Sunday 12 May 2019

CAPETOWN : Hotel SS Cape Sun :

By now the group members were getting to know each other; forming small groups, socialising with those whom they felt would be easier to approach and get familiar with. And any such socialising seemed incomplete without a group photo, or a group selfie, with the omni-present mobile, especially when the atmosphere is charged with joy & positivity & the surrounding is that of a luxuriously & tastefully furnished hotel lounge where the breakfast buffet / table is loaded with a mix of Indian & Western delicacies!

It would be appropriate to introduce the group members at this stage : Tejwanis (3), Vyass (2), Shahs (2), Thakkers(2), Savlas(2), Srinivasans(2), Tibrewalas(4), Sewaks(2), Nichanis(4), Narangs(2) & Seths (2). Eleven families. Twenty Seven Members. The youngest member was 14 years old & the eldest probably 70 years young!

Dev had scheduled the start of the Sunday with a boat cruise to the Seal Island – appropriately named Nauticat Seal Island Cruises. After having a sumptuous breakfast the group boarded the luxury coach.

Beginning the trip with a salute to the Gods - “Ganpathi Bappa Morya”, “Mahavir Swami ki Jai” & “Jai Sri Krishna” the passengers settled down for the enjoyable ride.

After reaching the jetty around 0930 hrs the members boarded the 2 level open cruise boat, selected their favourite places & waited for the boat to begin its journey.  It would be impossible to express in words the experience one feels when one is in this part of ocean surrounded by cold, clear, dark blue water on all the sides.  After half an hour’s ride in the picturesque Atlantic ocean, with mountains on one side & the vast open blue sea on the other, we reached the seal island in which hundreds of seals were basking in bright sun light. The cruise boat made a halt of around 15 minutes in this place. The tourists made the most of this halt by indulging in photography with their mobiles / digital cameras to capture these moments for future. Somewhere during this boat ride one could make out that the mountain on one side looked like the shape of Lion’s head. (Wikipedia - Lion's Head is a mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, between Table Mountain and Signal Hill. Lion's Head peaks at 669 metres (2,195 ft) above sea level. The peak forms part of a dramatic backdrop to the city of Cape Town and is part of the Table Mountain National Park.)

The return ride to the jetty was as exhilarating but by now the sun had started shining brightly & most of us were glad that we had our sunglasses with us.

After reaching the shore there was sufficient time for some local shopping in the several stalls that were put up in the water front; Dev had warned that one could bargain in these stalls and pick up some useful memorabilia.

After an early lunch, the next destination was The Cape of Good Hope – which is a place near the far south end of Africa. This is where the Atlantic & Indian Oceans meet! It is a beautiful spot & a very popular tourist destination. The drive to the Cape was perhaps one of the most amazing one which we had during the entire SA trip. In particular, one portion of the road was very interesting : we had the mountains on the left side, a cave dug into the mountain to make way for the roads,  & pillars (columns) erected on the right edge of the road to support the thousands of tons of mountain from the above. On the right side was (a sheer drop) & the Atlantic extending to as far as the eyes could see..  Charl jokingly commented that Riaard would be driving at a higher speed as we cross this section & this is when a cyclist actually overtook us, in the same direction (see video)! 

A little later we had to drive through a part of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve to reach our destination. I remember Charl mentioning during the drive that the Nature Reserve is a World Heritage site & a protected natural reserve & that it is an area of vast natural beauty, world renowned for its natural vegetation & rich in its bio-diversity.

Having spent some time at the Cape of Good Hope, we boarded the coach to ride a few minutes to reach the Cape Point. We had to take the funicular to reach the top. This particular funicular was named “Flying Dutch Man Funicular” The lines run from a lower station at the Cape Point car park, up a steep incline to the upper lighthouse. There was mist / fog all round & it was only occasionally that we could get a full view of the ocean. It was very windy & cold here. On a payment of 5 Rand one could use the powerful binoculars which were made available here. A sign post with directions & distances of main ports (Rio D Janeiro, Sydney, Amsterdam, London & New York) was put up here & this seemed to be the most favourite location for taking photographs.

The next destination was to see the penguins. Boulders Penguin Colony at the Boulders Beach. This is another popular tourist place because of the colony of African penguins. Having heard & read that penguins are normally found in cold icy climates such as Antarctic regions, it was intriguing to the author of this note to find that these could be found in Cape Town (where in the second week of May 2019 when we had visited) there was no sign of snow / ice in the oceans. The place was full of penguins, atleast 500 of them or probably more, various sizes, several of them roosting,  walking across the beach, playing - in short looking as though they are enjoying their life to the fullest. Their comical way of walking / waddling,  calling out to each other  (sounding like the braying of donkeys) – somehow on that particular day everyone found the actions of these creatures immensely enjoyable - creating a relaxed mood.

Or probably that is what we all felt after having had an hectic day.

Having covered the penguins the coach took us back to the Hotel SS Cape Sun, where the members enjoyed their dinner & retired to bed, to arise again next morning when we would check out of this hotel in Capetown. As per the original schedule the helicopter ride could not be completed in Cape Town, but Dev and Charl were confident that, weather co-operating, this could be done next morning before we hit the road along the Garden route to Knysna.

Click here - Day 3 - Monday 13 May, 2019