On Tuesday we decided to explore downtown Cape Town. We started by visiting the oldest establishment, the Dutch fort constructed in the late 1600’s. Among the highlights of the visit were exhibits on the Boer war and the ‘Torture Room’. We then walked around downtown stopping by art shops, street vendors, and the church where Desmond Tutu gave sermons.
After a quick lunch downtown we drove to the V&A Waterfront to depart for our tour of Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during apartheid) only to find that it was fully booked. Plan B was to take the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, but due to high winds that was also not possible. We settled on the aquarium which turned out to be a very cool place to go. It featured various species from both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and was home to one of only two kelp forests in the world which are kept alive in an aquarium. Afterwards we enjoyed a dinner of Kudu and Ostrich at a local grill.
On our last day in South Africa we drove out to Stellenbosch to visit the vineyards. We started at The Bergkelder with a cellar tour and wine tasting, which exposed us to most of the aspects of making wine. It tasted pretty good too! Not much of their wine gets exported to the U.S., but if you have ever seen Fleur de Cap or Two Oceans wine it came from Die Bergkelder cellar.
After our tour we drove to the Spier vineyard for lunch and to see their Cheetahs. Unfortunately we never got to see wild Cheetahs at the game reserve, but this was an acceptable substitute.
Afterwards we returned to the house to collect our baggage and drove to the airport to begin our journey home. It was relatively uneventful (Dan didn’t think he would be let on the plane for a few minutes…) and we made it back to Colby after about 28 hours of travelling. Needless to say, we were a little out of it by the time we made it back.