Cape Town Scramble

After a five hour flight from Madagascar, we arrived in Cape Town. Upon descent, our pilot treated us to a flyover of Table Mountain. Table Mountain soars more than 2/3 of a mile above sea level and can be seen by sailors more than 40 miles out to sea. Cape Town was established in 1652 with the arrival of Dutch settlers who were sent to start a halfway station for passing ships. Today, this African city is a mix of African, French, Dutch, and East Asian cultures. 

Flying over Table Mountain.

Table Mountain and Lion's Head upon descent into Cape Town.

When we arrived at our hotel, we piled out of the buses to carnivalesque music ⁠— upbeat drumming accompanied by trumpets and a tambourine. 

A warm welcome at our hotel.

After a taking in our balcony view and a quick dinner, I headed to bed early...

Table Mountain as seen from the room.

...Because I woke up at 4:30am for a sunrise hike! 

Early morning wake up call!

Finding my way with only a small headlamp, my hiking guide and I began walking up the steep, dirt path.

The small patch of light is the area my headlamp illuminates. 

We hadn't hiked far when I realized we already had great views of Cape Town (we had parked on Signal Hill Road, which is already quite a distance above the city.) 

Walking the trail in the pitch black. City lights shone below but high up here, there was no source of light to guide us.

It felt like we climbed in circles. The trail is like a screw top... but at least you get views of Cape Town in all directions! Eventually, the dirt path became a path made entirely of large rocks. Not surprising, considering we're hiking a 2,195' mountain (in comparison, Table Mountain is 3,558'.) However, imagine hiking up rocks... huge, tall rocks in the pitch black early morning. By now, we were doing a bit of scrambling... a new term I learned in Cape Town. No, it has nothing to do with scrambled eggs (I wish.) In short, "scrambling" means you walk up steep terrain using your hands to assist you and it's basically a combination of hiking and rock climbing. Keep in mind we are doing this in the dark, with only a small headlamp to see where we are going!

Taking a quick break to take in the views. To the right, you can see the outline of Table Mountain.

When you near the top of the trail, there are two paths to take. You can either do more scrambling (as seen below with people hiking up the rocks using rungs and chains) or you can go the easier way which still involves some scrambling, rungs, and chains (and at one point a ladder) but not as much as the first route. Since I had never scrambled before, we took the alternate path which only adds about 5 minutes to the hike. 

People scramble up Lion's Head to reach the top for sunrise. We took the alternate route.

By now, my knees were on fire. I had tweaked my knee in Madagascar while hiking to find indris and these huge rocks were not helping. I stopped about 15-20 minutes short of the tippy top of the trail, but as I sat on a rock listening to the waves and watching the sun begin to rise, I was perfectly content. This was an accomplishment in itself.

Waiting for sunrise.

As the sun neared the peak of the mountains in the distance, the sky became a brilliant yellow.

As the sun got closer to the rim of the mountains, the sky looked like it was on fire.

Within a minute, the sun started to peak over the mountains illuminating Table Mountain and the city below.

The sun peaks over the mountain, covering the city in bright orange light.

I was chatting with a group of tourists who were taking turns posing for Instagram photos when one of them asked if I wanted a photo "for the 'gram". Of course, the answer was yes. 

Behind me, my guide Nick pointed out the shadow of the mountain we were on that extended way out over the water. 

To the right, you can see the shadow of the mountain.

Just a few short minutes later, the sun had completely cleared the mountain range and all my surroundings took on the beloved golden hour... bringing out the color of the rocks and highlighting the wispy clouds in all the right places.

By now, we could see clouds rolling in from the left. It must have been pretty windy (though we couldn't feel much of a breeze), because I have never seen clouds move so fast. Below, you can even see the line of cars where we had parked to begin our early morning hike. 

Towards the bottom left, you can see a street where cars are parked. That's where we began our hike.

As we descended down the mountain, I was in shock that I actually climbed it in the pitch black early morning. Going up, I could tell we were climbing huge rocks but I had no clue quite how large until they were illuminated by the early morning light. I figured my hiking guide was being cautious when he asked what medication I was allergic to but hiking down I saw why... if you step the wrong way, you can easily go tumbling down the mountain.

Panorama from the way down. To the right, you can see the path we had climbed.

The hike down was surprisingly easier on my knees⁠— usually it's the opposite. Perhaps it was because I could see where I was going, perhaps it was because I didn't have to hoist myself up rocks by using my knee to push myself upwards... whatever the case, the way down felt like a piece of cake. Along the way, I stopped to admire all the flowers in the early morning light. 

I stopped every now and then to take in my surroundings, looking back towards the trail leading to the top of the mountain...

The path leading up the mountain.

And down towards my dusty clothes, evidence of me pulling myself up rocks using my knees for support. I envy tall people with longer legs!!

Going down, I felt like I was on top of the world...

Perhaps the edge of the world is a more accurate description. At times, the path was so incredibly narrow that you were literally walking at the edge of the mountain. Going tumbling down the green grass almost sounds more appealing though, for good reason, it is roped off. You have to climb down. Talk about getting your stairs in for the day!

Hiking down the mountain.

Clouds rolling in toward Table Mountain.

Below are some photos of one of the hardest parts of the hike. Going down was of course much easier, but going up all this with only a headlamp was quite the challenge! This particular section had rungs bolted into the rocks to hold on to...

...Followed by a ladder.

Eventually, the path once again became more or less dirt with some rocks, but not nearly as large as the ones towards the top of trail. Below are some more photos from the way down...

Clouds rolling in toward Table Mountain.

Flowers in the early morning light.

Looking up toward the path to the top of Lion's Head.

To the left is the trail leading down the mountain. To the right is the view on the way up the mountain.

It's always nice hiking with someone. God forbid something goes wrong, you have someone looking out for you. You have someone encouraging you on the hike. You have someone to talk to. And in the case of hiking with a local, you have the opportunity to listen to a wealth of knowledge on the local flora and fauna of course but also on Cape Town and its history. If you ever find yourself in Cape Town and need a hiking guide, let me know and I'll put you in touch with the best there is! 

After heading back to the hotel for a quick breakfast, camera gear change and to pick up my mom, we all headed back out into the city. I had always wanted to see the Bo-Kaap neighborhood of Cape Town, though now it's pretty touristy. The Bo-Kaap neighborhood was formerly the Malay Quarter and is located on the slopes of Signal Hill. Cape Malays are descended from slaves first brought over from Indonesia and Malaysia as farm workers by the Dutch East India Company. The cobbled streets of this neighborhood have brightly painted houses, mosques, and restaurants. There's debate over why these houses are so colorful. It's thought that perhaps the houses were painted as a celebration. Another theory is that each house has a unique color and instead of a house number, people would say "come to the yellow house on so-and-so street" when they wanted to have a get together. 

Driving around Bo-Kaap.

After a short drive around Bo-Kaap, we headed off to Woodstock. Since we had been to Cape Town before, I was looking for something new to do. As an artist, I'm a huge fan of graffiti (not your standard initials graffiti but the purposeful graffiti). When I read there was a neighborhood known for its graffiti and artist community, I knew I wanted to check it out. For those of you familiar with Southern California, Woodstock reminds me a lot of Venice Beach. It's an edgy, evolving neighborhood with hipster cafes surrounded by street art. 

Mom with street art in Woodstock.

The area was inhabited by Khoikhoi until the arrival of the Dutch. With the land reclamation of Table Bay, Woodstock beach was lost to create the Cape Town foreshore and Woodstock ceased to be seaside. During apartheid, Woodstock managed to remain integrated and many people started moving to Woodstock during the 1970s and 1980s. Similar to Venice Beach, this working class neighborhood had fallen on hard times. Now, old buildings like warehouses, abandoned buildings and a disused brewery have been getting converted into a mix of galleries, artist studios, trendy restaurants, and boutique shops.

Walking around, you can tell this is not a touristy area. Though some company run street art tours, we were the only outsiders I saw. As you always should when you travel, it's important to be respectful of the people that live here. Walking in Woodstock, you're walking among people's houses. Below are some photos of street art we came across during our walk.

Art by The Bushman.

Art by Emily May Rose.

On the way to our next stop we briefly stopped at The Old Biscuit Mill, home to office spaces, workshops and stores, restaurants, food stalls, and neighborhood markets. As you can guess by its name, this building was once an actual biscuit mill for the Pyott's biscuit company remaining in operation from the early 1900s until 1946. 

After a bit of shopping damage, we continued on to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. Located on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, this was one of the first botanical gardens ever founded to preserve a country's flora and fauna. 

Birds of Paradise, Nelson Mandela's favorite flower.

Harold Pearson came to South Africa in 1903 and saw the need for a botanical garden in Cape Town. In 1911 Neville Pillans, who knew Kirstenbosch, brought Pearson to see it. In May 1913, the government set aside the estate of Kirstenbosch for the establishment of a National Botanic Garden. On July 1 of 1913, the estate was handed over to a board of five trustees including Pearson who served as the Honorary Director. Much of the early work involved eradicating alien plant species, clearing the land of weeds, and constructing pathways for easy access. In the first 10-15 years, many of the principle features of the garden were established. 

Besides the numerous gardens and forests (some of which you can traverse via the Boomslang, Tree Snake, walkway shown below), Kirstenbosch also has a greenhouse, a nursery, and restaurants. 

Walking along the Boomslang. The entire pathway shook while walking on it!

Flowers in the garden.

Flowers in the garden.

After lunch in the gardens, we made our way back to the hotel since I had such an early morning start. The following day was a much needed relaxation day. When I finally woke up, I was shocked to see Table Mountain already blanketed in clouds! I couldn't believe that just the day before, it was completely clear. I was even more thankful for the great views of yesterday's hike given the weather now. 

The same view from our hotel room, one day later.

Much of my day was spent editing photos from Tanzania, Madagascar, and South Africa and writing my blog from Madagascar. Just one blog post can take several hours by the time I select the photos, watermark them, write the posts, format the posts, write the captions, and do test views of the actual post on my computer before publishing. With the time that goes into all these posts plus the long travel days, I'm sure you can understand why some entries are so delayed!! 

After several hours writing with food breaks in between, we headed out to dinner with some friends from the trip. We ended up eating at Sevruga, a seafood restaurant on the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. We shared a sushi platter...

Sushi plate at Sevruga.

...And then I had pan fried prawns with garlic, chili, lemon, parsley and smoked paprika aioli.  

Prawns at Sevruga.

We had an incredibly windy walk past the Cape Town Wheel...

...passing by a mural in progress at The Watershed before finally reaching our hotel. 

The next day, bags had to be out at 4:30am. Yes, you read that right. I thought I was on vacation?! Today, we were flying to Namibia via Johannesburg. Hours later, we landed in Walvis Bay and drove to the coastal town of Swakopmund which has a large German colonial-era influence. In German, Swakopmund means "Mouth of the Swakop", which is one of the largest temporary water-bearing rivers in the dry western part of Namibia. Namibia gets only about 15mm of precipitation... Namibians say "precipitation" instead of rain because the 15mm comes from fog (not even the rain). About 3/4 of the freshwater they do get goes to the mining industry, however, so locals are forced to pay high prices for freshwater.

Flying into Namibia.

Namibia is twice as large as California and the second emptiest country in the world. Flying in, it looks as though you are landing on Mars.

While we had only a brief stop in Swakopmund, it was more than enough time to eat our beloved calamari at Ocean Cellar... more than once! 

Besides the calamari, we also tried the Ocean Cellar fish chowder made with king klip (fish that we apparently don't have in the US), thyme, cream and lemon. 

For dessert, we split the cardamon ice cream with marinated oranges...

... And the raspberry ice cream with honey comb toffee and paprika raspberry puree.

We love Ocean Cellar so much that we went back the following evening, getting the calamari, fish chowder, some sushi and hake bites (a fish that is part of the cod family). In the morning, it was time to say goodbye to the cute town of Swakopmund after a much needed "chill day". By now, we were all rested and very ready to head to our favorite place... The Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Thanks for reading about my African adventures… Stay tuned for what’s to come and be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified of new posts! As always, follow my Instagram @elissatitle for more pics.