Day 8 10/16/06 Birding Trip
Today, Roberta and Elliot, good sports that they are, learned about serious birding. We signed up for a guided, all day birding trip which went from 7:30 AM to 6 PM. Our birding guide, Frank Hallett is a retired college professor and microbiologist. In addition to seashore, wooded areas, fields and mountain tops, Frank took us to a nuclear power plant and a sewage treatment plant. The nuclear plant has a very large buffer zone for safety and security which has been turned into a nature reserve. In addition to lots of birds, they also had zebra, eland, springbuck and wildebeest. The sewage plant has huge settling ponds which attract dozens of different species of birds. For the day, we spotted 84 different species of birds, 73 of which were life birds for Sandy & Carl.
During the driving, Frank also gave us a summary history of South Africa. After a long but fun day, Frank dropped us off at our condo in the hurricane belt. Did we mention the wind? For three days it has howled all night at 25 to 40 MPH with higher gusts. Though we are getting used to it, we had some trouble sleeping the first two nights. Now we are veterans of the cape winds. Just in time since tomorrow we take a boat ride to Robben Island!
Day 9 10/17/06 Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
The wind continued relentlessly throughout the night and we awoke to no electricity. We called the ferry company and learned that the ferries to Robben Island had all been cancelled. We immediately went to plan B, a trip to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens that so many people had raved about. We will try Robben Island in a couple of days. The gardens were wonderful and we spent nearly the entire day there. We started with a two hour guided tour where we learned about the history of the gardens (originally part of Cecil Rhodes’ estate) and the special golden Bird of Paradise flower named after Nelson Mandela. The gardens sloped upwards and we soon came to a small field that offered a magnificent view of Eastern Cape Town and the mountains beyond. This field was ringed with Proteus bushes of several types, including the South African national flower, the King Proteus.
In addition to being beautiful, these plants attract several species of sunbird which are like very large, beautifully colored, iridescent hummingbirds. On the way back down the hill we discovered many other botanical delights including an Aloe tree. Not your familiar Aloe bush but a 40 foot high tree with clusters of familiar aloe leaves branching at the top. After a pleasant lunch, we toured the sculpture garden, a beautiful collection of large soapstone statues arrayed across the lawns. Most of the pieces were by sculptors from Zimbabwe. We left the gardens after the obligatory stop in the gift shop. After a quick stop at the condo, where the wind was blowing as hard as ever, we drive up the coast to a larger town that has an internet cafe. After a week away, we each had dozens of emails but nearly all of it was spam (no surprise there). We sent off our first trip report, checked a few accounts to see what exchange rates we were getting and drove back to Camps Bay for ice cream. The evening was spent downloading flower pictures and getting ready for tomorrow.
Day 10 10/18/06 Table Mountain & West Coast National Park
Ah, the blessed sound of silence. The wind finally stopped roaring last night and we awoke to quiet, a sharp contrast to last night when the wind howled and rattled the windows so much that we wondered how people could live here. We immediately headed for the Table Mountain cable car. Unfortunately, since the cable car had been shut down due to high winds for several days, thousands of other people had the same idea. The lines were long yet they moved surprisingly well; we made it to the top in about an hour. The views were awesome. Cape Town, Lions Head, 12 Apostles and Cape Point were all spread at our feet.
We could even see the condo we rented with the hot tub on the roof. There was no line for the cable car going down and when we got to the bottom we were astonished by how the crowd had grown. The line was five times longer and cars were park all the way down the two mile entrance road. We next headed north to West Coast National Park about an hour north of Cape Town. As expected, we saw lots of birds including dozens of species of shorebirds and several different raptors. The big surprise was the large number of Ostrich both adults and juveniles were spotted all over the park. Back at the condo we had a nice dinner while watching the sun set into the Atlantic.
Day 11 10/19/06 Robben Island & Cape Town
Our final day in Cape Town was scenic, sobering and thought provoking. The four mile boat ride to Robben Island treated us to great views of Cape Town with Table Mountain behind. From the boat we saw swimming penguins and numerous other bird species as well as Southern Fur Seals. The tour of Robben Island included a guided bus tour followed by a walking tour of the maximum security prison section highlighted by the six by six foot cell where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. The walking tour was led by a former political prisoner who spent many years as an inmate here. Many of the cells had photographs of the former occupants with summaries of their lives or mementos of their time in prison.
It is hard to imagine someone enduring the pain and deprivation of such a place for so long without becoming totally angry, embittered and vengeful. Our experience reinforced our appreciation of the greatness of Nelson Mandela. On the way back to the boat dock, we walked over to the shoreside penguin rookery for an additional look at these curious flightless birds. Back in Cape Town, we had a delightful crayfish lunch along the waterfront then drove to the Jewish compound including a synagogue, museum and Holocaust center. A delightful young lady gave us a tour of the synagogue and told us about the 1,000 member congregation. This synagogue is one of about 36 in the Western Cape region; three are reform, the rest orthodox.
The adjoining museum was a fascinating chronicle of the South African Jewish community from the first British Jews who settled in the early 1800’s through the mass influx during the Russian pogroms in the late 19th century. We also learned about the role of Jews in the struggle against apartheid, a topic hinted at by all of the Jewish names among the people arrested during the ANC struggles. However, none of the Jews went to Robben Island, they were sent to a “Whites Only” prison in Pretoria. Across the courtyard from the museum was the Holocaust center. Unfortunately, we had only 15 minutes to rush through before closing. One of the most striking displays was an array of 600 identity photographs from Jews in a small Polish village. A sign alongside the photos reminded us that the Nazis killed five times as many people as were pictured here EVERY DAY FOR FOUR YEARS! Tonight we packed for our move to the seaside town of Knysna.
Day 12 10/20/06 Drive to Knysna
With some difficulty we got all of our stuff in the car and we were off to Knysna about 320 miles east of Cape Town. Mid morning we stopped at Bontebok National Park, a small park by South African standards. The park is named for the resident antelope herd of the same name. We drove a 20 km loop dirt road where we saw Bontebok, Zebra and numerous species of birds including Common Ostrich, Stanley’s Bustard, African Stonechat and a Pin-tailed Whydah. From an original remnant herd of 31 animals, the Bontebok have prospered to over 3,000 animals. After a stop in Mossel Bay for lunch, we arrived in Knysna, settled in, shopped and planned our three day stay in the area.
Day 13 10/21/06 Featherbed Nature Reserve
Today’s excursion brought us to the Featherbed Nature Reserve. We walked from our condo to the ferry dock, took a 30 minute cruise through Knysna Lagoon then boarded a truck up the mountain for magnificent views of Knysna Heads and the Indian Ocean. We then hiked about two miles down the mountain past more fantastic viewpoints with a side trip, 120 steps down t to a pair of ocean caves. After enjoying the caves we hikes up 240 steps (or so it seemed) then continued down the trail back to the reserve headquarters. Here we had a delightful buffet lunch before boarding the boat for the return trip across the lagoon. Once back on shore, we wandered through the waterfront shopping district of Knysna. We then walked up to the Knysna main street only to discover that all of the shops were all closed on Saturday afternoon. Oh, well, back to the waterfront for more shopping some ice cream and chocolate then back to the condo to relax in the early evening. We sat on our patio, enjoying the birds then watched the sunset across the lagoon. Another great day for the F4 (four fabulously fortunate friends).
Day 14 10/22/06 Cango Caves & Highgate Ostrich Farm
Today we drove to Oudtshoorn to explore more of the wonders of South Africa’s Garden Route along the central coast. First stop was Cango Caves where we explored part of an extensive limestone cave system. We toured several large rooms with flowstone, stalagtite and stalagmite formations.
Although there was some obvious damage caused by vandals, in the early 20th century concerts with 1,500 attendees were held in the large cavern room, enough of it was pristine to give us a taste of the magnificent formations. After the cave tour and the obligatory gift shop visit, we drove to the Highgate Ostrich Farm. After a simple but pleasant lunch, we got a tour showing us the different feather types, the incubators and young ostrich. We then drove out to a nesting area where we saw a male ostrich taking his turn sitting on the nest.
When prodded off of his nest by our guide, we found eight large eggs. Each egg was six to eight inches long and strong enough for Elliot to stand on! We then watched three people race on the large ostriches. It was all very interesting and the whole tour cost only $6 per person. After driving back to Knysna, we relaxed on our patio, watching the sun set then went out to dinner at the Drydock Restaurant, a short walk away. Another wonderful day.
