neither one of us were really up for more day drinking (or really drinking in general).  We did still hit two breweries that we had read about just to try small flights. One was a couple's homebrew hobby turned into a full brewery (Zebonkey Brewery) and another had some wildebeests and zebras roaming their property (Wild Beast Brewery).

Wild Beast Brewery flight.

No trip of ours is ever complete without a little somber history.  We made sure to book a trip to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars.  The tour guides inside the prison are all former political prisoners and were knowledgeable about the Island’s multi-layered 500-year-old history. The tour itself included stops and information on the graveyard of people who died from leprosy, the Lime Quarry, Robert Sobukwe’s house, the Bluestone quarry, the army and navy bunkers, and the Maximum Security Prison where thousands of South Africa’s freedom fighters were incarcerated for years, as well as a viewing of Nelson Mandela’s cell.

Greg & Katie visiting Robben Island.

After the somber experience, we finally had a clear evening and were able to head up to Table Mountain.  While it was still rather windy and chilly, we did get some amazing views and we got to watch the sunset over the city as we rode the very last cable car down the mountain.

Views from Table Mountain.

Sunset at Table Mountain.

On the last day in the country, we found a quirky coffee place, Truth Coffee Roasting, checked out the District 6 Museum for another history lesson, drove through the Bo-Kaap area of the city and visited SANCCOB (The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds). SANCCOB is a registered non-profit organization whose primary objective is to reverse the decline of seabird populations through the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of ill, injured, abandoned, and oiled seabirds.  We got a tour of the place and got to see all the good work they are doing to help the penguin population.  We even ended up adopting a penguin and named it Matooke to give a touch of Uganda in South Africa (matooke is a cultural food in Uganda).

Injured penguins at SANCCOB.

I know this was rather a lengthy post, and I’m sure I’ve left bits and pieces out, but South Africa really was as amazing as everyone said it would be.  We had an absolutely fantastic trip and would go back in a heartbeat (though we might need to wait a little while as our freezer is full to the brim with all the goodies we brought back with us).