South Africa 2023

Saturday11November

Penultimate day of the trip with the pretty sunny panorama offered by our pretty Airbnb.  

The bell tower of City Hall.

Walk on the Victoria waterfront.

We leave the city to go hike on the other unmissable monument of the city, Table Mountain, the large mineral plateau overlooking Cape Town! Here we are at the foot of the mastodon more than a kilometer high. Facing us, on the left, Lion's Head, rocky peak of 669 meters.

Cape Town.

Lion's Head.

And here is Table Mountain and the cable car that will teleport us up there.

The cabin platform rotates on itself so that everyone can have a view of the entire panorama.

Another way was possible. A little more direct but a little too bold for us...  

The arrival platform.

Here we are at the very top on the table of Table Mountain... Table which has put its tablecloth of fog as the locals say when the clouds cling to it...

"Look across the bay and along the west coast. 50 minutes from here and 117,000 years ago, one of our first modern ancestors might have looked back at you, standing in the wet sand of Langebaan Lagoon, in today's West Coast National Park. The archaeologists who identified her fossilized footprints called her Eve.
She is however not our oldest ancestor. Indeed, Stone Age artifacts found around the foothills of this mountain suggest that our older relatives lived here up to a million years before.
Besides game and other resources, the attraction of the peninsula, with its rocky coastline rich in shellfish, increased when people from the Cape began to exploit marine resources."

"In turn, when Khoi herders arrived in the Western Cape about 2000 years ago, they found assured pastures and fresh water sources on the slopes and foothills of Table Mountain, particularly during the dry summer months. Having brought their sheep and cattle here for generations, it is on these shores that these peoples met the first Europeans to set foot on these coasts."

We now have to explore the 3 km² of the flat summit of Table Mountain.

At times, the tablecloth is removed to reveal the Cape Valley. Here with the DHL Stadium.

The DHL Stadium was built for the 2010 football World Cup.

Platteklip Gorge, a fault that separates the table into two juxtaposed pieces.

Table Bay.

The zigzag path going up Platteklip Gorge. 3 km of hiking as an alternative to the cable car.

Platte klip Gorge

A little touch of color with a watsonia tabularis. This watsonia takes its name precisely from "Table Mountain", place where it was discovered!

Berzelia lanuginosa.

Built in 1844, Maclear's Beacon was set up by Sir Thomas Maclear to map the meridians of South Africa. He was thus continuing the work of Abbé de la Caille, a French astronomer. The beacon was transformed into a monument to commemorate the centenary of Maclear's death on July 14, 1979.

Robben Island. Its name means "seal island" in Dutch, referring to the seal population that once populated the island. Today, it is best known for having been Nelson Mandela's prison. We will be there tomorrow for our last day.

A red-winged starling (Onychognathus morio) checking the cardinal points...

Commemorative plaque of Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950). He was prime minister of the country twice, participating in both the Anglo-Boer wars and the two world wars. He played a role in the founding of the League of Nations and the United Nations.

The clouds are finally clearing leaving us, at the edge of the "table", a superb panorama of the city and the bay.  

The waterfront where we will take the ferry to reach Robben Island.

Back to the cable car along the edge of "table mountain"!  

And hop, here we are in the suspended machine.

The "lion's head", we don't really see the resemblance to the feline, unless it is only the representation of one of its teeth...   Its summit is a takeoff runway for paragliders.

Robben island

This large park was founded in 1913 and covers 528 hectares, of which 36 hectares are landscaped as a botanical garden, while 478 hectares are occupied by the natural vegetation of the fynbos (characteristic natural plant formation of the region).

The Camphor Avenue, avenue of camphor trees set up in 1898 in honor of Empress Victoria.

The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway, also called "Boomslang" which means tree snake in Afrikaans. This 130-meter long footbridge winds through and above the trees.

View of Table Mountain

A small knobwood (Zanthoxylum capense).

A Cape lappet moth, caterpillar Eutricha capensis with its purple tuft around its mandibles.

A statue of Mandela by sculptor John Francis Gardner.

Return to the apartment for the last night!  

Some night photos with here Nelson Mandela Boulevard.

Last aperitif with a little Whiskey available, and my little soup accompanied by Beef Biltong.  

Sunday12November

Last day of the trip! Tonight we will take the plane back to France.

The street at the foot of the building.

On the roof terrace of the building with its swimming pool but too cold for us!  

The view of Table Mountain and Lion's Head.

Back to the Waterfront to take the ferry booked the day before for Robben Island. A fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) comes closer to passing onlookers...

40 minutes crossing by ferry to cover the 13 km of sea separating Robben Island from the Waterfront.

The entrance to the prison. Robben Island was used as a prison from the 17th century, not only for political prisoners but also for lepers and the mentally ill. This use gave the island a sinister reputation.

We are accompanied by Ntando Mbatha, former detainee of Robben Island. He will serve as our guide for the visit of the premises.

Ntando Mbatha was a political prisoner here from 1986 to 1991.

The differences in food rations between "colored or Asian" prisoners and "Bantus", less favored.

Prisoners' mail censored by the prison administration.

A shell painted white surrounded by barbed wire to recall the military past and high surveillance of the island.

Here we are in the prison yard. Political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, were subjected to forced labor in a lime quarry on the island.

Mandela was incarcerated here for 18 years from 1964 to 1982.

And here is the alignment of cells where the detainees were locked up.

One of these cells. There was no mattress...

And here is Nelson Mandela's.

In 1999, Robben Island was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

A bus takes us around the island. Here the leper cemetery. In the 19th century, the sick were isolated here. On the right, the Garrison Church built in 1841.

Opposite, Cape Town and Table Mountain.

End of the visit and repatriation to the ferry which brings us back to the mainland.

We visit the must-sees of the city including the Castle of Good Hope. This fort, built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, is the oldest colonial structure in South Africa. Initially intended to protect the colony against invasions, it also served as a prison and military headquarters over the centuries.

The "Kat Balcony" and four statues of influential figures of South Africa.

From left to right, Cetshwayo king of Amazulu imprisoned here in 1879. Langalibalele, king of AmaHlubi prisoner here in 1874. Nommoä Goringhaiqua, leader of the first Khoi/German war. Sekhukhunen king of BaPedi, prisoner in 1879.

Nice view of Table Mountain from the ramparts.

In the distance, city Hall and the "Grand Parade" square.

The cannons of the fort.

Wow, to think that yesterday, we were in this little box all the way up there!  

And here is our apartment on the penultimate floor on the far right!  

On the roofs of the fort.

Poseidon and Hermes sit above the entrance door in the simplest attire...  

We join the "Grand Parade" square, named from the time when colonial garrisons paraded here.

The City Hall overlooks Grand Parade Square.

A statue of Albert Edward Prince of Wales, who came on an official visit here in 1901 before becoming King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.

The City Hall with another statue between these columns.

It is the statue of Nelson Mandela represented here to commemorate his speech he gave at the same place on February 11, 1990, a few hours after his release from prison.

Last moments of relaxation for our last South African hours! We join the beaches along Table Mountain.

The chain of peaks bordering the Atlantic Ocean is called "12 Apostles", the Twelve Apostles.

Camps Bay beach.

We take the car back to soon reach Cape Town International Airport, but before that we will position ourselves in front of the Atlantic and the small village of Llandudno to enjoy the last rays of South African sunlight.  

There, the Sun has set, we will do the same in a few hours on the plane!

And here is the mileage report displayed on our car's odometer before we returned it: 5,106 km! A nice 24-day roadtrip that did not disappoint us far from it! For sure, we will come back again to this continent to continue exploring it! In the meantime, another continent and another trip still unknown at this hour await us! See you soon for new adventures!