After 40 hours of travel, I have finally arrived here in Cape Town! My journey started in the Boston Logan airport, at 8pm on July 3, and ended in the Cape Town airport at 12pm on July 5. At the Cape Town airport I was greeted by Jenna, Mandy, Zoe, Steve, Lydia, and a wonderful “welcome to SA” sign!
After we left the airport, we headed to an adorable beach town called Gordon’s Beach, just south of Cape Town. There we had a small lunch, and I got to walk along a beach with the girls. Jenna swore that the ocean water in Cape Town was too cold to swim in, but after dipping my feet, I concluded that, not only is the water not that cold, it is also warmer than the water was at Rye beach when I went two weeks ago. There was a small beach gym/playground that we had fun exploring while we waited for our food.
After lunch, we started our hour drive to Hermanus, where Jenna’s grandparents live. We took the scenic ocean route, but sadly I can not write much about it because I fell asleep within 10 minutes of the drive. Before my nap however, I was able to snap a few pics of the ocean.
On the drive I learned about shark watchers, people whose job it is to stay in an inland hut and wave a flag whenever they see a shark to warn swimmers, surfers, and ocean kayakers. When I awoke from my nap, we had arrived at Jenna’s grandparents in Hermanus, about an hour south of Cape Town. When we first arrive in Hermanus, I was instantly reminded of Palm Springs. The landscape and topography is very similar because they both have dry, flat lands that merge into tall, bare mountains. It was very interesting to see the different types of architecture in Hermanus, there were houses with Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and modern influences. Most of the houses were neutral colors, which I also found different than the houses in America, especially red homes ;). Most of the houses had flat roofs which is rare in New England because of the abundance of snow we get. The weather here is cooler than I expected, but only because of the strong winds. Both days have been about 55 with windchill. Jenna’s grandparents house is very beautiful, and is in a small gated community which has a golf course in it as well. The gated community is nice because with it, each house does not need a tall fence, because there is one around all the houses.
When we first arrived in Hermanus, we decided to go on a cliff walk during sunset. This was a favorite activity on Friday because the sunset and ocean was beautiful, and it was amazing to see such giant waves, which crashed onto the rocks and sprayed us. I find it really peculiar to be in a town where the beach is so important because I usually go to the beach once a year, and it is quite foreign to me. The food here is quite similar to what we have for dinner at home; we had steak, chicken, salad, potatoes, roasted veggies, and a small slice of blueberry cheesecake. Another cultural difference here is that you eat whatever is on your plate. So many times at home I will end a meal with excess food on my plate, which now I see is incredibly wasteful, and I a going to try to stop that habit when I return home. What they do here in SA to keep from wasting food, is take very multiple very small plates and just eat until the are full. Another food I tried was Biltong, which is dried beef, it is similar to beef jerky but less fake. I thought it tasted like prosciutto because of it’s texture and saltiness.
Today was Saturday, and we had a pretty chill day; we went to a common SA market in the morning, and in the afternoon drove around the vineyard valley and spent some time at a SA vineyard farmhouse. The market was similar to that of a farmers market and craft fair combo in America, but it had live music and real dish-ware! When stands sold food and drink, they were put into real bowls and mugs, along with proper cutlery, which was later collected by a man who worked at the market. This was so different than what happens in American markets because we just get plastic and paper. While in the market, I tried a South African pancake, which was really just an more eggy version of a crepe. Also at the market, there were lots of cute dogs. I met one golden doodle and one labradoodle who both looked a lot like Lucy! We also bought some amazing fresh bread from a very sweet old man. We then went for a short drive in the vineyard valley, where we went to a farm store and had tea. The vineyards where such a pretty green and stretched on for miles, and the mountains in the background were so tall and beautiful. Tomorrow, we are driving through the vineyards on our way back to Cape Town, and we are going to stop and have lunch at one tomorrow. The most amazing thing that happened on Saturday was seeing baboons though. Instead of a deer being caught in headlights, we had a baboon caught in headlights! Up close, they are actually quite cute, but I’m not planning on going too close because I’ve been told they are vicious! So far, I’ve had a great time, and I am very excited fro Cape Town. More updates soon!
South African Adventure 