Cape Town the Beginning to the End of my South Africa Journey

Cape Town, South Africa, with its rich and colorful racial and architectural history is affectionately called the “Mother City,” considering its roots as the oldest town in South Africa.

Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town, was developed by the Dutch East India Co. as a supply station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck established the Dutch Cape Colony as the first permanent European settlement in South Africa. But the first European to reach the area and name it “Cape of Storms,” was Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488.

I hit the ground running on Saturday when I arrived in Cape Town and haven’t really slowed down. Said my good0byes to our wonderful Intrepid guide Meshack and our driver Goodman. And, proceeded to part ways with a number of my tour mates only several of us were staying at the same hostel, Never@Home. Although I was incredibly tired and slightly hungry, Kate and Angela were ready to explore Cape Town and with our rooms at the hostel not being ready until later in the afternoon, checking out Cape Town with them was definitely a must do.

Here’s a snippet of Cape Town’s waterfront, beach area and historical city. With more to come including Table Mountain, Robben Island, District Six Museum, Township visit and Slave Lodge.

The Ferris wheel at the V&A (Victoria and Alfred) Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. The V&A Waterfront, just a 15 minute walk from the hostel I’m staying in, has a little of everything as far as entertainment is concerned, from places to eat and shop to tugboats and yachts for cruises on the working harbour. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Live entertainment at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

A bigger than life chess board at the V&A Motel at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

A place to stay, the V&A Motel at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The V&A Waterfront harbour in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

There are a variety of shops at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, that sell a variety of items, like this shop, the “African Trading Post.” (Oct. 20, 2018)

The V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, also hosts the Nelson Mandela Gateway, through which ferries depart for Robben Island where black political prisoners, like Nelson Mandela, were imprisoned. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The Waterfront Clock Tower, now heavily under renovation, is an important part of the old Cape Town harbour at the V&A Waterfront in South Africa. The Victorian Gothic-style Clock Tower was the original Port Captain’s Office built in 1882. The pointed Gothic windows surrounds the structure with a clock, imported from Edinburgh, Scotland, as a main feature. The red walls are said to be the same colour as they were in the 1800’s but unfortunately because of the scaffolding can’t really be seen. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Nobel Square at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town where four South African Nobel Prize winners are honored. From left: Albert Lutuli, Bishop Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Me standing by South African Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu at Nobel Square at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. To the left of me is Albert Lutuli, the first black African to win a Nobel Prize for peace in 1960 for his non-violent struggle against apartheid; and to the right F.W. De Klerk, the white minority president of South dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. Both De Klerk and Nelson Mandela won the 1993 Noble Prize for their work in ending apartheid. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Me again, this time standing by Nelson Mandela in Noble Square at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. I’m actually standing between the two men who won the Noble Prize in 1993 for ending apartheid. F.W. de Klerk to my left was South Africa’s president at the time when he and his white-minority ruled government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage. The two other South African Nobel Prize winners at Noble Square are Albert Lutuli, the first black African to win a Nobel Prize for peace in 1960 for his non-violent struggle against apartheid and Bishop Desmond Tutu who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve and end apartheid. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Food Market at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Inside the Food Market at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

A view of Cape Town, South Africa’s city center. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Along Long Street, one of the oldest eclectic streets in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Along Long Street, one of the oldest and most eclectic streets in Cape Town, South Africa, bustles with markets, historical sites and a plethora of bars, restaurants, pubs and clubs. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Along Long Street, one of the oldest eclectic streets in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 21, 2018)

An apartment building with the South African flag painted on it in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Cape Town has a blend of Dutch and British architecture along Adderley Street while America’s KFC has quite a presence in its food culture. (Oct. 21, 2018)

More of the Dutch and British architecture along Adderley Street in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Greenmarket Square as seen from Longmarket Street is a historical square in the centre of old Cape Town and was built in 1696. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Greenmarket Square, a historical square built in 1696, in the center of old Cape Town has served as a slave market, a vegetable market, a parking lot and more recently, a flea market trading mainly African souvenirs, crafts and curios. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Old Town House on Greenmarket Square in Cape Town a group of young girls singing and dancing. (Oct. 20, 2018)

This building, commonly known as the Cape High Court, in Cape Town, South Africa, was the site of the race classification board. The Population Registration Act of 1950 required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with his or her racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Outside of the Cape High Court building are two benches, a “Whites Only” and a “Non-White Only” bench to remind people of the humiliation caused by South Africa’s racially charged past. Our walking tour guide, Anita, is telling our group that her family was classified as “Coloured,” and that the Group Areas Act of 1950 was created by the apartheid government of South Africa to assign racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas. An effect of the law was to prevent nonwhites from living in the most developed areas. Oct. 20, 2018)

The symbolic racial designation benches outside the Cape High Court building are a reminder the race classification board required every South African declare a race as part of the Population Registration Act of 1950. It required that every South African be classified as belonging to one of at least seven “races” and accordingly granted or denied them citizenship rights on a sliding scale from “White” (full rights) to “Bantu” (with the fewest). The classification was subjective, and families were split apart when paler or darker skinned children or parents – or those with curlier hair, or different features – were placed in separate categories. (Oct. 20, 2018)

A life-sized bronze statue of a waving Nelson Mandela on the balcony of the Cape Town City Hall on Darling Street in celebration of his life, contribution to the country and what would have been his 100th birthday this year. This balcony is where the former statesman gave his first address as a free man on Feb. 11, 1990. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Cape Town City Hall, built in 1905 built from honey-coloured limestone imported from Bath in England, is a large Edwardian building in the city center across from the Grand Parade, the main public square. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Grand Parade in Cape Town with its statue of Edward VII, is the main public square, and across from the City Hall with the life-sized bronze statue of Nelson Mandela can be seen waving from the balcony. The square is generally used as a market place and parking area but has also been the venue of major political rallies. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The tree-lined Company’s Garden, in central Cape Town, South Africa, is a park and heritage site built in 1652 by Dutch settlers as a provisioning point where sailors could get fruit, vegetables and fresh water. The garden is lined by the Houses of Parliament, the National Library of South Africa, the Tuynhuys and the South African National Gallery, along with some historic statues. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Tuynhuys behind this gorgeous gate can be seen along the Company’s Garden in Cape Town, South Africa, and is the office of the President of South Africa. The building seemingly had modest beginnings with the earliest known reference to the site being in 1674 when the Dutch East India Co. first built a “garden house” to store the tools for the Company’s large garden first established by Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. In about 1682, the toolshed was converted into a guesthouse to entertain foreign visitors of the Governor Simon van der Stel. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Tuynhuys along the Company’s Garden in Cape Town, South Africa, is the office of the President of South Africa. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Houses of Parliament of South Africa, along the Company’s Garden, in Cape Town, South Africa, was originally completed in 1884. But the Neoclassical Cape Dutch building, which consists of three main sections, had additions constructed in the 1920s and 1980s. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Arch for the Arch is a public installation unveiled in 2017 to honor and coincide with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s 86th birthday in Cape Town, South Africa. The Arch is situated next to St George’s Cathedral where Bishop Tutu was the first black archbishop of South Africa, The 14 wooden arches were bent by Croatian boat builder Dario Farcic in Johannesburg, South Africa, to form a dome. The Arch for the Arch represents Tutu’s life and legacy as South Africa’s moral compass for more than 50 years. (Oct. 20, 2018)

While on our Cape Town Historic City walk through the Central Business District, we came upon a block sectioned off by tape for this film crew. It turns out that Cape Town is in high demand as a filming location. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Winnie Madikizela-Mandela image, nestled between portraits of Bishop Desmond Tutu (left) and Nelson Mandela (right) on a building in the Cape Town central business district. The painting was just recently unveiled in April. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Bo-Kaap (“above the Cape” in Afrikaans) is an area of Cape Town formerly known as the Malay Quarter. The Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town is distinguished by its distinctive pastel coloured houses. It is a former township, situated on the slopes of Signal Hill above the city center. (Oct. 23, 2018)

The Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town is distinguished by its distinctive pastel colored houses. It is a former township, situated on the slopes of Signal Hill above the city center. (Oct. 23, 2018)

The brightly colored facades of the Bo-Kaap area, formerly known as the Malay Quarter, in Cape Town are attributed to an expression of freedom by the new homeowners, as all the houses were leased and painted white. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The brightly colored facades of the Bo-Kaap area, formerly known as the Malay Quarter in Cape Town, are an expression of freedom by the new homeowners, as all the houses were leased and painted white. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The Bo-Kaap (“above the Cape” in Afrikaans) is an area of distinctive pastel colored houses in Cape Town formerly known as the Malay Quarter. (Oct. 21, 2018)

A view of the Lion’s Head mountain from Camps Bay in Cape Town with a strip of restaurants, bars and accommodations. (Oct. 20, 2018)

A view of the Lion’s Head mountain from Camps Bay in Cape Town, South Africa, with a strip of restaurants, bars and accommodations. (Oct. 20, 2018)

The Atlantic seaboard, known as Cape Town’s Rivera, is regarded as one of the most scenic routes in South Africa. The backdrop to the white sand beach are the majestic slopes of the Twelve Apostles. (Oct. 20, 2018)

Sunday turned out to be a beautifully clear and rather warm day in Cape Town, South Africa, along with being the perfect day to explore Table Mountain and Robben Island.

Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking Cape Town in South Africa. It is is considered one of the New7Wonders of Nature and the views from on top were….well stunning! And, the notorious Robben Island is where black political prisoners who spoke and organized against apartheid were sent to service their sentences, including Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid.

Thank you Roger Major at My Tours for making the visits to Table Mountain and Robben Island on Saturday so flawless.

Me at the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town. What a remarkable feeling, truly like being on top of the world! The temperature was cool but the sun was quite bright. And, the views? Well, they were magical. These are the travel moments I truly live for…thank you Table Mountain and Cape Town! Wow! (Oct. 21, 2018)

Before even getting close enough to the cable car to Table Mountain in Cape Town these were the views standing in line. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Views of Cape Town and the Lions Head mountain on a beautiful clear day; as I stand in line for the cable car to ride up to Table Mountain. (Oct. 21, 2018)

I waited a little more than 90 minutes to get through this line in order to ride the cable car to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday. The previous two days, Table Mountain and even Robben Island, were closed because of high winds. But not on Saturday and what a glorious day it was to peruse this glorious mountain and the city. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, is considered one of the New7Wonders of Nature which began as an initiative in 2007 to create a list of seven natural wonders chosen by people through a global poll. The other wonders are the Amazon and Rainforests of South America, Halong Bay in Vietnam, Iguazu Falls in Argentina/Brazil, Jeju Island in South Korea, Komodo Island in Indonesia and Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park in the Philippines. (Oct. 21, 2018)

This is inside the red cable car taking me and up to 60 passengers in less than five minutes from the lower cable station on Tafelberg Road to the plateau at the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, all while the floor rotates 360 degrees during the ascent or descent, giving a panoramic view over the city. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Looking down onto Cape Town, South Africa, as I’m riding up the red cable car to the top of Table Mountain. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Taking the red cable car up to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, while the second cable car, in yellow, is making its way back down the lower cable station on Tafelberg Road. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The views from a top Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The harbour at the V&A (Victoria & Alfred) Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, is where you pick up the ferry to take the less than 30 minute ride to Robben Island. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Arriving on Robben Island declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. Thousand of visitors annually take the ferry from the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town for tours of the island and its former prison. Some of the guides who conduct the tours are former prisoners and some of the guides live on the island. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The limestone quarry where political prisoners like Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandel toiled while imprisoned at Robben Island near Cape Town, South Africa for his peaceful protests again the dehumanizing rule of apartheid. The bright South African sun shining off of the limestone caused eye problems, along with breathing problems for Mandela. (Oct. 21, 2018)

A close up of the rock pile at the limestone quarry started by Nelson Mandela and added to, one rock at a time, by former prisoners returning to Robben Island near Cape Town, South Africa. Mandela was imprisoned at Robben Island for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a prominent South African political dissident, founded the Pan Africanist Congress in opposition to the South African apartheid system. This courageous man, a professor of linguistics who had a remarkable skill to influence people, was kept in solitary confinement on Robben Island near Cape Town, South Africa, because the white government had profiled him as a more radical and difficult opponent. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The house on Robben Island near Cape Town where Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a prominent South African political dissident, was kept in solitary confinement. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The room in the house on Robben Island near Cape Town where Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a prominent South African political dissident, was kept in solitary confinement. (Oct. 21, 2018)

When Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a prominent South African political dissident’s, health began to deteriorate, his wife and children could visit him at his prison on Robben Island near Cape Town, South Africa. These visits were scheduled and restricted but his children could in a separate section close to where their father was kept in solitary confinement. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a prominent South African political dissident, kept in solitary confinement at Robben Island, and his wife Veronica who fought for her husband’s release and when he was ill demanded his release so he could get medical treatment at home. Robert died at the age of 53 of lung cancer and Veronica just recently died on Aug. 15, 2018 at the age of 91 years after a long illness. (Oct. 21, 2018)

These cell-like structures where Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, a prominent South African political dissident, who was kept in solitary confinement at Robben Island near Cape Town, South Africa, were constructed to house the prison warders’ guard dogs after Sobukwe left the island. The dogs, German shepherds, were bred and trained to attack and kill the prisoners. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The Robben Island prison grounds near Cape Town, South Africa. In the distance, the green dome is the Muslim Moturu Kramat shrine, now a sacred Muslim pilgrimage site. Moturu, who was one of Cape Town’s first imams, was exiled to the island in the mid-1740s. He died there in 1754. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Glen Kgotso, a former prisoner at Robben Island near Cape Town, South Africa, was our guide through the prison. Here our group is entering Black F, where Kgotso was imprisoned for seven years. Of the 4,722 prisoners through the years, 589 prisoners died on the island and a number of them were buried without markers. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Our Robben Island guide, Glen Kgotso, was imprisoned for seven years of a 25 year sentence from 1984 to 1991. He was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government and sent to Robben Island’s maximum security prison. Kgotso’s schedule during his imprisonment, like the other prisoners was 6:30 a.m. breakfast; work Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. There was an opportunity for lunch at 12:30 p.m. depending on where you worked but the last meal of the day was at 3:30 p.m. Saturdays were the days the prisoners looked forward to because they were allowed to have up to four hours of exercise and that meant playing very competitive games of soccer. On Sundays the prisoners were locked in their cells. Kgotso has worked as a guide on Robben Island for 15 years mainly because he needed the job, at least at first, but now he has come to realize the importance of telling his story and the story of the men imprisoned on Robben Island. (Oct. 21, 2018)

This is the interior of cell Block F, where our Robben Island guide, Glen Kgotso, was imprisoned for seven years of a 25 year sentence from 1984 to 1991. He was one of 40 prisoners in the cell. Although there were eventually beds in the prison, at the time Kgotso was imprisoned, most slept on the floor. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Even behind the bars of the prison on Robben Island near Cape Town in South Africa, a man’s color…and only black men were imprisoned here…still dictated what kinds of food he would be given. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Our group walking to cell Block B where Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned at Robben Island for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. (Oct. 21, 2018)

This prison yard where Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela would see political prisoners like himself on Robben Island using soccer as one of the means of surviving the brutal regime imposed on them in the apartheid era. Even before he was released from prison, Mandela identified sport as a way of achieving peace. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The prison hall of cell Block B where Nelson Mandela’s cell was located on Robben Island a less than 30-minute ferry ride from Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The inside of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell with a window facing the prison yard, his bucket to relieve himself, a small table with a metal plate and cup and a blanket on the floor to sleep on, is as it was when Mandela was imprisoned in 1964 on Robben Island, near Cape Town, South Africa. (Oct. 21, 2018)

The view of Table Mountain from Robben Island is the view that Nelson Mandela would see while imprisoned on the island, and it gave him hope. (Oct. 21, 2018)

There’s a sadness this desolate Robben Island carries. I can’t imagine spending a night here without feeling the pain of the souls tortured sometimes to death on this island. The horror we humans inflict on one another, in an effort to bolster our superiority over one another, for one reason or another, is a true stain on mankind. (Oct. 21, 2018)

Cape Town, South Africa, is a beautiful city surrounded by majestic mountains yet reality must be punctuated into the beauty in order to give a full and real view of the Cape Town I got the opportunity to discover.

I back home in Texas surrounded by the warmth of my home and the comfort of my bed as I’ve been recovering, after more than 24 hours on airplanes, from a bad cold. But, I would be remiss if I did not pay homage to the indelible impact traveling through the coast of South Africa has made to the re-birth of my soul. Although I saw and experienced a small pinch of the ingredients…the people and the land…that go into making this part of the African Continent so utterly profound, I am forever endeared to you, South Africa.

I would also be remiss if I did not share this last part of my Cape Town journey with you. This part involves Cape Town’s history of slavery, it’s part with apartheid and one of the townships that still exist in the outskirts of the city.

I’ve got more of the African Continent to explore. In January, I head to Ghana, Benin and Togo. More about that later, but for now, here’s a little more of Cape Town.