Trip to the Cape

Our beach house in the middle

We have been to the Cape three times now and on this last visit we took along my mom, Susan, and her husband, Doug.  They were in the country visiting and requested to see the Cape area.  There were still a few activities that Mark and I had never made time for in previous trips so we were hoping to knock them off our list this trip.

beautiful view of the Indian Ocean

Playing on the rocks at the beach down from our house

On our first day we checked into our beach house which had stunning views and I loved hearing the waves crashing 20 feet from our back door.

nice, little garden overlooking the ocean

Nana and Adalyn exploring the rocks

View from our garden

 That afternoon we went to Boulders Beach to take a look at the natural penguin colony.  Hundreds of penguins were gathered on the beach and both kids enjoyed watching them.  We had a lovely dinner in Simon's Town where our house was located and enjoyed the sunset views that evening.

For our second day we headed to the Cape of Good Hope early to beat the tourist crowd.  We lucked out as there was only one other couple at the infamous sign, just handy enough to take our group picture.

We spent some time hiking the nature trail and taking in the views of where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet at the southern most tip of Africa.  The Cape Point viewing sight was next.  I am glad we made the time to see the tip of Africa and it was a plus our beach house was only 20 minutes away.

Exploring the cliffs at the Cape of Good Hope

In the afternoon of our second day we visited two wineries in the Constantia area.  Mark and I are not big wine drinkers and didn't want to travel far from our home base for the short afternoon so we did not venture to the Stellenbosch area.  The first winery Constantia Glen, allowed us (well everyone but my pregnant self) to sample 5 wines at 50ml each for only R5! ($4 US).  The winery really wanted us to spend the afternoon sipping wines and eating cheese, but we had another winery with a tour to fit in.


We headed 5 minutes down the road to the Groot Constantia winery for a 30 minute wine tour with a 7 wine tasting at the end.  The kids were not at all interested in the tour, so Mark and I did our best to entertain them while my mom and Doug enjoyed the information shared.  We stayed at Groot Constantia for an amazing dinner and view then headed back home.

For the third day Mark and I set out alone to go on the Robben Island tour.  I wanted to make sure we were able to take this tour before we had to leave South Africa and knew it would not be a fun 4 hour tour with kids so I was glad my mom and Doug could watch them for the morning.  After a 45 minute boat ride we landed on Robben Island and then hoped on a bus for an hour tour.  I had no idea the island was so big and over 200 people living on it.  Complete with churches, a convenience store, tennis courts and even a golf course the island was way more than just land for a famous prison.



After the bus tour we stopped at the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for 17 of his 27 years in prison.  A fellow inmate during Mandela's time in prison was our tour guide and it was fascinating to hear about the prison from his perspective.  We had a short tour getting to see a large cell that held 80 prisoners, the courtyard where Mandela began writing "The Long Walk to Freedom", and finally the actual cell where Mandela's original blanket, cot, and urinal were held.  On the 45 minute boat ride back to Cape Town Mark and I both said we were glad we did the tour but it was different from what we expected.

Cell for 80 inmates with 1 bathroom

That evening we packed up from our beach house and headed into Cape Town to stay at a hotel as the Argosy Cycle Tour had closed down roads that would have prevented us from getting to the airport the next morning.  My mom and Doug were dropped off at Table Mountain so they could explore the breathtaking views and the rest of us had a little family dinner together.

We left early the next morning for the airport as we were not sure if the cycle tour was going to cause delays, and thankfully it did not.  It was a good trip, little hectic with all the tourist traffic due to the race, but I am so glad we got to see and visit the places that were last on our Cape area list.  I think Adalyn's favorite part of our trip was the 4 story Barbie house that she endlessly played with in the beach house.