Whats in South Africa?

My Cape Town experience is something out of the world . I was there 8 days to savour a bit of what Africa is today. In Cape Town i found a beautiful city , very vibrant and very clean from as far as my eyes could see. Even public restrooms are ridiculously clean. The time of visit was perfect too, being at the break of autumn. Air was crisp and cool and one cannot but fall in love the weather.

And I like their music too. Africans are great musicians and they can create fantastic music using instruments they make up at their backyards. One such group we saw was performing at the Waterfront. It was a band of 5 Africans making their kind of music with simple instruments and they were amazing. One can sit by, listen and enjoy their rthymn all day long, if only one could afford the time. But my friends and i were more interested shopping for things out of this world – Ostrich Eggs, Monkey Balls, Soap stone, wood carvings, embroideries and all things Out of Africa!

an egg costs 350-450Rm depending on the quality of painting

And if you are a wine lover, this is certainly a fantastic place to taste wine from different regions of South Africa. We had 2 such wine tasting sessions, one in Stellenbosch, known as the “cradle of South African wine industry” and the other in Anura Vineyards. Altogether we must have tasted over 10 varieties. We learnt about the different types of wines, how they were made and what kind of grapes makes the best wine. Then before we drank each variety, we were also given a brief vignette of how it was so named. The wine came with cheeses and chocolates, so that made us very happy.

But i think people who come to Cape Town are even more intrigued by a skyline that is created by a mountain that is absolutely flat at the top. The early explorers named it Table Mountain. Thus, Cape Town is Table Mountain and Table Mountain is Cape Town.

Every evening we would go just 2 floors up to the 19th floor of the Westin Hotel to join our friends for some cocktail drinks at the executive lounge and enjoy the view of the incredible skyline. Then on the day before we left Cape Town, we made our way up the mountain. The taxi ride from the city was short but the cable car up to the top of the mountains was even shorter, just 5 mins.

We saw Cape Town from the mountain top. The paronamic view of the city and distant places were quite breathtaking. It included the view of Robin Island, where President Mandela was imprisoned for 25 years. We could have taken more pictures but the cold winds were not so friendly. They blew us into the souvenir shop and we were more than happy inside as we were surrounded by pretty things- souvenirs of table mountain which we were hoping to pick up too.

As for food we had the best of authentic African food in the outskirts of the city, cooked in the biggest iron cast pots I have ever seen. There were all kinds of game meat and sea food. Each dish had its unique flavour, whether barbecued or cooked.

African feast

In all I enjoyed Africa , and going around the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Point, where the two oceans, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet was for me an unbelievable experience. When i was a child learning about Christopher Columbus, little did i realize that 50 years later i would be there to see for myself, this land – the Cape of Good Hope.