Table Mountain.....Finally

So the clouds parted, the table cloth was removed, and Table Mountain was ours to hike.  Table Mountain is one of the oldest mountains on earth, six times older than the Himalayas and five times older than the Rockies. It's story begins eight hundred million years ago when sandstone began to form underwater.  It is an Icon for Cape Town, and essentially the development of the City occurred around this landmass.  It is flat topped (thus the table reference), often shadowed in cloud or high wind, therefore making the ascent, difficult if not impossible at times.  It has been 4 days of us watching and waiting for a break in the cloud - although the beaches may be cloud-free, the top of Table has had a steady mass of cloud formation. When we awoke today, we knew this would be the day to conquer the top!

Of course with our group, we had to divide and conquer - so John, Anna and Sam took the spinning gondola up, while Liisa, Ben and David hiked.  The new "Rotair" cars carry 65 passengers (increased from 25 on the old cars), and run on a double cable, making them much more stable in high wind, and giving a faster journey of 4-5 minutes to the summit. The floors of the cars rotate through 360 degrees during the ascent or descent, giving passengers a panoramic view.  

The remaining, hiked Platteklip Gorge, 650 m verticle, 1.2 km up to the top, in a serious of natural steps and rock formations. 

All appeared to be progressing well (with a 9 and10 year old charging up the front), except the beating afternoon African sun was relentless upon us.

 Half way up the mountain, Ben and David finally called mercy and asked for some water- I reached into my backpack to find that I had forgotten to pack the water.  Extra clothes, first aid kits, emergency blankets, were all in the pack - completely useless in the heat of the midday sun, but NO WATER.  My first response was, lets head back down - but the boys were set on moving up.  We continued until the last 15 minutes (of an fast 1.5 hour hike up), when finally we ran into a group that had extra water.  Luckily they graciously gave us 2 L - and we ascended without trouble. 

Top of Mtn Looking to Cape Town Harbour

Behind, near the waterfront, the Cape Town FIFA 2010 World Cup soccer stadium (one of several across SA) is visible - an impressive building, and the site of a few struggles to come in June and July, during the World Cup.  In the distant background (above Ben's head) is Robben Island, the "triumph of the human spirit", where Mandela, Mbeke, and many other political prisoners were incarcerated.  It was referred to as The University during the apartheid years.

Table Mtn Looking to Cape of Good Hope

At the top, we met up with the rest of the family and toured the table, taking in the 360 vistas. Oceans (Indian and Atlantic) surrounding us, and a series of beautiful mountain ranges rolled along the coastlines.  We learnt that at the Cape of Good Hope, the Benguela current from the Antarctic, mingles with the warm Angulas current from the Indian Ocean to create a special marine species diversity, unique to Southern Africa.  We also encountered our first sighting of the Dassie, a small marmot-like animal, which is common at the top.  The kids entertained themselves by observing and tracking these critters, spotting all their hiding areas under crevasses and counting their numbers.

We spent the day in the mountains, and returned to sunny and warm skies in Camp Bay, where we proceeded to swim in our pool and enjoy the late afternoon sun.

 It has been a wonderful and relaxing Camps Bay, Cape Town week - and tomorrow we are off to venture East and explore the Garden Route Wine Region for a few days.

Cape Town City Tour

CAPE TOWN PANORAMIC

The day began with the boys of the family having a "well-deserved" Saturday morning sleep-in while the girls got out to Camps Bay for breakfast. Along with the fantastic buffet (Camp Travel) across from the beach, we had the chance to meet a friend's potential "au-pair" hire. It was great to have some time to chat with a local and get an impression of how they "see" Canada and Vancouver. Number One on the list was how "beautiful and safe" Vancouver was - this somewhat suprised me, since Camps Bay is equally as stunning and far superior weather, but in the end it was about the safety and the ease of life which put Vancouver in the #1 spot. I must say, thus far, we have not felt threatened in Sa in any way. The locals are kind, courteous and very friendly. South Africans (black and white) are polite, well-spoken and family-oriented, with most people commenting on our large family as a 'blessing'. However, as a good friend commented "be sensible", which is a very wise statement for anyone travelling abroad. We lock our doors, keep valuables in check and limit our night time wanderings, but otherwise life has remained, thus far, relatively the same.

Which brings us to our day.....when everyone was up and about, we strolled to the local beach, where the kids played in the crashing waves of the ocean. We washed off in the beach outdoor showers and changed into street-wear.

Off the beach, we jumped onto a regular City Hop-on, Hop-off tour bus, which headed along the Beaches, past the World Cup Soccer Stadium (Green Point Stadium) to downtown waterfront Cape Town.

Along route we passed some amazing waterfront properties, public beachside waterfront pools, mini-golf, playgrounds and seawalls, joggers, strollers, walkers, families and sunbathers; and for a moment I wondered if I wasn't back home.  To travel 1/2 way around the world and see similar settings is comforting and yet confusing at the same time - could we all be so similar? 

Our downtown destination was the Victoria+Alfred (V+A) Waterfront - a more elaborate version of Vancouver's Granville Island - set on the waterfront with shops, food, entertainment, luxury yacht berth and a working harbour.  As a point of interest, the harbour had Oracles founder's yacht, The Rising Sun - Georgeotwn, CI, moored.  All 450+ of boat, polished to the brass, it was a sight to behold.  A quick search on the internet later, stated it is the second largest private boat in the world - and here in the harbour of Cape Town, while the owner shopped and dined on shore.
Our humble selfs spent time in the locals Market, where we proudly left with some "wares" and Annas hair braided, SA-style.

 We also spent a few hours in the Two Oceans Aquarium, where we were able to see, touch and hear some of the more local sealife.  The 'touch' tanks and the feeding the penguins were big hits for the kids and the aquarium was large, modern and very interesting.

The night ended with nice dinner at Blue Water, Camps Bay where we feasted on seafood and a great bottle of SA wine!  Tomorrow...hopefully Table Mountain - we just need the tablecloth removed (clouds to rise)!

 

The day was capped of with an encounter with the South African Penguin colony, at Boulders Beach in Table Mountain National Park near the southern tip of the Cape of Good Hope.  These penguins are only found in South Africa, in these warm False Bay waters, and seem to wander quite freely, indifferent to the viewers and residential houses along the shores.  The kids spent time spotting all the eggs in the nests (an early Easter egg hunt) and were amused at the penguins waddling style.  Ben has become our keen videographer, and ensured that we got ample footage of the penguins in action.  Supposedly you can also swim with the penguins, but we arrived at the end of the day, as the sun was setting and decided this would be best in warmer conditions.

On our drive back down the Cape, we encountered a pack of baboons, enjoying the lingering heat from the road - at the risk of traffic ...

... and a wild species of Kite Surfers at Scarborough Beach - keen and indigenous to these parts.  Scarborough beach appears to be the "hippy-surf" hang out - with it's beautiful white sands, rocky shoreline and wave action. 

Our drive back home, took us along Chapman Peaks Drive, an incredible pass through the mountains from Hout Bay to Noordhoek. While the eastern flank of the mountain rises fairly gradually, the western flank falls sharply for hundreds of metres into the Atlantic Ocean.  Separating the road from the 250 m drop to the ocean, are a few sporadic rocks-barriers, so this drive is not for the faint of heart.  We marvelled at the overhanging rock formations, which extended over the road and also the string of road signs marking "falling rock".  The top of Chapman's Peak consists of flat, sedimentary rocks related to those that form Table Mountain. The base of the mountain, however, consists of Cape Granite and the two formations meet at a geological unconformity that is world-famous amongst earth scientists. The pass was "hacked" out of the face of the mountain between 1915 and 1922, and was at the time regarded as a major feat of engineering (always looking for great engineering landmarks too!).

... and some Gymnastics, Beachcombing, Ice Cream and Beer

To the beach at 'Fish Hoek' for a Swim and Pickup Soccer

Hmmm .... wonder what that black flag means ... ?


Ahh, OK, so an interpretation: "We can't say for sure whether or not there's a shark in the swimming area, as we're not actually able to see well enough at the moment, but there have been sharks here recently". Yes, travelling always introduces a wealth of learning opportunities.  Having seen the sign, we read through all the flag colour symbols and repeated 3 times for memory sake - red means shark in the water the last 2 hrs; white means no spotting today; white with shark means shark currently in water, etc.  A Shark Spotter and official hut was permanantly established on the beach, and with the beach high chair, horn, hut and flag system - it sure looked like official business spotting these sharks!  Having read the sign and flag systems, it would appear to be a bit risky to enter with anything other than the clear white flag flying ... and even then, you don't want to be the reason they put the other flag back up.  We decided beach playing and beach combing would be safe enough, so we spent a few hours frolicking along the shoreline and all dipped our toes into the Indian Ocean - a first for everyone but John.

... more Kirstenbosch

An avenue of Camphor Trees,

and an inviting lillypad.

Friday Already! Beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens

So, it's Friday already, and we're still busy researching and preparing for the rest of the trip - lots to do apparently!  In the meantime, we went to the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens on the east side of Table Mountain.  Kirstenbosch is the largest gardens in South Africa and is used also as a teaching and research facility.  Lucky for us, we also were there for the BioDiversity Expo and the kids had a good look at some of the research and conservation which is occurring throughout Africa.  David was brave enough to allow a scorpion walk on the back of his arm - while the others shivered at the sight.  Closely investigating what "species" of spiders and insects are native to this area can cause a few sleepless nights!  The University research display booths empahsized the wealth of research diversity this country offers and got us thinking "what a great place for schooling", along with the beautiful University of Cape Town campus, it seems like an ideal post-secondary experience (hint, hint, ben, david, anna or sam!).  Kirstenbosch gardens offers an incredible variety and collection, with a history back to the first Dutch settler in the late 17th century. In 1913, John Rhodes donated the 528 hectares of land to be used as a botanic garden for the public. We had an incredible guide (Patrick) who managed to go beyond the latin names of each plant he pointed to and find something of great interest to the kids to say about it - e.g. "can be boiled and applied as an analgesic"; "those thorns are some of the most painful, as they break off below the skin and cause intense irritation" ... you get the drift - great stuff to keep the kids (and adults) interested for the duration.  We also were able to see our first traditional building construction (mud walls, thatched roof and 'dung' floor).  Our guide had to repeat the 'dung' floor a few times, since with the south african accent some words at times can be difficult.  Finally he explained that this was from the cow, and was smelly at the beginning, but when dried made an excellent floor covering.  Of course the kids were very amused with the concept of a "poop" floor.....


... and oh, yes, there was a golf cart involved, with Sam invited to sit shotgun with the guide - always a crowd pleaser.

Anna's impression of Cape Town

Fly-in safari adventure at it's best with Cpt. Sam

Ok, so we didn't get much of a cultural experience this afternoon! An afternoon at the amusement park near Cape Town after driving out to look at the camper van selection that we'll be using starting next week - kept at least four of us happy ...

Anna at Camps Bay - heading out for the day

Fully recovered and ready to go! Couldn't resist this 50's throw back - Anna presenting the margarine - Good Morning! And below: Camps Bay beach with David, Sam and Anna getting back to that comforting 'sand-between-the-toes' feeling.

Shhhhh .... jet lag recovery process under way

En Route

Well, here we are: Day 1 of what I hope to be a series of ad-hoc blogs, chronicling our ‘WilkinsonSix on Safari’ tour of southern Africa (a self-guided tour through parts of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia if all goes as planned). The hope is that we have adequate, though intermittent, internet access to put together and post these entries as we experience them over the 5 weeks. The objective is primarily to help us recall the trip as a whole, and to assemble a collection of amateur (mediocre really) photos, clips and accompanying text; telling our story from a few different views, including those of the children. David’s already written a few entries in his journal, describing the transportation to Cape Town (which highlighted all the hours of flying), and I hope to transcribe a few other entries and highlights from Sam and Anna. We’re about mid-flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town, flying due south down the African continent, having enjoyed a fantastic view of Geneva, Lac Leman, and the Swiss Alps rising to the east. This leg’s 11 hours in duration, having flown from Vancouver to Seattle then Seattle to Amsterdam last night – or was that this morning ... ?

The children (hereafter referred to as the kids for brevity) have been great company (and physically very close company as it turns out!) so far, with only a few moments of complaints. We found a family lounge in the Amsterdam airport between flights, complete with curtained off circular sleeping pods, dimmed lighting, and soothing music. It’s been a while since I last saw Ben sleeping in a crib, but there he was, improvising – and snoring. David found refuge on a baby change table, literally; Liisa and Sam cuddled together for a snooze on a mattress, and Anna found her second wind, wandering around investigating, watching other families, and asking ‘how much longer’ (hereafter referred to as HML, again for brevity I expect!) until our next flight.

We’ll arrive in Cape Town late on Tuesday, March 23rd, where we’ve arranged for a ride to an apartment in Camps Bay for the week. So, there are the logistics covered for now; but what I really wanted to start with was an acknowledgement to most of those reading this (if you’ve managed to read this far) for the remarkable support, enthusiasm, ideas, and encouragement that we’ve received from all of our friends and family. The 'family' version of support has understandably been equal parts concern and support, while the 'friend' version of support has been a remarkable wealth of pointers, ideas, send-off get-togethers, and best wishes. Thank you all – family and friends – and thanks in particular to Ron and Janet Gosney for their invaluable advice, web links, inspiring slide show, and phone calls as we’ve tried to pull these plans together in relatively short order. We’ve been encouraged to keep this blog, so here we are – no offence taken of course if you flip through to the pictures and clips primarily – life is short, afterall.

Enough for now, and low on batteries, so we’ll catch up soon. Love to all.