Cape Town in Review

Table Mountain, And Cape Town below, as seen from Robben Island

A few days ago we left Cape Town for good after a little over a week of exploring the city and its surroundings. It was a swell time for sure, and I feel we were the busiest we'll be for the majority of the trip—we hit all the major tourist pulls, a few less significant ones, and did a lot of exploring on our own. I can say with confidence we got a fair and comprehensive impression of the city.

Cape Town is nestled rather spectacularly into the base of Table Mountain, an imposing, flat-topped hunk of millenna-old rock (six times the age of the Himalayas, it is believed). South of the city extends the Cape Peninsula, at the end of which sits the most south-western point in Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. (One would think the most southern point in Africa—Cape Agulhas—would be the cause of more excitement, but apparently not.) The city began as a recharging station established by the Dutch East India Trading Company, an institution akin to a pro-slavery, musket-happy Hudson's Bay Company. The DEITC's influence is widespread and profound, including the instantly recognizable Cape Dutch style of architecture, the widely-spoken (though somewhat inelegant) Afrikaans, and the nation's love of all things sausage. The Brits arrived sometime later, spawning a whole other set of descendants who in turn threw their own habits into the cultural mishmash. Not to mention all the indigenous tribes who were obviously here first. And there are also many Muslims. SA has nine official languages, only one of which I can pronounce correctly.

Rhodes memorial, overlooking the University of Cape Town

One can't mention South Africa's past without bringing up Cecil John Rhodes, for whom, it seems, white South Africans have a huge éréction. A multi-multi-millionnaire and a righteous imperialist, Cecil seems to have owned most of southern Africa in the late 1800s, even going so far as to name two countries after himself (Northern and Southern Rhodesia, which today make up Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively). Striking it rich in the Kimberly diamond mines, Rhodes founded DeBeers, which at its peak accounted for 90 per cent of the world's diamond production. At various points in his life, he sat as prime minister of the Cape Colony, founded the University of Cape Town (the oldest in southern Africa) and created the Rhodes Scholar program partnered with Oxford University. You can't go far in Cape Town without seeing a tribute to Cecil and his (now controversial) vision of Africa.

The Bo-Kaap

The downtown core, though not exactly beautiful, has a ragged hustle and bustle that Canadian cities simply don't achieve. We spent a lot of time (and most of our restaurant budget) on Long Street, where upmarket boutiques and eateries mingle with two-century-old mosques and bathhouses, and well-heeled trendsetters mix with shoeless children. Three blocks away sit the rows of squat pastel homes that make up the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood, a tight-knit community descended from Muslim slaves. Beyond that, further down the coast, sit a series of upper-class enclaves where whitewashed beach condos descend sheer cliffs to the windy, white-sand beaches below.


Even if the city buildings aren't pretty (though a few of them are), Cape Town is unabashedly photogenic, thanks to the backdrop of the iconic Table Mountain and the adjoining Devil's Peak and Lion's Head. Given the choice between a strenuous three hour hike up the mountain and a quick and painless ascent in a gondola, we chose the latter.


Once at the 1,000m summit, the Table's surface, though rugged, is just as flat as it appears from below, and host to a variety of flora and fauna. We came across a family of dassies – cousin to the elephant, though really more reminiscent of an oversized guinea pig – and a generous scattering of lizards. And the rocks seem so old! Not a jagged edge in sight, making our Rockies seem infantile.

A dozen or so kilometers from Table Mountain, Robben Island's barren landscape and eerie silence stand in stark contrast to the natural beauty and vibrant goings-on of the city. A leper colony, institution for the mentally handicapped, and most notably a maximum security prison that housed resisters of apartheid, Robben Island lives up to its monicker of 'Exile Island'. Once off the boat, we were given a bus tour of the island by a young man named Kent, who supplied a prodigious amount of information about the island and its former purposes. It is from the sandstone quarry where the likes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu laboured for years that the Cape Town harbour is most visible. Afterwards we were met by a former inmate, in our case a man named Sparks who'd been convicted of 'recruitment' and 'terrorism' in the 1980's. He gave tour of the prison, including the cell block in which he spent seven years, and told stories of an activist's life behind bars.


He, along with many other ex-political prisoners, has fully reconciled with his captors and those who supported the oppressive regime that put him there in the first place. Rather than viewing the island as a reminder of a dark period in his life and South Africa's history, he sees it as a symbol of the resilience and freedom of his people. On the island we also saw African penguins, which to us are a symbol of awesomeness.

Useful plants garden, Kirstenbosch

Cape Town is the only place on Earth where you can see one UNESCO World Heritage Site from another, the first being Robben Island and the second being Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Situated on land donated by (you know it) Cecil Rhodes, Kirstenbosch is the first botanical gardens to showcase exclusively indigenous plants.


This is made all the more exceptional knowing the Cape Peninsula and area alone makes up one of seven unique floral kingdoms in the world. (To put this in perspective, another kingdom is the Boreal Kingdom, which consists of all of Canada, Most of Europe, and Russia). The pride and joy of this unique kingdom (and of the Cape Tourism Board) is Fynbos, meaning 'fine bush', a family of plants unique to the Cape and covering much of its land. Species of Fynbos vary from fine groundcover to shoulder-height bushes to the King Protea, which features a stiff, spiny bloom, and is SA's national flower.

Camps Bay beach, Signal Hill in the background

Cape Town defied our expectations of what an African city could be, and more than once we remarked that we could see ourselves living here. Given Cape Town's numerous draws, we were a little surprised by how few tourists we encountered, but less surprised by those we did encounter who were happy to be carted from attraction to attraction, making little effort to get a real sense of the city's rhythm. Perhaps this wariness is to be expected in a city that employs more security guards and public safety officials than bus drivers or mail people. Our experience was profoundly positive and we would recommend Cape Town with confidence.

Written by Scott & Alanna