Cape Town

We arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, after 5 days of sailing on calm seas all the way from St. Helena. The stunning view of Cape Town nestled below the aptly named Table Mountain were especially poignant after so long at sea. We had seen no land and only one ship in all those 5 days on board the RMS, St. Helena is certainly a very remote island! It was quite the procedure to get into port with a pilot coming on board to guide the RMS in and tug boats to help manoeuver the ship to the dock but at least this time we could disembark down a gangplank directly onto the dock rather than being shuttled by boat to shore.

We are staying in a small house in De Waterkant, a very old but now quite chic quarter of town, with tiny colourful houses clinging to the steep hillside.

We wondered over to the nearby Bo-Kaap Muslim quarter with brightly painted houses and mosques.

Then we strolled down town and through the company gardens, a green oasis in a bustling city that use to be the vegetables garden for the early Dutch colony.

To see the city, we boarded the open top red double decker buses of the hop on hop off city bus tour. We stopped at Table Mountain which will feature in our next post, the lovely white sandy beach of Campers Bay

Strolled along the promenade at Sea Point and Green Point

And wondered through the fashionably redeveloped Waterfront

And even held hands with Nelson Mandela, one of four South Africans to receive the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.