We arrived in Cape Town from Johannesburg quite late at night and the difference in temperature was quite palpable. It was quite chilly and drizzling rain. We took our rental car and drove to our hotel in the V&A Waterfront neighborhood. By the time we reached our hotel it was about 1 AM.
Day 1:
We had planned to go to Table Mountain in the morning but it was rainy and overcast and we could see from our hotel that the visibility from Table Mountain was going to be very poor and so we altered our plans. After breakfast we drove straight to Bo-Kaap neighborhood.
Bo Kaap is a Malay neighborhood known for its bright colored homes. Sticking to the main roads, you can walk the entire neighborhood in 20 minutes.
After Bo-Kaap we drove to Mojo Market. We timed it completely wrong as most of the stalls had not been set up yet and we walked across the street to Sea Point Pavilion. It was early and fairly deserted. We made our way back to V&A Waterfront area for lunch.
The V&A Waterfront Food Market has an amazing collection of different cuisines and because of the variety of options available we ended up having our meals here for the remainder of our stay in Cape Town.
After lunch, we checked out of our hotel headed for Hermanus.
Hermanus is a small town about 125 km from Cape Town known as the best land-based whale watching location in the world. It is also only 42 km away from Gansbai, one of the world famous location for Cage Diving with Great White Sharks. The drive from Cape Town to Hermanus takes only about 1.5 hours to 2 hours.
On our way to Hermanus we stopped by Betty’s Bay, a small town known for its penguin colony.
After spending about an hour in Betty’s Bay we drove to Hermanus where we were staying at a B&B.
Day 2:
Due to inclement weather, our whale watching cruise in the morning was cancelled. However, our B&B host mentioned over breakfast that there were a record number of whales off the coast in Hermanus that year and since we were visiting during peak period we would not have any shortage of opportunity to see many many whales right from land.
We drove to Sievers Point, one of the supposedly prime location of land based whale watching in Hermanus. Within 5 minutes of arriving in the parking lot we were watching a bunch of whales very close to land.
After spending about 3 hours at Sievers Point we drove back to the town where they were hosting the 2018 Whale Festival. After spending a couple of hours walking around different booths we drove back to Cape Town.
For dinner we walked to the V&A Waterfront Food market and had Hungarian bread with some delicious lamb on it.
Day 3:
Today the weather was clear and sunny and a perfect day to go to the Table Mountain. The tickets booth opens at 8:30 AM and by the time we arrived there at 9:15 AM, the queue was about a thousand people deep. Between the time we tried to find a parking, probably 100 more had joined the queue. We had no idea how long it was going to take for us to get to the cable car and get to the top. We made a quick decision to just leave and go visit Simon’s Town and Cape of Good Hope instead.
Simons Town is the other town famous for its penguin colony. It is located about 40 km south of Cape Town and on the way to Cape of Good Hope so can be included in the same trip. Since we had gotten Wild Card for our Kruger National Park safari trip, our entry fee (35 ZAR per person) was waived.
After staying at the Simon’s Town for a couple of hours we headed south to the Cape Peninsula. Entry fee (105 ZAR per person) to the Table Mountain National Park was waived again because of our Wild Card. The Cape of Good Hope is located here and we had read about this place since childhood (in Geography class).
It was quite late in the afternoon by the time we reached hotel. For our early dinner we again walked to the V&A Waterfront Food Market.
We called it an early night as we were heading home early in the morning next day. It was overall a very memorable South Africa trip and I hope to come back again some time in the future, especially for another safari trip.