This trip has been a long time coming. Ever since I met the South African crew in Phuket
back in 2011 I knew I wanted to go to their home country. My desire
only grew once my best childhood friend Mallory and my dear SA friend
Richie got hitched and started going there on holiday. My time in Fort Lauderdale
living with the South African gents just deepened that desire, I knew I
had to see for myself what that country was all about. I also am a firm
believer in visiting a place where I can have locals show me around, it
really is the best way to experience a foreign land. Not only do you
get to visit friends, you get to enjoy the place off the beaten track
and not get sucked into any of the lame tourist traps you may otherwise
be tempted by.
Last month I got my chance. Jack and Sallie (actually from Tasmania), who were part of the original crew in Phuket
and also my friends who I did the boat delivery from Bali to Singapore a
couple years back, have been settled in Cape Town for some time and
just had a baby. I was eager to see them and meet their sweet baby girl
Suzy June. In addition to Jack and Sal, our friend Jurgen was visiting and our friend Nelis
was also living in Cape Town in between boat gigs. I figured it was a
great time to catch up with these dear friends and escape the rainy
winter weather. As February is the hottest month in South Africa I was
excited to pack for beach weather!
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| Sal (sorry not the best pic), Jurgen, Jack, Nelis and I |
Getting
to South Africa from California is no easy feat, it is an incredibly
long journey best broken up in stages. I decided to pair my visit to SA
with a visit to London to visit my friend Kristy, and that will be
highlighted in the next post. That gave me a buffer on each end of the
trip and the bonus of visiting even more friends during my vacation! The
route I took was SFO to London Heathrow (~10.5 hrs), then from Heathrow I took a flight to Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia (~8 hrs) and then on to Cape Town (~6.5 hrs). Despite the long
travel I arrived to Cape Town excited and feeling good. Sallie picked
me up and took me the 25-30 minutes to their home in Camps Bay.
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| Camps Bay, waling up the road to Jack and Sal's house |
Jack and Sal, along with sweet Suzy and their adorable Staffordshire Terrier Potjie,
have a lovely 3 bedroom home overlooking the beach and surrounded by
the Table Mountain Range. The landscape was stunning, I would describe
it as dramatic with the beach and towering mountains all around it makes
for a gorgeous atmosphere. My first impression of Cape Town was how
European it felt. Which makes sense given it was colonized by the
British way back when, but I also had to remind myself that I was seeing
just a small sliver of the area. We spent the majority of the time in
the more posh locales, but of course there are shanty towns and slums
like any other developing country. There seem to be a lot of expats
living there and there is a very international, cosmopolitan feel to the
area. I managed to take in a yoga class as well and that was a
beautiful experience ding my vinyasas
with gorgeous table mountain in the background. We enjoyed a lot of
beach time, relaxing and catching up as I had not seen my friends for
about 2 years.
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| View from the patio |
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Gorgeous nighttime views from the patio
Sweet Sal and pup Potjie |
Special shout out to my friend Jurgen who I spent a lot of time chatting with about his passion project, Small Steps Surfing. Jurgen
comes from a family of philanthropists, with a father who is involved
in sea turtle conservation and an uncle who works at a cheetah
conservation center. After years in the yachting industry (which can be
pretty heartless given it is catering to the ultra elite and ultra
wealthy) he has settled back home in a coastal town near Durban and has
started a surfing tour company incorporating volunteer aspects aimed at
teaching local youth how to surf. He has worked tirelessly to get these
underprivileged kids to experience the excitement of surfing, and
hustled to get equipment donated to them for the cause. It was amazing
to see his passion and dedication to the project, and given my focus in
grad school was volunteer tourism I was intrigued to hear how he was
going about his business. I would love to help him any way I can and
have already passed along his information to local HMB big wave surf
legend Jeff Clark in hopes he may want to get involved. I will continue
to spread the word for him as I would love to see him succeed and change
lives for the better.
For my first night we went down town for a nice dinner out at a place called Carne.
If South Africans are passionate about anything it is their meat, and
it was definitely a meat-centric experience. After we were sat the
waiter came over with a tray showcasing all the cuts of meat they had to
offer that night, a visual menu of sorts. I am pretty adventurous and
all about trying any local delicacies, and this restaurant had a dish
called the "Safari" that my friend ordered so I could try some of the
local meats including ostrich, black wildabeest, and three types of Antelope including impala, kudu and blesbok.
It was all pretty tasty, I really enjoyed the ostrich. We paired the
meat with some delicious red wine from the region. The highlight of the
meal was when the check came and it was so stinking cheap! I think my
meal was around $30 for freeflowing
wine and an incredible steak dinner and some shared dessert. If I had
to guess it probably would have cost at least double that in California,
if not more.
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| Choosing our dinner meat at Carne |
On the weekend we decided to head down to the local Orenjezicht
market (a farmers and food market) and wow was I impressed. The overall
vibe of the market was very hipster, and walking around you could hear
all different accents and languages giving it a very international feel.
It had an incredible selection of food stalls with each offering more
enticing options then the last and the variety was astounding. Options
included a Vietnamese stall with Pho, a Mediterranean stall with lamb gyros, Mexican, specialty waffles, sushi, a juice bar, fresh brewed Kombucha and the cutest little Gelato
cart I have seen! There is an outdoor area with lots of picnic tables
so everyone can go grab their respective meals and come back and dine
together. The market also had meat, produce, spreads, spices, and
homemade goods to peruse. I thoroughly enjoyed strolling through the
market and checking out all the different goods and trying all the
samples, of course! Picked up some Biltong (South African equivalent of jerky) which I had been craving since Nelis made some for us in Fort Lauderdale way back when.
Another
day the crew brought me down to the waterfront for lunch, which
reminded me of Pier 39. It was definitely a tourist destination but a
great place to wander around for the afternoon. We grabbed lunch at a
German style beer haus
and strolled down the promenade taking in the street performers and
scenery. I enjoyed the African singers and musicians and it was fun
taking a photo in the National Geographic photo op frame with Table
Mountain in the background. The best part was just hanging with my
friends, and I kept reassuring them there was no need to entertain me as
I was just so darn happy to be with them no matter what we did.
Hiking table mountain was another must, as it is right in town and famous for its stunning views over Cape Town. Nelis
(who had surprisingly never done the hike) and I got up early to beat
the heat and made are way up the mountain at a vigorous pace, it took us
about 2 hours. At the top you could go from one side to the other and
enjoy the panoramic views of the city below. It was certainly tiring but
felt great to take on the challenge. Once at the top we enjoyed the
views, and then the best part is you can take a gondola back down as you
are pretty spent at that point. The gondola revolves so you get to
travel down the mountain and check out the view from every angle, it was
awesome.
The
last highlight was wine country, and what a highlight it was! South
Africa is known for having an amazing wine region and it did not
disappoint. We all loaded up and drove the hour or so out to Stellenbosch which is a university town in the middle of the wine region. We popped into Tokara winery for a tasting and to take in the views of the vineyards, it was a lot like Napa
but the towering mountain ranges offered a reminder of being in another
locale. The wine was delicious and the tasting was delightfully cheap.
Next we headed over to Babylonstoren
winery which was home to some AMAZING gardens that we spent an hour
meandering through. It was gorgeous. I could have spent all day just
enjoying the scenery and weaving my way through the property. We ended
the self-led tour with a specialty dinner at the winery which was
another meat lovers delight actually called "Nice to Meat You"that
offered six courses of various meats prepared in different fashions and
paired with delicious wines. It was super fun, but by the end I was
pretty meat-ed out haha.
I
was sad to have my time there end, goodbyes are never easy, but I know I
will be back to visit. I loved the country and the trip also reaffirmed
that my relationships with this group of people are really special to
me. Seeing my friends also starting a family was really special and I
look forward to seeing where all our lives take us. We all reminisce
about how our time together in Thailand was once in a lifetime, and
created a bond that would be hard to break. While we are separated by
oceans and continents, we are always able to pick up right where we left
off when we are together again and that is something to hold onto.
