Uganda 20: February 26, 2005

Cape Town is a 6 hour flight south of Entebbe and a complete world away. It's a bit of Europe on the southern tip of Africa, with a quality of life that can't be matched on the rest of the continent. (Photos Here) It's a combination of California and Hawaii with a little bit of London tossed in for culture. Well-paved roads, water you can drink from the tap, fully stocked grocery shelves. That's the base. And then you toss in stunning geography, fertile vineyards, gorgeous oceans, terrific restaurants, and (for Mom and Liz) seemingly endless shopping opportunities. To put it simply, it's a nice contrast to life in Kampala. Sometimes it's hard to grasp the size of Africa. Our flight to Johannesburg took over 4 hours and then it was an additional 2 hours to Cape Town. And we're almost dead center in the continent. A flight from Cairo to Cape Town takes 9 hours -- almost double New York to Los Angeles. On the flight down, we dodged budding thunderstorms as we passed over Lake Victoria and then past Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Lots of green. Little roads. We got into Cape Town in the middle of the night, so we were greeted by Table Mountain when we awoke the next morning. Our hotel (the Cape Heritage, which we highly recommend) was located in the Bo Kaap section of town, among dozens of great restaurant possibilities. Liz and I had a view of the mountain from our room. Built up out of the water, Cape Town basks in the shadow of the mountain, which rises over 3,000 feet almost directly from the chilly Atlantic. The view from the top is spectacular. Among the clouds on one side, with Cape Town spread out on the other. Paragliders hover over the slightly shorter lions head and ships pass along by the horizon. You can hike to the top, but we took the sensible route -- the rotating cable car. Cape Town itself is remarkably cosmopolitan. Largely white (at least the parts generally accessible to tourists) with some Cape Coloreds (Malay background), Blacks and a smattering of other nationalities. Frankly, unless you look for it, you can spend your time there unconcerned about the country's recent history. We visited the District Six museum, which tells the story of the destruction of one of Cape Town's few integrated areas -- all part of the apartheid goal of the South African regime. We also spent a morning on Robben Island, the prison that housed Nelson Mandela and other Black apartheid opponents for some twenty years. Bare housing, meager rations and backbreaking work in a nearby quarry under the hot sun. All while situated a couple kilometers from the shore and one of the most spectacular views on the planet. Quite a juxtaposition. However, the highly-modern waterfront, business center, and surrounding countryside provide few hints of the painful racial split. Instead, what we saw was a modern, growing business center, filled with parks and greenery. One evening, we went to Kirstenbosch, the local botanical gardens, to join a few thousand others on the green, sipping wine as we enjoyed a performance by the Cape Town philharmonic. We spent one day driving south to the Cape of Good Hope. The road twisted and turned along the coast like Monterrey in northern California. The water was a clear blue and stretched out from the crashing breakers endlessly to the horizon. We stopped to visit a seal colony, hundreds of juvenile males waiting until the breeding season. Some lay sunning themselves on the rocks, while others darted about in the water looking for food or playing with their friends. Beautiful pictures, but somewhat smelly. The Cape of Good Hope marks the most southwesterly point in Africa (Cape Agulhas, 150 kilometers to the east is the most southerly point) and some say where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean. The Atlantic current comes up from the Antarctic and is much colder than the warmer Indian waters which flow down from the tropics. Whales swim by in the spring and the mixed currents support a huge fishery. We hiked up to the lighthouse at the Cape to enjoy the stunning views of bays and mountains. We then headed down to the Cape itself, where I took a photo of Liz, who, for a brief moment, was the most southwesterly person on the continent. After a seafood lunch overlooking the water, we headed back for Cape Town. We stopped briefly at a penguin colony, made our way through some traffic and eventually reached our hotel. We spent the next day exploring the wine country at Franschoek, about one hour outside of town. The landscape is stunning. Mountains wreathed in clouds with bright sun over the valley, filled with vineyards and farmland. Green trees mixed with farmsteads and lakes. All well-kept and orderly. The area has over 100 vineyards. We managed to visit three and sampled a variety of reds, whites, and even a brandy. Liz and Mom know the details of the wines, I know they tasted good. We enjoyed lunch at La Petite Ferme, in a converted farmhouse overlooking the vineyards and mountains. The food was spectacular. I did, however, notice that the music playing in the background was a collection of U.S. 1970s arena rock (The Allman Brothers -- "Blue Sky" for those familiar with the Allman canon, and Kansas -- I've tried to wipe the melody from my memory). Nevertheless, I somehow found myself able to concentrate on the food -- local fish and game, prepared by the kitchen's all female staff. We picked up about 10 bottles to bring home and headed back to Cape Town, Liz snoozing in the backseat. Food was a major theme of our trip and we ate remarkably well. Whether it was seafood, French, game (ostrich, brisbok, springbok), or the slightly strange (chocolate steak), we upheld the American reputation for hearty appetites. We ate on the beach, we ate in the valleys, we ate in the city. In short, we ate. Let us know if you need recommendations.

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