Cape Town, Table Mountain, Boulders Beach and Cape of Good Hope

We arrived in Cape Town mid-afternoon on June 15th after about a 365 km, five-hour drive from Karoo National Park. We discovered that entering EXACT information into our “Maps App” is essential, as we arrived at our “supposed” address right in the middle of a very sketchy area of a Cape Town suburb.

It turned out there is more than one “2 Milner Road” address! After gathering our wits, we programmed Siri to get us to The Cape Milner Hotel, located near the base of the famous Table Mountain.

We had a beautiful corner suite with a direct view of the mountain and Signal Hill (Signal Hill is not shown in the picture).

We had really lucked out so far with the weather in South Africa, and Cape Town was no exception. Friday morning, the 16th—and Joyce’s birthday—was sunny and warm. The area had been experiencing a severe drought, and the typical weather for this time of year is rain and cold, very similar to a Vancouver winter.

We drove up to the base of the mountain and the gondola station, then proceeded to the top, which has an elevation of 1,089 metres above sea level. Amazing views and flora greeted us.

After returning from the mountain, it was lunchtime and then a leisurely 2.7 km walk to the V&A Waterfront, a very large version of Granville Island on the Cape Town waterfront. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and the birds were chirping, but alas, there was danger lurking…

Not more than 10 minutes into our walk, we encountered a well-dressed man of local African lineage and, being the nice Canadians, we said hello and asked how he was doing. The day, Friday, was a national holiday, so the streets were bare of pedestrians, although there was vehicle traffic near the intersection where we met him.

He was doing well, thank you very much, and asked, “Are you heading to the waterfront?”

“Well, yes, we are.”

“Oh well then, being a national holiday, the bridge you need to cross requires a pass. You do have a pass, don’t you?”

“Well, no we don’t, but that seems odd.”

“No, no, not odd. You must get a pass, and you can get it over there.”

He pointed, we didn’t see anything, so we proceeded to cross the street, and he proceeded to pretend he was showing us the way to the place to buy the pass. He was walking a little ahead of us now, and he pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

We were very skeptical at this point. I walked past a couple of guards in front of a bank and peered around the corner of the street where we apparently could buy a pass. I didn’t see anything except an empty street.

At this point, a car pulled up on the side street, and several men of disrepute jumped out and started heading towards us. I turned around and went back to the bank guards. The bad guys turned around, jumped in their car and then picked up Mr. Nice Guy as he continued to walk away.

A robbery was thwarted.

If the bank guards hadn’t been there, we would have been robbed of our cameras and wallet, no doubt about it. I didn’t see everything that was going on, so Joyce added her perception of events. If it had been just her or me in this situation, things could have worked out much differently.

Lesson learned.

We hopped in a taxi, pissed off and a little shaken, and proceeded to the waterfront for a warm afternoon of birthday cheers and several cool beverages.

The next day, Saturday, the 17th, we headed south to the Cape of Good Hope with a stop at Boulders Beach, the only place in the world where you can get up close to the African penguin. This endangered species was put on the endangered species list in 2010. Of the 17 species of penguin, they are the only ones that breed in Africa.

Next stop was the Cape of Good Hope, which is the most southwestern point of the African continent. Huge crashing waves and windswept landscapes highlight the area, where ostriches and elands roam along the rugged coast.