Katie and Tommy: Around the World

As we drove along the coastline of Cape Town, gazing down at pristine white beaches gently kissed by sparkling blue and green waters, one thought kept entering into our minds: this is only the first day.

It was hard enough to believe that we were actually leaving on Sunday, when we loaded our packs into the back of the car and drove to the New Orleans airport in the dark of early morning. A quick flight brought us to Dulles Airport in Washington, where we found an excellent way to pass our six-hour layover: the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near the airport, where all the large planes and space vessels are on display. A quick shuttle took us there and back. On the return trip, we were on it with two flight attendants and two pilots, whose conversation drifted into the subject of getting very drunk. Halfway through they stopped and looked at us, slightly alarmed. “Where are you flying?” they asked, hoping we weren’t on their next flight.

The rest of the layover went by quickly, and soon we were boarding a massive South African Airlines plane via a large shuttle that took us across the tarmac. We looked curiously at the other passengers, wondering what each of their stories was, and what brought them to South Africa. It was a diverse group, but as we’ve found so far, it is a diverse country.

We hadn’t slept much the night before, thinking that with the eight-hour time change, we should try and be as exhausted as possible when we boarded our flight across the Atlantic. It certainly worked. Tommy didn’t even remember takeoff; I remember tiredly lifting my head and then going back to sleep. It was a good flight. Near the end, we gazed down at the ground below us and marveled, “That’s Africa!”

We landed in Johannesburg and had to pick up our bags to go through customs. Because we had arrived in D.C. so early, they were on the bottom of the pile. By the time we had them, our flight to Cape Town was leaving in only 30 minutes. We flew through customs as quickly as we could and then ran to the domestic departures gates, which were in a separate building entirely. Airport employees who saw us running asked where we were going and quickly arranged for help. One of them grabbed our bags, rushed us through security, and got us to our gate. We made it with only nine minutes to takeoff. They ended us holding the plane until all of the connecting passengers made it anyway, but I suppose it was exhilarating trying to make it on time. Tommy and I have already established on numerous past occasions that it’s not really a vacation until you have to frantically run somewhere.

By the time we reached our hostel, it was after 8 pm, so we didn’t see much of Cape Town that night. We went out for some beer and a little food, and toasted the beginning of our trip. It was hard to believe we were really sitting at the tip of Africa at that very moment. It had taken us a lot of hard work and planning to get there.

The next morning, over breakfast, we decided on all of the things we wanted to do in the area. Then we asked the hostel staff what would be the best way to get around. Their answer was to rent a car. It would only be thirty dollars for the day, and it would be at the hostel in a half hour. We looked at each other and shrugged–why not?

In less than the promised 30 minutes, we were cruising down the coastal highway–the left side of the coastal highway–in a much-abused but still functional Fiat Uno. It was a little overcast, but the sun was sparkling over the water, and the beaches looked pristine and white. Towering over it all were immense mountains, including the majestic Table Mountain, all cloaked in fog. It was breathtaking. And seeing it all in our own car gave us a marvelous freedom. All we had to do was remember to keep to the left side of the road!

We drove down the Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. We had stopped for birding along the way, but we got our first real taste of African wildlife at the Reserve entrance. We were paying the entry fee when Tommy said, “Oh my god, baboons.” Sure enough, there was a whole troop of them wandering around and even sitting on top of a parked car. There was one big male, a female with a baby clutching her chest, and several smaller individuals. Tommy turned to the woman in the toll booth. “Are they friendly?” he asked hopefully. She gave him a flat stare I’m sure she reserves only for foolish American tourists. “No,” she said. “Roll up your windows.”

Once we had taken a sufficiently ridiculous number of photos, we drove on into the park. The landscape was interesting, covered in the unique fynbos vegetation that is only found in the western Cape. We went all the way to the tip of the peninsula, where we hiked up to the lighthouse for a breathtaking view. Driving back out of the Reserve, I made Tommy slam on the breaks for our second big wildlife sighting: an ostrich!

Our next stop after the Nature Reserve was the town of Boulders, famous for its penguin colony. I’d consider any day in which I saw both penguins and an ostrich ornithologically successful, and Boulders did not disappoint. There’s a board walk along a shrubby beach, and there are African Penguins everywhere, right next to the walkway. I have to say… they were pretty darn cute.

We had lunch in the charming town of Kalk Bay and then, realizing how much time we still had, headed out to the wine region of Stellenbosch. We stopped at the Spier vineyard for a great tasting for only 10 Rand (roughly $1.40) and then some coffee and cheesecake in their lovely gardens, where ducks and weavers begged for food. As we made our way back to the city, we recounted what a wonderful day it had been, and marveled at how little we had spent. Not only that, but we hadn’t gotten in a single driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road-related incident. Definitely something to be proud of. Exhausted and still a little jetlagged, we called it an early night once we made it back to Cape Town.

Pictures from Cape Town

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 3:05 pm and is filed under South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.