We loaded up the car, looking forward to getting out of the city into the countryside. I drove from the parking lot to the front of the hotel so Beth could run in and leave the key. I hit the frickin' curb - haven't driven enough to get that depth perception on the left of the vehicle from where I drive on the right. I put a pretty good cut in the tire - drove a block before I realized it was flat. So, at 10:15 a.m., we're calling Hertz. Have you tried changing the tire? Ha - Beth told them we were two old ladies and needed someone to change it so they connected us to the garage. Thank goodness, we purchased full insurance coverage and was advised that the torn tire was covered. Ha!
Less than 20 minutes later, a white guy wearing a suit arrived. He had some difficulty with the jack because it was a brand-new car and the jack had never been used but he got it, changed the tire and we were off within an hour after having called. AND, Hertz gets 100 stars for service because they changed out the car for us, arriving at our accommodations in Simon's Town about 6:30 p.m. with a different car, so we'd have a spare in it!
It was so good to get out of the city and start seeing the landscape. We drove through Camps Bay on the way to the Western Cape Drive. You can rent "luxury villas" at Camps Bay; it's safe to say, it is a very affluent suburb. The first residents, however, were the San (they were hunter gatherers) and the Goringqhaique, Khoi pastorates. There's a complex history but the road we drove from Sea Point to Camps Bay used convict labor. The beaches here are white sand.
We continued to Hout Bay, which is situated in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the peninsula and is about 20 kilometres south of the central business district of Cape Town. It was here that good timber was found for construction of ships and other purposes.
Then we drove the Chapman's Peak Drive. Much to our surprise, it was a toll road. It was beautiful. It was named after John Chapman, the Captain's mate of an English ship, the Consent. There is a history to the road, of course, but it was "cleverly planned with the road surface based on the solid and conveniently located 630-million-year-old Cape Granite contour, while the many roadside cuttings were carved out of the more workable Malmesbury series sediments." It was built with - yes - convict labor. It took seven years to complete, at a cost of ₤20 000. It opened in 1922. The drive was closed in 2000 because of landslides and several accidents from falling rocks that either paralyzed folks or killed them. After intensive design and reconstruction, Chapman's Peak Drive was re-opened to traffic as a toll road in 2003. There were other closures due to a lot of rainfall and in 2008, the drive was closed for major upgrades and repairs. The construction work took over a year and was eventually re-opened in 2009. Chapman's Peak Drive is known as one of the world's most scenic drives.
We could not stop at the peak.
We arrived in Simon's Town around 1 p.m. and checked in before going to get groceries. We stopped and ate some delicious prawn peri-peri and black mussels at a little restaurant on the ocean front - and we saw whales! They weren't close but with our binoculars, we could see them breaching. We're hoping at our next stop in Hermanus we can see them closer from the shore.
We dropped off our groceries and headed to Boulders Beach where there is an African penguin colony. We got about 30 minutes to wander around because the parking lot was closing, and there they were - very close, and they didn't seem to mind our presence. There are small coves and beaches interspersed between boulders of Cape granite (which are about 540 million years old), and the colony of African penguins have been here since 1985. There are now about 3,000 birds. These penguins are only found on the coastlines of Southern Africa, and they currently are on the verge of extinction so they are under the protection of the Cape Nature Conservation. There are only three penguin populations on the mainland in southern Africa: Boulders Bay, close to Hermanus at Stoney Point, which is our next stop, and Betty's Bay. We saw several rafts of penguins coming in as we were leaving.
More about Simon's Town later. We know that it was one of the places from which thousands of coloured and black people were removed to townships (although there is nothing mentioned about this in the literature), and it is home to the South African Navy. What we saw of the architecture is, well, Dutch colonial. We'll explore it later after we visit Constantia winery tomorrow.
The place in which we're staying is really high on a mountain overlooking Simon's Town, and there is a beautiful fynbos garden that we enjoyed as the sun set. Our hosts are avid birders, and there are a variety in the garden. I'm hoping to get up early tomorrow to photograph them.
After Hertz delivered our car, we made boboti (pronounced b'boit-ti). It was like a souped-up meatloaf with lots of spices, chutney, almonds, bay leave and eggs. We ate it with basmati rice and green beans, both of which we could microwave. Woohoo!
This is how our Monday started, just a block from our place in Cape Town. I ran into a curb outside the front door and ripped the tire. The tire was changed within an hour, and Hertz actually brought us another vehicle later in the evening so we would have a spare tire. It was great service because we would never be able to change the tire properly (Beth told them we were two old ladies as a plea to get someone else to change the tire!)
This photo is from Audley, the tour company that's taking us on safari. You can see the soccer stadium. We drove by the stadium and rounded the Cape to the right in order to get Simon's Town. The farthest mountain is about where we're now staying. Constantia is behind Table Mountain.
This is looking back to Lion's Head from the Western Cape Drive.
This is looking south on the Western Cape Drive.
This is Hout Bay from just under the summit of Chapman's Peak on the Chapman Peak Drive.
This is backside of Table Mountain. We suspect it is part of the 12 Apostles.
This is a helmeted guineafowl. They're very large and very noisy. We saw some in the fynbos garden at our place in Simon's Town.
These are African penguins coming ashore in the evening to make their way to their nests. They actually come on shore in a raft, just like the Blue Penguins in New Zealand.
This is Fred, an African penguin. Ha!
The sun setting over Fish Hoek, which is north of our place in Simon's Town.
This is looking across False Bay at sunset to either Strand or Gordon's Bay. We'll see those villages on Thursday when we head to Hermanus.
This is our boboti. Doesn't look appetizing but it actually was really good.
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