All the views from Signal Hill

Signal Hill in Cape Town isn't just a great spot to view the sunset from, but it's also has some awesome views which is ideal if you don't have the time or budget to go up Table Mountain.

Green Point with the Cape Town Stadium and Table Bay with Robben Island in the distance on the left

Cape Town Harbour with the V&A Waterfront as well as the City Bowl

Table Mountain, Lion's Head and the Twelve Apostles

Delville Wood Memorial and Table Mountain in the late afternoon

 My quick two day visit to Cape Town for the e-Tourism Africa Summit just wet my appetite for a bit of a Cape holiday again.  Not that I know when I'll get the opportunity but I do know that I need some explore time in the city again.  The three things I would really like to do is a tour of the underground tunnels that run through the city bowl, to hike up Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge and to do the open bus City Sightseeing Tour.  So my Cape Town bucket list is made.  The tunnels I mentioned were used to channel water down to the gardens from the mountain (I hope that is putting it correct) and visitors can now be taken on a guided tour of these tunnels under the city.  I did get to make a whirlwind visit to the gardens themselves - looking for a Geocache, what else? - after the end of the first day of the summit and snapped this late afternoon pic of the Delville Wood Memorial with Table Mountain in the background.

Table Mountain and Waterfront at dusk

Iconic Table Mountain seen at dusk from the equally iconic V&A Waterfront

Dias Statue in Cape Town

Bartholomew Dias was the first European to discover South Africa.  On an expedition looking for a sea way to the East he sailed around the Cape in a storm without knowing it.  On 3 February 1488 he landed in Mossel Bay which he called the Bay of Saint Blaise.  On 12 March they reached the furthest point of the expedition when he anchored at Kwaaihoek near the Bushmans River mouth.  It was here that Dias planted a stone cross (padrao) before being forced to turn around when his crew refused to go any further.  It was only on the return journey that Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope.  Dias originally named the Cape of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms".  It was later renamed the Cape of Good Hope by King John II of Portugal because it represented the opening of a route to the east.

 

The discovery of the passage around the south of Africa was significant because Europeans realized for the first time that they could trade directly with India and the other parts of Asia, bypassing the overland route through the Middle East with its expensive middlemen.

 

Dias later joined  an expedition that reached the coast of Brazil in 1500 and from there continued eastwards to India.  The four ships hit a huge storm off the Cape of Good Hope which meant Dias perished near the same place he called the Cape of Storms.

 

The statue of Dias on Adderley Street in Cape Town was unveiled in 1960.

Cape Town big wheel

The Wheel of Excellence (or just Waterfront Big Wheel as most people refer to it) at the V&A Waterfront has become a favorite activity for visitors in Cape Town to do.  The surrounding view of the Waterfront and city from the top is stunning.  My last visit to Cape Town was a brief one and there wasn't time for a trip, but I did snap this pic of it on a walk through the Waterfront before heading to dinner.

The upper cable station from Kloof Nek

A bit of an unusual view of the upper cable station on top of Table Mountain seen from near the top of Kloof Nek (unusual unless you live in Cape Town and come along this road often that is)

Looking up the wheel

Looking up at the Wheel of Excellence in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town

Cape Town Wheel of Excellence

One of the newest attractions in Cape Town is the 40 meter high Wheel of Excellence at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.  The big wheel has 30 fully-enclosed cabins and the 15 minute ride literally gives one a bird eye view of the Waterfront and surrounding Mother City.  When the Kidz heard that we were going on a big wheel there was a lot of apprehension, specially from Drama Princess who is always a bit weary of the unknown, but once we were inside and going around they absolutely loved the ride. 

Going around you don't really know where to look.  The view is breathtaking with beautiful vistas of the attractions around the Waterfront, the city beyond and Table Mountain in the background.  The other way you can see Table Bay, Robben Island and the beaches along the Bay with the sprawling city all around and the mountains in the distance.  All in all its a WOW! experience and anybody can do it, even granny in her wheelchair; as two of the gondolas are wheelchair friendly. 

The wheel has definatively changed the skyline of the Waterfront area and added an attraction which should not be missed by anybody wanting to see more of Cape Town. 

Our ride on the Wheel of Excellence was courtesy of the V&A Waterfront.

South African Museum

I'm a museum kinda guy.  There is always something new to discover even if you have been to it so many times before.  My favorite museum to go to is the South African Museum in Cape Town.  Its the oldest museum in sub-Saharan Africa and was established in 1825 by Lord Charles Somerset.  It is both a research and educational institution and offers collections of natural history and anthropological objects that document all forms of life - living and extinct - from southern Africa.   Whats also nice about the museum is that fact that its located at the top of the Company Gardens (seen in the photo just behind the Delville Wood Memorial) so a visit can be combined with exploring the whole area.   

One of the most popular and impressive parts of the museum is the whale well with it's life sized whale and whale skeletons. Its combined with the rest of the marine section which also showcases sharks and dolphins. 

Other exhibits range from an extensive collection of mammals and birds, to an excellent collection of material cultural heritage of our indigenous populations going back to their earliest origin.  These include Stone Age tools, some over 120 000 years old, and rock painting.

Chaos Boy's favorite part of the museum was the dinosaur and fossil section with these life sized skeletons being the centre of the exhibit.

Buildings along the Company Gardens

As I have mentioned in my previous post, several Cape Town's most significant historical buildings can be found along the Company Gardens as one walks down Government Avenue.

At the bottom entrance to the Gardens are Church Square and the Slave Lodge.  The Slave Lodge was built in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company and housed thousands of slaves during the time when slavery meant big business for the Cape Colony.   In 1810, after the British had taken over, the building became the Supreme Court and in 1914 was turned into government offices.  In 1966 the Slave Lodge was turned into a museum, paying tribute to the past and containing historical displays on the Cape as well as a collection of antiquities and artefacts from around the world.  Slavery was officially abolished in the Cape in 1838.  The statue was erected in 1920 and is that of  parliamentarian Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr who was recognised for his efforts to have Dutch recognised as a language (on the same footing with English) in the Constitution of 1910.

Probably the most impressive buildings along the Company Gardens are the South African House of Parliament buildings.  Cape Town is South Africa's legislative capital while Pretoria is the administrative capital.  The House of Parliament buildings were  original designed by Charles Freeman who miscalculated the foundations and was replaced.  Constructions was overseen by Henry Greaves and completion in 1885 with the new House of Assembly being designed by Sir Herbert Baker.  Guided tours can be done through the House of Parliament during the week and visitors can also buy tickets to sit in the public gallery during parliamentary sessions certain parts of the year.

Next to the House of Parliament is Tuynhuys, the office of the President.  This beautiful building was originally built in 1700 as a residence for important visitors to the Cape.  It has been used as an official residence by almost all the governors of the Cape - Dutch, Batavian and British - and by State Presidents after the country became a Republic in 1961. 

Towards the top of Government Avenue opposite the South African Museum on Government Avenue is the South African National Gallery.  The National Gallery began with a presentation of some 45 paintings by Thomas Butterworth Bayley in 1871, and since then has grown to one of international stature and houses some of the most beautiful collections of South African, African, British, French, Dutch and Flemish art in South Africa.

The Company Gardens

The greenbelt that is the Company Gardens, stretching through urban downtown Cape Town, attracts both locals and visitors in their droves.  People go there to admire the historic buildings, sight see, play in the park, feed the squirrels, read a book, sit in the shade and relax or just to get from the one end to the other.  The Company Gardens were established in 1652 and takes its name from the Dutch East India Company who first started the garden to supply their ships, that plied the spice trade route between Europe and the East Indies via The Cape of Good Hope, of fresh produce.  The gardens were irrigated through a system of open irrigation furrows fed by the area's numerous streams originating on  Table Mountain.

During the late 17th Century the Garden had expanded quite a lot, but after the Dutch East Indian Company went bankrupt it started going backwards and was in ruin by 1795.  During the first British occupancy very little money was put into the Garden and it deteriorated even further.  The Dutch Batavian Republic administration revived the Garden in 1803 and when the British took over again in 1806 they started to build important institutional buildings around the area.  The Gardens themselves were again given to the Governor for his use and in 1848 a portion was released as a public open space.  In 1892 the Municipality took over the Public Garden for the first time the garden was open to all as a right and not a courtesy.  (Sorry for the history lesson)

Some of the significant features of the garden include the oldest cultivated pear tree in South Africa thought to date back to 1652, a rose garden designed and built in 1929, a well dating from 1842, a memorial slave-bell dating back to 1855 and a Japanese theme garden with a stone Japanese lantern donated by the Japanese Ambassador in 1932.

As mentioned earlier in the post, the Company Gardens are home to a few very prominent buildings as well as statues.  The South African National Library is just one of those buildings while there are statues of figures like Cecil John Rhodes, Sir George Grey and Gen Jan Smuts.  In the next post I will tell you a little more about some of the other buildings you will find around the Company Gardens. 

Cape Town War Memorial

As you would know I am always on the lookout for something interesting to photograph, doesn't matter if its natural or historical.  As far as historical attractions go you tend to find some kind of war memorial in just about every town and city around South Africa and Cape Town was no different.  In actual fact I found two right next to each other.  At the top of the Company Gardens just below the South African Museum is the Cape Town War Memorial containing the names of the men from the city that has died in the two world wars.  Right behind it is the Delville Wood Memorial which commemorates the World War 1 Battle of Delville Wood in France, in which a predominantly SA force of more than 3 000 soldiers was reduced to 755 survivors by German forces.

Feeding squirrels in the Company Gardens

You may not find it on all the tourism guides being printed about Cape Town, but one of the popular things to do for visitors to the Mother City is to go and feed the squirrels living the the Company Gardens.  Most of the vendors around the area sell bags of peanuts and you can easily spot the difference between visitors and locals by those carrying a bag of nuts.  The squirrels have become so accustomed to people that even though they are wild they will come and take the peanuts from your hands.

On our visit you could easily see that it was peak holiday season and there were lots of visitors about feeding the squirrels.  Why?  Because they just didn't seem too interested in food.  The Kidz were a bit disappointed that the squirrels didn't want to come to them, but we did eventually find a couple willing to do so.

Enjoying the view on Table Mountain

The view from the top of Table Mountain is magnificent, awesome, stunning, breathtaking, beautiful, blêrrie mooi, unbeatable, c'est magnifique... and so I can go on.  How do you enhance that view even more?  You get a couple of people to sit right on the edge - or just use an angle to make it look like they do - and take a picture of them enjoying that (all the above adjectives all over again) view.  In this case they were just a couple of random people I photographed, but ...

... having Drama Princess on hand I could try my own version as well.
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Our visit up Table Mountain was made possible courtesy of Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

Visiting Table Mountain

One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Situated within an Unesco World Heritage Site. Part of a National Park. Not just one of Cape Towns most iconic landmarks, but also one of South Africa's.   Who I am? Sound like a question from a game show with the obvious answer being Table Mountain.   Now I hope nobody got it wrong though. Table Mountain was on the top of our list of places to visit while in Cape Town just like it is on the list of every international visitor to the Mother City.

The family was excited, the weather perfect with no clouds in sight and the queue was long.  Mind you, the week between Christmas and New Year is peak holiday season and the busiest tourism time in the city so perhaps not the the easiest time to visit Table Mountain.  BUT, the wait is absolutely worth it.  After inching along waiting for our turn we boarded the cable car that takes visitors from the Lower Cable Station (363m above sea level) to the top (1067m above sea level).  Each cable car has a capacity of 65 people and in the five minutes it takes to get to the top the floor of the cable car rotates 360° so that everybody can have a view in all directions.  This also eliminates a lot of pushing and shoving for the best spot when boarding.

Chaos Boy leading the way on one of the wheelchair friendly walkways

Once you get to the top of the mountain the best way to take in the mountain itself as well as the fabulous views that are on offer is to take one of the various trails.  We, like most people, did the shorter Dassie Walk while there is also the thirty-minute Agama Walk and the longer Klipspringer Walk to choose from.  The short walk is very easy for both young and old visiting the mountain and to top that its also wheelchair friendly.

Drama Princess admiring the view over Clifton and Camps Bay

The Table Mountain range is home to 1 460 different species of plants (mostly Fynbos) as well as little animals like Rock Hyrax (commonly known as dassies), mongooses, lizards, snakes (although chances are slim that you will see them on top of the mountain with all the people about) and butterflies.  Birders may be able to spot several indigenous bird species like Redwinged Starlings, Cape Verreaux’s Eagles, Rock Kestrels and Sunbirds.  But most visitors go for the view and what an magnificent view it is!

One a clear day from the right spot one can see just about all the way down to Cape Point, but in general you have spectacular vistas over the city, Clifton, Sea Point, the V&A Waterfront, Table Bay, Robben Island, the Cape Flats and the Cape Peninsula.  You will also see Lion’s Head, Signal Hill and Devil’s Peak mountains while on the western side there is a great view of the Twelve Apostles.

Whenever I visit Cape Town I just can't take my eyes off Table Mountain.  She's like that sexy lady in the bikini lying on the towel just in front of you on the beach, you just can't help but to look.  Even though I have never lived in Cape Town, I get home sick when I see "my" mountain and getting the chance to visit the top of the mountain again and being able to share it with the kidz for the first time was wonderful.
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Our visit up Table Mountain was made possible by the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway.  You can find them on Facebook as well as Twitter for regular updates about what is happening at the mountain, weather conditions and wether the mountain is open.

Panoramic view from Tabel Mountain

The view from the top of Table Mountain must be one of the most beautiful city views in the world with Cape Town at your feet and stretching away in the distance to the right and Table Bay and the Atlantic Ocean azure blue on the left.

I've pointed out a couple of Cape Town's main landmarks as seen from one of the lookouts on top of Table Mountain.  I will still follow this post up with a post discribing our visit to Table Mountain.

Our trip up Table Mountain was sponsored by Table Mountain Aerial Cableway.

Cape Town Stadium

Looking at the new 55 000 seater Cape Town Stadium at Green Point from this angle it doesn't look so big...

... but as one gets closer the enormity of the city's new stadium, purpose built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup at a cost of R4,4-billion – or approximately US$600-million, starts to dawn on you.

The real impact the stadium has on Cape Town and its skyline only really hits home when you look at if from across Table Bay. This view being from Milnerton...

...and this one from Bloubergstrand

Now you see it...

I haven't taken much photos over the last couple of weeks so I've very much run out of new stuff to show. So as I always do when this happens I revert to my stock and look for pics that I've never shown. I've found some Cape Town pics that will keep me busy for the next couple of days and hopefully by then I will have something new to show.

Table Mountain seen on a clear day from the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town

I have posted this pic at some stage before, but without it I can't show the next one in this context.

Table Mountain as not seen on a cloudy day from the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

The weather in Cape Town can change drastically from day to day and it is very possible to have a day like the one on the top one day and a day like the second one the next. Sometimes it even happens in one day. When you visit Cape Town for a couple of days and plan to visit Table Mountain, my advice is to go at the first opportunity because a second one may not present itself.