Dear Cape Town, you stole our hearts. We were pretty over “city stuff” after 3 major South American cities so we were a touch skeptical on yet another city, but Cape Town has been a breath of fresh air. And what’s not to love? You can hike up to a summit in the morning and chill on the beach in the afternoon. Everyone speaks English, they’re so nice and helpful, the water is clean and the weather is perfect. Honestly, what more do you need?
Our friend Caitlin is from South Africa and gave us a great list of things to do. Once we settled into our Airbnb (which I found the best studio in a great location with a full kitchen, washing machine and drying rack.. hello free laundry!) and reread her list, we realized the Kirstenbosch Gardens Summer Concert Series (only happens on Sunday) was having an Acoustic Folk Show in 1.5 hrs! So we went to Pick n Pay (the local grocery store) got food and wine to bring in for a picnic, bought our tickets there and took an Uber to the Botanic Gardens. The views of Lion’s Head mountain with a glimpse of the city and ocean was just beautiful! Especially after 12+ hours of traveling, this was the perfect thing to do. It’s basically like South Africa’s Red Rocks.. we were already sold on this place.
The next day we walked all over town and got a lay of the land and went shopping (Tom’s favorite). We needed to get some backpacking meals and new socks for our upcoming 5-day trek and thankfully we found their version of REI, which had everything we needed! We planned on coming back another day when we had a car since we had a lot of things to buy. We then moseyd along the V&A Waterfront, through the old Silos turned hotels and businesses and went to the Watershed Market to look for gifts. Oh my, this place was awesome! So many great vendors to shop at and work spaces on the second floor. Tom’s already day dreaming about working remotely from there with a view of Table Mountain. Tom was itching to get outside in nature since it had been a while and the weather was perfect so, we took inventory of things we wanted to get and headed out to hike up Lion’s Head. It was way more fun than I expected! It was heavily trafficked because it’s only about 2 miles round trip, but there was some fun scrambley parts at the top with chains I was not expecting. The views from the top were just amazing! We caught it right before sunset with the perfect glow over the ocean. We timed everything fairly well and had just enough sunlight to jog the entire way back to the Airbnb before getting dark.
One of our main goals was to see the Penguins at Boulders Beach! Oh my goodness… they far exceeded my expectations. We tried seeing the ones in Argentina but that didn’t work out, so we were very excited to see these little guys! Boulders Beach is part of the Table Mountain National Park and is oddly enough, right in a neighborhood. There are signs “watch for penguins crossing the road” and “check under your vehicle for penguins” because they sometimes wonder. But you can get right up to them! Although keep some distance because as much as you might want to hug one, I don’t think they’ll like it. Oh, and we rented a car for a few days because it was only $17/ day! Ubers aren’t crazy expensive in Cape Town but they would add up to over $17/ day to go everywhere we were planning. Thankfully, Tom is a driving champ and mastered driving a manual on the left side in no time! (I would have gotten in a few accidents even in an automatic).
We then headed to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, which was once said to be the southern most point of South Africa, but that recently changed to another point farther south east. But nevertheless, this area was really cool. It’s also part of the Table Mountain National Park system and is quite touristy, but for good reason. We did some of the main hiking/walking paths around and went off the lesser walked path (following Tom’s lead) to see the original lighthouse farther down. Which of course, was a great little adventure and so windy! Oh how we missed you Patagonian winds (did we?). This cape is significant because it’s when sailors change direction from south to north and signify they’re on the right path. For the most part you’re on top of the cliffs looking down over the rocky edge to the ocean.
On Day 4 we planned a hike up to the top of Table Mountain via the more adventurey, scrambley route which was only about 3 miles up. It was a bit hot but, thankfully the clouds weren’t pouring over the top of the mountain as they had the days before because we had such clear views everywhere! It had been a while since we both did that kind of scrambley hike but it was much needed and so much fun! There were a few sections with metal holds and chains which were nice to aid getting up the vertical spots without a rope. We were very satisfied with the views on the way up so when we got to the top, we got in line to take the cable car down. We could have taken the easier hiking route down, but we wanted time at the beach as well (first world problems) so opted for the quicker way down. And to get the full experience.
Sorry Rio, you ain’t got nothin on the Cape Town beaches. We were told that Rio beaches are the best and have beautiful people everywhere. Well, not compared to Cape Town. We went to Cliftons Beach that also allowed dogs! The beach wasn’t overly populated, the sand and water were great and the people were beautiful! It put Rio to shame. This is our kind of beach. We rented an umbrella, bought a paddle board set and did all the beach things that afternoon. If we weren’t sold on staying here longer, we definitely were now.
Watershed Market 
V&A Waterfont
Our last day of Cape Town (sadly) was spent running errands. We went back to the gear shop, loaded up on backpacking meals, socks and random other things we needed and weren’t able to find in South America. We checked out another market at the Old Biscuit Mill to see if they had anything different from Watershed. It’s a cool space that’s an artist collective and workshop but it didn’t have all the things we were looking for so, we went back to Watershed. We loaded up on all kinds of goodies, Tom went to the grocery store for more meal prep while I looked around (perfect little solo time). Our last mission of the day was to send the items to the US. This was more challenging than we thought! After going to several places that either stopped sending packages at that time (our flight the next day was at 6:40 am.. we had to get these sent out pronto) or was ridiculously expensive, we finally went to the normal post office (even though Caitlin advised against it) to ship things at a slower speed and better rate. Fingers crossed our things get there! We grabbed dinner at the V&A Waterfront, watched the harbor and listened to a guy syncing his own music in the plaza with a number of instruments including a digerydo. It was a great final wrap to our visit.
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to make it to wine country (which I’ve heard great things about and recommend even without having been) but, we are already talking about when we can come back for 3 months to escape winter. We don’t know when or how but we want to bring bikes and climbing gear since there’s a ton of outdoor things to explore that we didn’t even touch! Not to mention wineries, the Garden Route and more beaches. But until then, it’s off to explore the eastern side of South Africa and have a completely different experience!