The Great TREK - #32

August the 12^th – Our 7^th leg

Continued to "explore" the city of Cape Town, this time I took my kids to see one of the most colorful neighborhoods of the city, namely Bo-Kaap. 

Known for its brightly colored houses, situated at the foot of Signal Hill, it is the "spiritual" home of the Cape Muslim's Community.

Bo-Kaap has a fascinating history. Many of the residents are descendants of slaves from Malaysia, Indonesia and various African Countries, who were imported to the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch during the 16th and 17th Centuries.

After the visit to the neighborhood, we went to town itself.

Cape Town city

The Great TREK - #31

August the 11^th – Our 7^th leg

Today I took my children to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town for some learning, fun and exercise, as this is a massive 528 hectares in area.

a Bonsai tree at the entrance of the gardens

The garden is one of nine National Botanical Gardens covering five of South African's six different biomes, Kirstenbosch was founded in 1913 to preserve the country's unique flora. Furthermore, what makes the Gardens so famous worldwide is that (with minor exceptions), only indigenous plants are cultivated. 

It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

The garden includes a large conservatory (The Botanical Society Conservatory) exhibiting plants from a number of different regions, including savanna, fynbos, karoo and others. 

Outdoors, the focus moves to plants native to the Cape region, highlighted by the spectacular collections of proteas.

Kirstenbosch enjoys great popularity with residents and visitors. From the gardens several trails lead off along and up the mountain slopes and these are much used by walkers and mountaineers.

The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway is a new curved steel and timber bridge that winds and dips its way through and over the trees of the arboretum. Inspired by a snake skeleton, and informally called the "boomslang" (meaning tree snake), it is a low-impact sculptural raised walkway. 

 The view from the top of the walkway

 The Walkway takes the visitor from the forest floor into and through the trees and bursts out above the canopy, giving spectacular panoramic vistas of the surrounding mountains, Garden and Cape Flats.

This walkway is 130m long, narrow and slender, with a few wider view-point areas, and lightly snakes its way through the canopy, in a discreet, almost invisible way. The walkway is crescent-shaped and takes advantage of the sloping ground; it touches the forest floor in two places, and raises visitors to 12m above ground. It is more than just a traditional boardwalk - like a snake, it winds and dips.

We were lucky enough as this walkway opened in May of 2014.

Kirstenbosch enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with a long, hot, dry summer (November-March) and a short, cool, rainy winter (June-August). 

As we went in August, the temperature was great with a beautiful day al round.

 The King Protea

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The Great TREK - #30

August the 9^th – Our 7^th leg

Today we decided to take my wife for a quick tour and go up Signal Hill to have another perspective of Cape Town. Signal Hill is a landmark hill located in Cape Town right next to Lion-s Head and Table Mountain, where the Historic Noon gun is fired. It has fantastic views across Table Bay Harbour, the central city and the Atlantic ocean. When there is a full moon, this place get overcrowded of people coming to see Cape Town at night. There are a couple of hikes so that fitter people can walk all the way up.

After signal hill, we took a brief walk in Bo-Kaap formerly know as the Malay quarter. It is situated at the foothill of signal hill above the city centre. We only had a brief walk as we wanted to bring the children, so this is a place we will come back within a couple of days time.

On the way to the car we discovered this beautiful little coffee shop that had opened recently. Nice little shop with good coffee.

After signal hill I decided to take my wife for lunch in Kalk Bay. It is a fishing village on the coast of false bay and one of the trendiest seaside villages of Cape Town with fantastic restaurants and shops.

Overall it was a great and relaxing day for the two of us.

Signal Hill

The View of Cape Town

Bo-Kaap

City Centre

Great Little coffee shop

Kalk Bay

The Great TREK - #29

August the 7^th – Our 7^th leg

Today we had a full day in Cape Town.

Left early to visit the African Penguins in Boulder's Beach just outside Simon's Town. We arrived with the sunrise. It was beautiful to see all the penguins coming outside to catch the warmth of the sun. Just beautiful.

The African Penguins were reclassified in 2010 from a Vulnerable to Endangered status. The Boulders Penguin colony was established in 1983 and numbers increased from surrounding island colonies to bring breeding numbers to 3900 birds in 2005. since then there has been a decrease. In 2011 there were about 2100 birds at Boulders Penguin colony. The decline at Boulders and  worldwide is suspected from:-

• Habitat destruction
• Effects of oil spills and other marine pollution
• Over fishing
• Irresponsible tourism activities

We had breakfast (as a Picknick) stayed a bit longer then left for our next stop, which would be Cape Point.

Cape point is the most South Westerly tip of Africa and is part of the Cape floral region within the Table Mountain National Park.

This point was named by the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias and the "Cape of Storms" as it was a menace beset by violent storms and dangerous rocks that, over the centuries littered shipwrecked around the coastline.

On our return trip back home, we decided to drive through one of the most scenic drives in the world, which is the famous Chapmans Peak Drive that goes all the way into Cape Town.

Boulders Rock Penguin colony

Cape Point

On our way to Cape Point

On our way to Cape Point

Oh no. More tourists

Chapmans Peak Drive

Part of the "12 Apostles"

 Part of the "12 Apostles"