First Stop: Cape Town, South Africa!

Although we were in Cape Town for 2.5 days, the first 1.5 didn’t really count. We arrived at about 11:00am but – despite having slept some on the plane – we were both exhausted. And a mixture of annoyed and panicked about the delayed suitcase (much more me than Rob).

So Day One-Half was spent entirely at our hotel. Which wasn’t bad – the décor was distinctly Not Woodhaven…or even American. The food was blessedly familiar (pasta, pizza, burgers), and the wine list was delightfully local. Our room had a view of Table Mountain, which was super cool. Really, for not leaving the hotel, it was a great place to hang out and feel like we weren’t anywhere close to home.

Super colorful random chairs
next to the elevator in our hotel

Hotel lobby

Unpronounceable wine list!

View of Table Mountain and some 
windmills from our hotel room...
through a screen.

We were amazed by how quickly night turned to day. It was entirely the fog’s fault.

I had no idea, but Cape Town has quite a fog problem. Because of the geography of the Atlantic Ocean and a big ridge of mountains (including Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain), and the fluctuations of temperatures, fog is very common in South Africa’s second-largest city. Ditto high winds that often also delay ships coming or going from port.

In what seemed like a matter of about 10 minutes as the sun was setting, our hotel view of Cape Town changed from a sunny, clear, warm Autumn evening (yeah, the change of seasons with an airplane flight is a TRIP!) to a cold, windy, damp, dark night with headlights and streetlights. Truly, it felt like God had cued the fog machine in turbo mode. We called it an early night and tried to sleep despite the ruminating panic about the missing suitcase.

The fog was so pretty! And moved even
quicker than San Francisco fog.

The next day kicked into gear after we returned to the airport to gratefully retrieve our delayed luggage (YAY!!!)  and meet up with our Princess transfer to the ship. For the first time in our cruising history, Rob and I joined the fun mid-way. Most of the folks onboard the Crown Princess have been sailing together for about a month from Sydney, Australia. There are reportedly 216 of us who hopped on in Cape Town, 12 of which were on our small shuttle bus.

Due to heavy fog, the ship’s arrival in Cape Town was delayed by about 90 minutes. South Africa has very particular rules about EVERYONE clearing immigration, whether they are arriving or departing the country (I have some cool stamps in my passport now!). So, when we arrived at the port on schedule, ready to saunter onto the Crown Princess, we were instead met with frustrated chaos as about 2,000 eager cruisers were trying to get off the late ship, process through immigration, and hurriedly get on tour buses.

Proof we arrived by air on May 31 and
departed by cruise ship on June 2

“Maybe take a nice walk around the waterfront for a couple of hours and come back before 4:00,” suggested a rather harried Princess employee holding a clipboard.

That’s exactly what we did. And I’m grateful, because it was the last time we had clear views – and photo ops – of Table Mountain.

The best photo we have of us and Table Mountain.
Us...without make-up or hair products (me) and
a two-day beard (Rob).

We poked around a museum dedicated to Nelson Mandela. We looked in souvenir shops. We ate a tasty German lunch (Cape Town has Dutch, German, and British periods in its history). We tried to comprehend we were in South Africa.

No, I didn't buy one.

Frankfurter lunch!

I still don't know what South Africa calls
restrooms (WC? Toilet? Bathroom?).
But this sign was pretty clear I was in the right place.

Public art and 3 locals tuned in to a Very Big
Deal Soccer (Football) game

Souvenir shop on the waterfront.
I ended up buying an adorable
hippopotams, for no good reason.

Yesterday – our only full day of South Africa Touring – was spent riding a bus for about 90 minutes to a well-known (to some) wine area called Stellenbosch. I had thought about doing a safari excursion, but most of the ones offered by the cruise line were already sold out. What was left looked like the drive-thru-zoo approach I have done in California and Oregon. I wasn't ready to navigate finding an independent tour, so wine it was!

Sadly, we only went to one of Stellenbosch's over 300 wineries. And the winery (also called a wine farm) was one somewhat familiar to Rob and me, as some of their wines are available in the United States. Bummer! We wanted to learn and try stuff we had never heard of. Instead, we ended up learning more about South African wine from the hotel’s wine list and Wikipedia.

Pronounced "blauw - klippen" which
means "blue rock." We bought 2
bottles ($11 each!) to enjoy in our
cabin over the next month.

Just a quick paragraph on South African wines, since I didn’t learn enough to warrant a separate blog.

South Africa grows mostly warm-weather grapes in their limestone soil, and most varietals are very familiar: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz (Syrah), Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc. They also do a sparkling wine officially called Cap Classique but most people call it “MCC” for Méthode Cap Classique which is what it was originally called until the French got in a snit and said they own “Méthode” as a part of their proprietary term “Champagne.” Quel horreur! South Africa does have its own signature varietal – a red grape called Pinotage. It is a cross between Pinot Noir grapes and Cinsault grapes (called Hermitage at the time). Rob and I tried a couple Pinotages and we really liked them – fruity, bright, a touch of smokiness, would be great with BBQ, pork, pizza… We plan to scout out Pinotages at home.

SO weird to see dormant vines in June!
Being in the southern hemisphere
has totally confused me. I have no
idea which way is north...

Even though the winery was a little underwhelming, I did enjoy the bus ride and the chance to see more of the area around Cape Town. Including a field of zebras! It was so fast, and I was so stunned, there sadly is no photographic proof of this pretty bizarre sighting.

What I loved about the area was the mountains. They are tall and jagged and rugged. At times, I was reminded of the mountains on Kauai, even if those are volcanic and the South African ones are limestone. I also loved watching the fog spill over Table Mountain. We had a prime view on our ship before we set sail. The fog fell fast and it was mesmerizing.

I could stare at South African mountains all day.

As integrated as the South African society is now (compared to apartheid times), it was challenging to see stark Have and Have Not living conditions. Along our bus rides, we saw a number of townships. These are communities of poverty. The houses look like piecemealed shacks smushed tightly together. They exist in areas that were once established and overseen by the South African government to limit the movement of non-white people. Bathrooms (showers and toilets) were communal; not sure about today. At one point, the South African government gave everyone in townships satellite dishes. However, their usefulness is limited if you don’t have a TV or cell phone – which few residents had at the time.

Our tour guide, sensing heartbroken curiosity, revealed that the people who live in townships today are just regular people – people in the service industries, construction, hotel and hospitality, Uber drivers, etc. Pretty much all township residents are black; white people don’t live in townships. They live in townships because they can not earn enough money to live elsewhere. As a result, tips are A BIG DEAL in South Africa. The minimum wage is equivalent to about $3 per hour and is widely understood to be unlivable. Tips are how people actually afford to live.

All this being said, another local source suggested that although townships have a segregational history, today they can be a vibrant, energetic, culturally-steeped concentration of people and traditions. Apparently you can take tours of townships? That seems both wrong and enlightening.

Some of the townships can be quite large - like
hundreds of thousands of people per township

After our day exploring, I overheard a number of fellow cruisers saying they want to return to Cape Town someday. Me, I’m not so sure. It’s geographically beautiful – again, the mountains. And I would love to explore more of the wine. And a real safari would be mind-blowing to go on someday.

But returning to Cape Town just to explore some more? Probably not. We saw half of the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour highlights just by walking around, so I’m not sure how much else I would need to see. Especially with two days of airplane travel required to get here. I am absolutely THRILLED that I finally got to see South Africa! But I am ready to cruise on and see more of this far-from-home continent.

Next Stop: Namibia!

Cape Town sunset just as we were
getting ready to set sail.