Category Archives: Cape Town

Cape Peninsula Day Tour – Baz Bus

Adventures, Cape Town, Travel, , , , ,

The bus was late picking me up. Not that it mattered; one of the joys of travelling has to be not watching the clock. With all 11 people safely picked up, we headed off over Kloof Neck. The advantage of a Baz Bus tour is that they pick up from backpackers. I’m not sure other tours would do that or, more specifically, that they’d be able to find the backpackers. The other advantage – apart from being, just generally, a great tour.

Through Camps Bay and around past the 12 Apostles Hotel, enjoying the beautiful Cape Town morning. We were lucky to get such good weather. Cape Town weather, while it is stunning when it is clear, can be unpredictable this time of year.

As we passed Llandudno, the tour guide was quick to name a few of the celebrities who are supposed to have houses there, from Tom Cruise to Elton John – the Beverley Hills of Cape Town, he called it.

Into the “small fishing village” of Hout Bay. I’m always amused when people call this affluent suburb a small fishing village. It does have a fishing harbour, however, which was the first stop. This tour has the option of taking a boat-trip to Seal Island at an extra cost of R60. I was seriously considering it but when no-one else showed any interest, decided just to wander around Hout Bay harbour instead.

Next was a quiet drive up towards the look-out point on Chapman’s Peak where we stopped for biscuits and juice, looking down on Hout Bay. This is a beautiful sight, especially on a calm, sunny day, and one that most people don’t often take the time to enjoy. Boats move lazily across the water. The mountain peak appears to be cut in half, with the huge jutting rock-face waiting eternally to tumble into the sea so far below. The strange and ridiculously expensive houses nestle in the fynbos. Everything is calm.

Chapman’s Peak Drive is spectacular on any given day, but is particularly breathtaking when it is crystal clear and when enjoyed in the company of those who are seeing it for the first time. A bit out shark-spotters and then across Kommetjie and Fish Hoek to the next stop, Boulders Beach.

Penguins make me happy. This has long and varied roots but is mostly because penguins are associated in my brain with people who make me happy. Until now, however, I had never seen the Cape Town penguins. When I lived in Cape Town as a child, the colony didn’t exist yet and later there was so much going going on that it somehow never happened. Today’s trip was partly an attempt to remedy that and I was in no way disappointed.

The penguins that live at Boulders Beach are African or Jackass Penguins – so called because they bray like donkeys. They also smell a lot like rotting fish and are a terrible nuisance to residents in the area because they have a particular fondness for dog-food and swimming pools. All this is tolerated, however, because they are both endangered and so darn cute. It was a little chilly on that side of the mountain, so some of the penguins were huddled in sandy hollows under dry dune-bushes. Others were waddling, two-by-two across the sand-dunes to their houses or towards the sea. We saw one abandoned egg in the undergrowth.

Further along the purpose-built wooden walkways, the beach opens out and penguins huddle together making a terrible racket. Some sit and sun themselves on rocks. Others nest with babies. Fluffy, brown, comical baby penguins. The guide tells me they are terribly grumpy at this stage of their development – because they are as yet unable to swim and so fish – but they are definitely particularly delightful to watch. African penguins are quite small and some of these young penguins were almost as big as their mothers but, still brown and fluffy, they huddled together in the sand.

Having dragged ourselves away from the penguins, we headed back to the bus and onward towards Cape Point nature reserve. This reserve is one I have visited but not for many years. It also differs significantly from many other South African reserves. Most nature areas in South Africa are grassland areas that focus on large mammals, up to and including the big 5. There are a few, however, that have a different flavour, from mangrove swamps to wild coastal areas. This is one of the ‘different’ ones. Although there are some large mammals here, the real joy and beauty of the reserve is the wide-open rolling hills of fynbos edged on all sides by the crashing Atlantic ocean.

This particular tour has a special option over most others – a 6km cycle through the Cape Point nature reserve. I must say, for the record, that I am rather unfit and the last time I cycled may actually have been in Gyeongju that Autumn day. It was still delightful. You cycle along the road, so the traffic can be a bit annoying, but the air is clear and crisp and the world stretches out in all directions with the grey of the Cape foliage. As we cycled, a couple of Bontebok gallopped up beside us and across the road. A little further along, two large male and one female ostriches stood about 10m away, peck-pecking at the ground. In between hill-tops the plains spread out. The joy of cycling, and why it is worth the tiredness, is that you are able to travel more slowly and be right there, close up to nature. There is no distance and no glass and metal and plastic between you and the world you are seeing.

Cold meat, salads and rolls for lunch, along with a good, long rest, followed the cycling, at a tourist and information centre looking out towards Da Gama’s cross. I wandered off to look around and found an ancient pine tree bent almost to the ground, as if constantly blown and buckled by the prevailing wind, even though this day was still and calm.

The guide informed us that he would normally head to Cape Point after lunch but the mist had come in, so we were going to try the Cape of Good Hope first. This Cape lay clear of mist, with the sunlight playing dazzling, dancing games across the kelp forests just below the water. There is a latitude and longitude sign here where all the tourists gather to take turns for a photograph – a picture to prove we were there. A busload (quite literally) of Chinese tourists scrambled for their turns. Even the group of backpackers I was with, far more the type to claim higher moral ground over ‘tourists’, indulged their desire for proof of existence. I wandered along the beach and drank in the smell of the sea and wondered how many days of flying it would take to reach the end (or bottom) of the world.

From the Cape of Good Hope we climbed up a ridiculously treacherous, steep and far-too-tough-for-unfit-people staircase path. From there we began the (much gentler) 40 minute uphill walk to Cape Point. Some part of me would have preferred to do the downhill walk, but there is something special, either way, about that walk between the two end-points of the Cape Peninsula. Looking down cliffs, looking out across false bay, looking out, south, towards the endless sea. We reached Cape Point parking area with much tiredness. I didn’t even go up the final path (another 20 minute walk) to stand on the actual South Western-most tip of Africa. I didn’t need to. Being there was enough. Instead, I spent some time not moving, enjoying the views and watching the strangely unexpected sight of an ostrich foraging on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Atlantic ocean.

And then it was done. The trip back to Cape Town was still beautiful – via Ou Kaapse, which is one of my favourite drives in the Western Cape, and then M3 past UCT and back to town. I was exhausted – it took me several days of stiffness to recover properly – but I’m glad I took the opportunity to visit Hout Bay and to see the penguins and to spend some time at the points that end the place that is my home.

Ou Kaapstad was van altyd af nog baie mooi vir my

Cape Town, ,
Ou Kaapstad was van altyd af nog baie mooi vir my
Capetonians are generally fiercely proud of their city.  They’re proud of the mountain and the beaches and the beauty and the quality of life. This has the (amusing) effect of perplexing many Joburgers. And yet, many Cape Town people spend very little time enjoying the amenities which make their city so attractive to people from across the world.
One of these is the Company’s Garden (also called Company Gardens). The garden was first planted by the Dutch who came to the Cape in the late 1600s, as a source of vegetables to restock their ships. After changing hands several times – along with the rest of the colony – the gardens were eventually opened to all and have been maintained, ever since, as a sanctuary of peace and greenery in the heart of Cape Town city bowl.
I was in town for a meeting early one morning, so I took a walk. I was 30 minutes early thanks to traffic – leaving the Southern Suburbs at 7:30am gets you to town around 8am, but leaving any later means sitting in traffic for ages. So an 8:30 meeting means having half an hour to kill in town. What a joy! My meeting was at the café at St George’s, so I was in the perfect spot, too.
The sun was out in town. It had been misty and chilly when I left Mowbray, but coming around the bend to Salt River, Lion’s Head rose before me in glorious sunshine. The sunshine followed me all that morning. Between the trees, the sun flickered and filtered down on the path beside the cathedral. Homeless people gathered their belongings from the benches along the Avenue and headed off to start their day. Business people and morning runners hurried past dawdling groups of school children.
I turned off the main path in the Gardens, and found another, quietly set among trees and flowers. The bougainvillea was flowering purple. The breeze rippled the South African flag on the steps of the National Library. Along the path, I came upon a pretty stone lantern. The lantern, said the information board, was “presented to Cape Town by “the Government of Japan as a token of appreciation of the kindness and hospitality shown to Japanese immigrants”, erected 1932.
I spent a few moments enjoying the peace and symmetry until a man with a leaf-blower came and chased me away. As I turned back onto the main path, the sun was just catching the orange stringy parts of a palm grove and turning them to flames of light.
Further along the path, I stopped to look at an old stone sundial and turned just as the sun lit up a Madonna statue off to one side. A small, grey squirrel scuttled ahead of me and then rushed off on a side path and up an old, old tree.
Rhodes’ statue, standing proud and tall, made me think of the words of a Klopjag song: “…maar Rhodes staan, sonder woorde, in die tuin en wys my waar die noorde le, en weet ek dis na jou wat ek verlang..” Ek verlang, elke keer as ek aan daardie woorde dink, na Stellenbosch dae en Stellenbosch vriende. Rhodes’ plaque, “your hinterland is there” perhaps as true now as ever, although I suppose the more correct expression now would refer the markets to the north.
At the top of the path, looking out across the rose garden, the cloud was lying on the mountain like a lazy table-cloth, resting half way across, instead of covering the whole thing. The mountain, as always, lay sharp and beautiful against a blue, blue sky.
As I walked back, towards my meeting and the day ahead, I stopped to take in the ‘wishing well’ lit up in the morning sun, a pool of light in the midst of shadow. The sprinklers came on as I neared the gate, shooting sprays of sparkling drops across the paths and creating gentle magic for anyone willing to watch.
By 8:30am, I was sitting in the café at St George’s sipping a cappuccino and enjoying the quiet and the sunlight on the old, old stone. My busy day of work was just beginning but already I’d spent time in beautiful gardens and smelled the roses, enjoyed the stunning mountain and wandered half-forgotten paths. Ou Kaapstad was van altyd af nog baie mooi vir my*.
*Credit to Klopjag, one of my favourite South African bands: title and quotes from N1 Roete

Capetonians are generally fiercely proud of their city.  They’re proud of the mountain and the beaches and the beauty and the quality of life. This has the (amusing) effect of perplexing many Joburgers. And yet, many Cape Town people spend very little time enjoying the amenities which make their city so attractive to people from across the world.

One of these is the Company’s Garden (also called Company Gardens). The garden was first planted by the Dutch who came to the Cape in the late 1600s, as a source of vegetables to restock their ships. After changing hands several times – along with the rest of the colony – the gardens were eventually opened to all and have been maintained, ever since, as a sanctuary of peace and greenery in the heart of Cape Town city bowl.

I was in town for a meeting one morning, so I took a walk. I was 30 minutes early thanks to traffic – leaving the Southern Suburbs at 7:30am gets you to town around 8am, but leaving any later means sitting in traffic for ages. So an 8:30 meeting means having half an hour to kill in town. What a joy! My meeting was at the café at St George’s, so I was in the perfect spot, too.

The sun was out in town. It had been misty and chilly when I left Mowbray, but coming around the bend to Salt River, Lion’s Head rose before me in glorious sunshine. The sunshine followed me all that morning. Between the trees, the sun flickered and filtered down on the path beside the cathedral. Homeless people gathered their belongings from the benches along the Avenue and headed off to start their day. Business people and morning runners hurried past dawdling groups of school children.

I turned off the main path in the Gardens, and found another, quietly set among trees and flowers. The bougainvillea was flowering purple. The breeze rippled the South African flag on the steps of the National Library. Along the path, I came upon a pretty stone lantern. The lantern, said the information board, was “presented to Cape Town by “the Government of Japan as a token of appreciation of the kindness and hospitality shown to Japanese immigrants”, erected 1932.

I spent a few moments enjoying the peace and symmetry until a man with a leaf-blower came and chased me away. As I turned back onto the main path, the sun was just catching the orange stringy parts of a palm grove and turning them to flames of light.

Further along the path, I stopped to look at an old stone sundial and turned just as the sun lit up a Madonna statue off to one side. A small, grey squirrel scuttled ahead of me and then rushed off on a side path and up an old, old tree.

Rhodes’ statue, standing proud and tall, made me think of the words of a Klopjag song: “…maar Rhodes staan, sonder woorde, in die tuin en wys my waar die noorde le, en weet ek dis na jou wat ek verlang..” Ek verlang, elke keer as ek aan daardie woorde dink, na Stellenbosch dae en Stellenbosch vriende. Rhodes’ plaque, “your hinterland is there” stands perhaps as true now as ever, although I suppose the more correct expression now would refer the markets to the north.

At the top of the path, looking out across the rose garden, the cloud was lying on the mountain like a lazy table-cloth, resting half way across, instead of covering the whole thing. The mountain, as always, lay sharp and beautiful against a blue, blue sky.

As I walked back, towards my meeting and the day ahead, I stopped to take in the ‘wishing well’ lit up in the morning sun, a pool of light in the midst of shadow. The sprinklers came on as I neared the gate, shooting sprays of sparkling drops across the paths and creating gentle magic for anyone willing to watch.

By 8:30am, I was sitting in the café at St George’s sipping a cappuccino and enjoying the quiet and the sunlight on the old, old stone. My busy day of work was just beginning but already I’d spent time in beautiful gardens and smelled the roses, enjoyed the stunning mountain and wandered half-forgotten paths. Ou Kaapstad was van altyd af nog baie mooi vir my*.

*Credit to Klopjag, one of my favourite South African bands: title and quotes from N1 Roete

Park’s Menu

Cape Town, Food,

After a year of Korean food (sometimes unwillingly), I came home and found myself missing it. Since then, I have struggled to find a Korean restaurant anywhere. To be fair, I haven’t spent a lot of time in major metropolises and I haven’t tried as hard as I possibly could, but I was still very pleased when I discovered that there was a Korean restaurant around the corner from the guest-house where I was staying this past week.

Park’s Menu is a small restaurant on Klipfontein Road (Durban Road) in Mowbray, Cape Town (Campground Centre for those who are familiar with the area). It’s bigger, inside, than it appears from the street. Chairs and walls are white, with collections of odd, old wall-cabinets decorated with old books and china and flowers, creating a comfortable, airy feel. The place is a little quirky, but not in any way pretentious or annoying. Gentle jazz in the background completes the relaxed, warm atmosphere. It’s a bit of an oasis on a busy road.

The menu is properly Korean, ranging from manduguk and bibimbap to galbi and ssambap. Also, a take-away menu that says “there is more dish if you eat at the reastaurant”. I was standing outside, reading the menu in the window when the waiter came out and handed me a take-away menu. I think he was a bit taken aback when I immediately said I was coming inside.

I sat at a pretty white table next to the window. The waiter was super-friendly and efficient and, interestingly, not Korean, although all of the other staff do seem to be Korean. I took ages to order – how do you choose when you haven’t eaten any Korean food in 8 months and you know you won’t be back soon? Eventually I settled on mandu for starters and haemeul pajeon for mains.

As I waited, it struck me that the place smelled Korean. Not overwhelmingly and not in a bad way. It’s a smell that is difficult to describe but I think probably has something to do with bean sprouts and tofu. I never noticed that in Korea but it triggered such strong memories of so many Korean dinners.

The mandu (steamed dumplings) was great. Just the way I remember it. And distinctly different to the dimsum you get at other places. It’s tough to identify exactly the difference but I think it’s the filling. And the dumpling bit is softer. Also, joy of joys, proper chopsticks. Not metal chopsticks, sadly, but flat chopsticks, the shape of the Korean metal chopsticks. So much better than other chopsticks!

The haemeul pajeon (seafood pancake, but that translation is wrong and I have yet to find a better one) was great. Apparently it’s the chef’s speciality. It was thicker than I’m used to, which made it a little difficult to cut with chopsticks, but it was delicious. The mains come with kimchi and beansprouts (namul). Nothing quite like the spicy, sour, crunchy, juicy joy of fermented cabbage. Nothing in the whole world. It’s definitely an acquired taste but once you’re used to it, it can be really good. This was good kimchi. Not too spicy, perfectly crunchy and sour.

The restaurant also has, specially imported from Korea, tables with the stove-top grill so typical of restaurants in Korea. It’s a great way to eat. There is a particular stove-top table section on the menu. If you’re up for spicy food, try the kimchi-jeongol. Or (less spicy) the Bulgogi (delicious beef stew).

They also have a Korean-food buffet once a month – 12 March 2011 is the next one – which would be a great opportunity to experiment if you’ve never tried Korean food. The menu doesn’t offer alcoholic drinks (so strange to eat Korean food without Hite or Cass) but they seem fine with people bringing their own wine (corkage R25).

I’m delighted to have found a great Korean restaurant in South Africa and will definitely be back. Just thinking about it now, I’m wishing I was close enough to pop through for lunch. If you’ve never tried Korean food, or you haven’t eaten kimchi in a while, Park’s Menu is a great place to spend some time and enjoy the tastes of kimchi-land.