R and J Abroad: Cape Town and Environs Part 1

Rishi and I spent September 21 through 28 in and around Cape Town, South Africa, a trip that showed us why the Mother City, as it’s known to South Africans, frequently appears on lists of the world’s most beautiful places. We got a great taste of what the area has to offer — too much for a single blog entry — so I've broken this into parts:
Part 1 — Flowers and Views (this entry)
Part 2 — District Six, Townships, and Robben Island
Part 3 — Ancient Rock Art
Part 4 — Whales and Wine

U.S. friends, if you are thinking of visiting Southern Africa, I highly recommend including some time in the Cape Town area on your itinerary. Maybe we can rendezvous with you because I certainly wouldn't mind going there again.

The view of Cape Town from the Robben Island ferry, with Table Mountain at the left and Signal hill at the right, is lovely, even on a cloudy day.

After flying from Gaborone to Johannesburg and then on to Cape Town, we picked up our rental car and drove straight to the West Coast, which in this case is the Atlantic Coast, where we would spend our first few days searching for South Africa’s renowned August and September spring wildflower display.

Source: http://www.bcb.uwc.ac.za/inforeep/capeproject.htm

The Western Cape is home to the Cape Floristic Kingdom, which among the six defined global floristic kingdoms is the smallest in size at only 78,555 sq km, about the size of South Carolina. Despite its small size — it only takes up the southeastern edge of South Africa — the Cape Floristic Kingdom contains more than 9,000 plant species, of which about 68% are endemic. Unfortunately, it’s also been listed as a “biodiversity hotspot,” meaning that its significant biodiversity is under threat from humans. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Floristic_Region, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiversity_hotspot.)

During the trip, I learned that plants originating in the Western Cape include birds of paradise, gerbera daisies, gladiolus, calla lilies, clivia, pelargonium, and protea, not to mention a huge array of ericas (heathers), succulents, and ice plants. We knew we were a little late for the peak of the flowers and also didn’t travel quite as far north as Namaqualand, the area which is supposed to be literally blanketed with flowers in August. Nonetheless, we enjoyed beautiful scenery and definitely saw lots of flowers as our pictures attest.

This collage highlights a few examples of the many plants originating in the Cape Floristic Kingdom. King protea (lower right), the largest of the genus protea, is South Africa's national flower.

We spent the first night, Friday, in Langebaan, a town along a beautiful inlet. En route there, we also took a quick drive though the West Coast National Park, though twilight kept us from lingering. Saturday, continuing northward, we spent the morning driving along the coast to Paternoster before heading inland to Citrusdal, where we spent the next couple of nights. Citrusdal is the heart of South Africa’s orange growing region, so the smell of orange blossoms fills the air, especially in the evenings.

Paternoster's beautiful beach with whitewashed homes.

Citrusdal sits at the foot of the Cedarburg mountains, which provide
a beautiful backdrop to the orange-tree filled valley.

Sunday saw us driving northward again, en route to Clanwilliam, a small agricultural town, and then over a pass through the mountains to a spot called Sevilla, where we spent the afternoon walking along a trail that accesses rock paintings created by San bushmen, the area’s original inhabitants. See http://rjabroad.blogspot.com/2014/10/ancient-rock-art-in-south-africa.html.

Monday it was on to Cape Town, about a two hour drive south. We arrived at our hotel at midday, and the first priority was taking the cable car up Table Mountain. The weather was partly cloudy and cool, but as the forecast for the next few days called for worsening clouds and rain, we knew this might be our best chance to see Table Mountain without the blanket of clouds, known as the table cloth, which frequently comes in from the sea and cloaks the mountain.

The cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain is special in its own right, but the views from atop the mountain are the real draw, even on a cloudy day.

We spent a full day Tuesday touring historic sites from South Africa’s apartheid era. See http://rjabroad.blogspot.com/2014/10/cape-town-and-environs-part-2-district.html.

Over our last two days in Cape Town, we continued our exploration of the natural beauty of the Cape Peninsula. We spent one day driving along the Atlantic coast, headed south on the peninsula that looks like a hooked finger extending south from Cape Town. At the end of the peninsula is the Cape Point Nature Preserve.

At Cape Point Nature reserve, we visited the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, respectively the southwestern most and southeastern most points on the peninsula. We hiked up to the lighthouse at Cape Point to enjoy the views. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not the southern most point on the African continent, which is in fact at Cape Agulhas, about three hours drive southeast from Cape Town.

Wildflowers in the Cape Point Nature Reserve.

On the return trip, we drove along the other side of the peninsula, beside the Indian Ocean coastline. We stopped for lunch and wine tasting at Groot Costantia, one of the oldest wineries in Africa.

Finally, on our last day in Cape Town, we capped off our stay there with a visit to the world renowned

Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, with its magnificent setting nestled against the back of Table Mountain. We took a fabulous two-hour walk through the garden's highlights with a volunteer docent who told us that the wildflowers were are at their peak.