I loved the various look and feel from the views from Blouberg to Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak, Cape Town, South Africa

OMGoodness, look at everything we did in Cape Town South Afrika!  BTW, this is how Africa is spelled in Afrikaans, one of the 12 native languages!

Do you remember what load-shedding is? We had it for 2.5 hours the night before we left; and, the morning we left, we had to wait for the elevators to start running to get our luggage down 11 floors!

Thank you Anke, Tyl, and Boyson — for everything!  We can’t wait to see you again soon!   I’ll miss seeing your kittens and the golden retrievers we saw running on the beach every morning.

The view from our 11th story condo, Cape Town

We stayed on the 2nd floor of this complex

If you need a great place with ocean views, beach sports, easy access to Cape Town, and more (as you saw in my posts), then just contact me 🙂 and I can put you in touch with our good friends, Anke and Tyl.  

Check out my new favorite drink — Iron Brew — a ZA original, it is awesome!

And now, we are on the road again, folks!

This time, we are on the Garden Route which is partially along the ocean, and also, inland in the beautiful mountains, which you will see first.

The name of the route is 62, and it is very famous in South Africa, like the USA’s Route 66.

I really love old antique things

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a winery on the way to Robertson. My parents said that the wine in South Africa is delicious, and normally what would be a $20 bottle or more in America, only costs $3 – 5  in South Africa!

I enjoyed “backpackers,” or hostels, as they are called in America so much, that we all agreed we should try out a few more in South Africa.

We stopped for a potty break and could hear the baboons screeching in the distance.

On the way, we were amazed to see this Ostrich Farm — there were hundreds of them, and I have never seen an Ostrich this close — it was so cool!

Do you see what I see?

I was amazed and I think you will be, too.  Take a look at this video:

The first night, we stayed in a hostel made out of a large house, which our hosts, Kevin and Linda live in, too.

A great theme for our RTW trip, and life!

We had a great time making our dinner in the backpacker kitchen.

The owners, Kevin and Linda, were very nice. We had a lot of fun talking to them with a fire after dinner.

Our lovely room

Kevin and Linda had just completed a six-month camping (in a 4WD truck) all around Afrika!

I had a lot of fun sleeping on the top bunk.

The next day we had a quick breakfast and set off again.

We headed to a great town called “Wilderness.”  The name does not do it justice — it is a great and wild little town!   We headed to another backpacker/hostel called “The Wild Farm.”

It is literally a farm, or used to be a dairy farm.

The grandpa owner/farmer still lives on the property, and he and all his kids agreed to turn it into a very unique backpacker a few years ago.  It was so fun!

Our humble abode in Wildnerness

There were cows right outside our cabin window!

I had a blast on the top bunk again!

Many backpacker have lots of fun activities, and almost all have braai facilities for guests to use.

There was a really friendly cat who came right into our room, and three really cute dogs…… No surprise, but I loved it all!

King Charles Cavalier – one of my favorite breeds! Other than Golden Retrievers, of course!

We had a morning meal and headed out along the Garden Route for our next adventure.

Coffee, Tea and Me!

On the road again, with more spectacular views!

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Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

It was a somber day when we went to the District Six Museum. District Six is one of the neighborhoods where black and colored people lived in Cape Town.  Then, sadly, in the 1970’s, the apartheid regime decided that they should be separated from white people – sort of like segregation period in the United States.

The government forced over 60,000 people to relocate from their neighborhoods into an area called the flats.  This put everyone and their friends far from the city and it was very hard to do things like shop, get food, and to get to and from work, school and their church.  It was so sad!

This was one of the displays at the museum.

Here are many of the original street signs that were saved from the neighborhood. Everything was ordered to be destroyed, so it is very special that someone saved these.

To lighten the mood, I asked if I could play the grand piano – of course I asked permission from the curator!

After the museum we went to an area called Bo-Kaap or Cape Malay Quarter, which is the spiritual home of the Cape’s Muslim community.

This is a very colorful neighborhood, on the slopes of Signal Hill, as you can see, with cobblestone streets and brightly colored homes.  I wanted to know more about the history, so I looked it up and learned that many of the residents are descendants of slaves from Malaysia, Indonesia and other African countries who were brought to the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch during the 16th and 17th centuries.  The slaves were called Cape Malays, which is not exactly true, because they all didn’t come from Malaysia, but the name stuck.

After Bo-Kaap, we went to a very large playground.

I met some new friends who taught me a new game called 52 bunker – I will teach all of you kids how to play it when I get back to the States.

At the end of the day, we had an amazing American barbecue with our new friends and hosts, Anke and Tyl, plus 2 new additions… KITTENS! I had a lot of fun playing with those cute furballs!

Kitty cats, Max and Lasse

Anke and Tyl threw us a “welcome braai” and we hosted the farewell BBQ.  My parents made some of my favorite things. We had grilled lamb, chicken and lots of assorted vegetables, plus garlic bread and blue cheese bread. Most of all we had another wunderbar night with Anke Tyl!

Well I’m sorry to say, but that was the end of our day.

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Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

Life is Wonderful!

The flowers are blooming in South Africa, because we went to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical gardens.

These succulents are soft like a puppy’s ear!

If you are ever in Cape Town, you must plan to visit Kirstenbosch

These gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I didn’t know what that meant, so I looked it up.  It means the gardens are considered to be of outstanding natural or cultural significance to humanity. UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

We had lunch while watching the beautiful views of Table Mountain and all the vibrant flowers.

This is the view from our picnic spot.

After we ate, a volunteer named Di, gave us a tour all around Kirstenbosh.

There were birds like guinea fowl and Egyptian geese hidden around every corner, and flowers in all shapes and sizes.

Our tour guide, Di, was very informative and by the end of the day, I felt like I knew every single flower in the whole wide world!

Ask for tour guide Di when you visit Kirstenbosch!

Have a listen to how very knowledgeable Di is:

South Africa’s national flower is the King Proteus, named after a Greek God, a deity that was able to change between many forms — to all my fellow Percy Jackson fans!

King Proteus has 81 Graden Varieties

There was a jungle gym tree that I climbed; and, a walkway called boom slang, because it’s slithers through the trees like the boom slang snake (tree snake).

The Boom Slang Bridge – Centennary Tree Canopy Walkway was built for the 100th Year Anniversary of Kirstenbosch and is 130 meters long and is designed to deliberately sway in the wind

Another section was full of plants and trees hundreds of years old, as well as statues of dinosaurs, because they are ancient, too.  We saw an owl hanging out as well.

There are nine “new” dinosaur sculptures that are attracting kids and families to Kirstenbosch

Just so you know, if you ever see trees with rough bark, you will know that they need more protection than ones smooth bark.

A Traditional Hut

There were so many flowers and trees — I can’t remember them all!

The pepper tree is believed to have medicinal qualities and is crushed into powder, mixed in water, and used for many ailments

Well I guess that is the end of Kirsten Bosch.

Kirstenbosch is at the base of Table Mountain National Park, the peak behind us is called Lion’s Head

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Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

Our tour guide and ex-political prisoner, Mncedisi

So we got put in jail once again, inmates! I’d like to call this post Jail House Rock II, after our first visit to a jail, in Christchurch, NZ, however, this is serious – it is Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s struggle to end apartheid. This jail is called Robben Island, sort of like the Alcatraz of South Africa.  This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which I will explain in my next post.  If you have ever heard of Nelson Mandela, this is the prison where he was kept. Our tour guide at the prison was an actual ex-political prisoner who rallied with Mandela for rights for black and colored people. This is how they refer to the black people and people of mixed races – even today.  Black and colored people refer to themselves that way, too. The fight for freedom was kind of similar to the African Americans’ fight for freedom with Martin Luther King. This island has been used for many things – refuge island, asylum, a leprosy colony, and most recently, a prison. Our tour guide, Mncedisi, was in prison for five years in Robben Island because he participated in a demonstration with his school friends against apartheid when he was 19 years old. He taught us about his time spent in jail. All the prisoners were sorted into classes, A, B, C, or D class prisoners, depending on how they cooperated with prison officials. The higher your rating (A being the highest), the more letters you can send home. And the more letters and visitors you can receive from your family and the more privileges you would get. Mncedisi said that they could not say anything about prison life in the letters he wrote to his family and his sister asked him why his letters were so boring. Did you know that political prisoners were treated worse than criminals? How crazy is that?

Nelson Mandela’s Cell – for 18 years of 27 years, he was in this cell on a blanket on the floor

I will tell you one more story about Robben Island: The prisoners had to mine limestone for no reason other than hard labor for punishment.  The sun reflected off the rocks and gave many prisoners medical problems, including Nelson Mandela, who was never able to shed another tear because of the damage to his eyes. Years after Mandela got released, they had a reunion of 1000 ex-prisoners on Robben Island  where Mandela placed one rock in the spot shown below and every prisoner placed a rock there after him, too, from the limestone area, one on top of another — to form a pile, which is still standing today.  Mandela didn’t plan to put the rock there, but now the pile represents the diversity of the people of South Africa and their fight for freedom and equality. Well this just about wraps it up for Robben Island! Except — Look for More Posts from your Junior World Trek Reporter.

Thanks, Mncedisi!

Keep Calm and Travel the World

Guess what everybody? We climbed to the top of table Mountain!

We started at approx 950 feet, and over 2-3 hours climbed to 3,610 feet!

It was really exhausting, but worth it!

The views were outstanding all along the trail!

Table Mountain overlooks Cape Town and is flat like a tabletop.

Remember the view from our beach place in Blouberg?

Everyone said that this climb was a “must-do,” so we decided that we would take on the challenge.

In one part, it was terribly hot from the glare of the sun, and then when you reach a huge shadow in the gorge, it is freezing cold. So you must be prepared

Sunny and Hot

Shady and Cool

When we were finished, we were soaked in sweat.

What an Accomplishment – look at the town of Camps Bay Below to give you a Perspective

At the top, you get a beautiful view of Cape Town, Camp’s Bay, and the Cape of Good Hope, where we had been the day before.

We did it!

After we tore our eyes away from this extraordinary view, we ate a peaceful lunch in a restaurant at the top of the mountain.

Then we took the tram back down to the parking lot.

It was a great accomplishment!

The rest of the day we relaxed and had a good time – with a big steak dinner! During a two-hour load shedding experience – which I told you about in a previous post.

Dining during “Loadshedding.” This is when certain areas of the city go black or dark to save electricity, but the restaurants all have their own generators…..thank goodness!

We are having a good time – I hope you’re having a good time, too, reading my posts.

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Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

Hello everybody!  I have “hope” that you will like the blog post I prepared for you today.

As you might have guessed, we went to the Cape of Good Hope!

This cape is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape and peninsula, South Africa.

A lot of people think that the The Cape of Good Hope is the southern most tip of Africa, but actually, Cape Agulhas is even farther south, so they are not correct.

The first European to reach the Cape was Bartholomew DS who named it the Cape of Storms, though it was later named the Cape of Good Hope by John II of Portugal because of all the optimism that happened by the opening of the sea route to India and the far east.

There was a lighthouse built at the top of the Cape Point, the southernmost point of the Cape peninsula, but when the fog rolled in, it was not visible and many ships crashed into the rocky shores, so they built another one lower and closer to the shoreline.

We took a really fun funicular up to the lighthouse and got an excellent view of the Cape and ocean.

There is a lot of cool wildlife there, too.

We make the most of all of our “fun-iculars!”

Have you ever read Moby Dick?  Well during this trip, I read an abridged version and they sailed past the Cape of Good Hope!  It was fun to read about a place that I visited.

Well that wraps up this post.

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Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

The next day was warm and sunny, so my parents decided it was a great day to drive up the coast and do a little winetasting – yuk, not for me! (most of this particular blog post is written by my parents).

Tons of History in the South African Wine Farms

In one winery a fun woman, named Melissa, gave very descriptive details of every type of wine my parents were tasting.

The next winery, called Altydgedacht Estate was homey with a blazing fire and a wooden roof.  I enjoyed snuggling up to a fire and reading my books!

Established in 1698, Altydgedacht Estate is a family wine farm.  We talked to Oliver Parker, one of the owners for a while.  He actually came to Sacramento and took a special course in Viticulture and Oenology at UC Davis!

Okay, a little game time, too!

On another rainy day we went to a humungous museum, The National Museum of South Africa.

The museum was so big we didn’t get to see the whole thing!  We also saw a marine section with dolphins and sharks. We did see some of my favorites, including the whales!

The part we we did get to see had all the native animals stuffed, so it looked like they were standing right there!  Most of them are huge; and, we look forward to seeing them live during our upcoming safari.  This museum was really awesome! The next day we moved to another beachside condo – on the 11th floor.  Anke and Tyl , and their manager, Boyson, helped us move. Anke and Tyl have a Kombi or VW Bus and they helped us transfer our luggage to our new place.

Thanks for All Your Help, Boyson!

Relaxing View from the 11th Floor Helps me Chill and Write My Two Books and the Blog!

Our host family, Anke and Tyl,  treated us to a fantastic South African Welcome Braai – which in America means barbecue; and, Australia, means barbie.  Anke is from Germany, and Tyl is a native South African, originally from Johannesburg.  Both of them moved to Cape Town about 6 months ago.

Anke and Tyl are fantastic Hosts and now are our new friends!

Sometimes South Africans are shy people, so sharing the food (and drink) during a braai can help build a friendship.  A braai is a big part of South African heritage.  You can have a braai for any occasion.  Birthday braai, Christmas braai, housewarming braii, Wednesday night braai, etc. A braai revolves around the fire, and the food. The food is cooked on (as the name of the gathering would suggest) a braai, which is basically a grill. But you won’t find gas on this grill. A major difference between the two types of cooking is that South African’s use wood or briquettes (charcoal) when they braai. This means it takes significantly longer to get a fire going and cook the food, but that’s the point. A braai is all about the experience, the company, and the quality of the food. It’s something to be savored, which we definitely did with Anke and Tyl.

It was fantastic as you can see in the photos – we have enjoyed so much local cuisine all around the world!  Makenna loved the “Iron Brew” Soda and the traditional South African Milk Tart for dessert too……let’s not forget the “Wonder Bars,” in the original and mint flavors!

Wir haben viel spass! Viel Dank to Anke and Tyl.

Tyl has also been teaching me some of the native slang, like “Lekker,”  (which means awesome/right on/very cool, all in one);  “Just Now,” (which can mean I’ll tend to it sometime in the future, maybe near future, but not sure exactly when).  We learned other fun things…….like load shedding, OMG!

Load shedding is when an area of Cape Town goes dark, in other words, no electricity for 2-2.5 hours.  You have to have candles and flashlights (or torches, as they call them).  Businesses, like restaurants all have big generators to run during load shedding.  They do this because they don’t have enough electricity to go around.  Load shedding happened to us four times during our stay in Cape Town! It’s actually kind of fun, but I don’t think the grownups think so.  Another funny thing is that they go to a gas station or convenience store to buy electricity for their house! More with Anke and Tyl in coming posts.

P.S.  We do have to find time on the road to do things like laundry and haircuts.

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Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

Howdy, folks.

We are still in Cape Town, South Africa.

On a rainy day, we decided to go to the Two Oceans Aquarium.

I loved looking at all the beautiful fish and see plants. Enjoy the video and photos before we move on:

This was so cool!!!

Most Fish are All Indigenous to South Africa

Not this one, though, it is an invasive species

These little guys aways get a head rush!

Everyone is a Star!

Happy Feet for All of Us!

OMG!

The Emperor

Future Marine Biologist

This guy has the brave job of cleaning the shark tank glass!

Something sure was fishy here!!!

Sometimes I miss home, so it has been super fun to FaceTime with my classmates.

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Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

We are monkeying around in Thailand, people!

More to come on this funny guy 🙂

After two days being lazy on the beach, we decided it was time to have an adventure!  So we booked a tour and drove down to the harbor. Captain Mark sailed us past beautiful islands all around Phuket.

Captain Mark and Assistant Captain Makenna

Departing From the Harbor

Anchors Away My Friends

Does it get more beautiful?!

Our tour guide took us into two different caves. The first cave was full of bats and had a really strong smell of bat poop.

Holy Stinky, Batman!

The Caves are Amazing!

This cave was awesome – we were in there by ourselves until we were exiting.

We are Learning About Calcites in 4th Grade

Isn’t the outline of this photo interesting?

After that, we went into another cave called the “Ice Cream Cave.”

Off to go Speluniking!

It is called the ice cream cave because that is how the rock formation looks like an ice cream cone with caramel topping! Don’t you agree? At the end of the tunnel, there is a small opening where you can see a hidden Lagoon.

I wonder how many people make it to this place?

The Blue Lagoon

We also had a beautiful look at stalagmites and stalactites – some hanging down from the ceiling of the cave and some of the calcification forming below and joining it in the middle.  It was fun seeing the calcites, because Mrs. Perry taught us about them this year in fourth grade.   After the caves, everyone was hungry, so we retired to a little bay,  where we took a dinghy to a secluded beach to have lunch.

Our Sailboat and Little Dinghy

It was our own private beach!

Lunch included Tom Ka Chicken Soup, made out of coconut milk, one of my Thai favorites! While the cook was cooking lunch, we were definitely preoccupied by this crazy and hungry little monkey who tried to steal our food.  

After lunch, we headed back to the harbor– but not without some excitement: First, I got to jump off the top of the boat!

This was high – jumping from the roof of the cabin!

Woo Hoo!

Second, there were two big storms on either side of us, so we lowered our sails. We motored into the harbor just at the edge of the storms…. And then it was sunny again. https://youtu.be/0pkSh1QHPw0 Look for more posts from your Junior WorldTrek Reporter Keep Calm and Travel Around the World

Hello everybody from around the world. Since the terrible and tragic earthquake in Nepal, we have decided to lengthen our stay in South Africa by 12 days instead of going to Nepal.  Fortunately for everyone we were planning to spend time with in Nepal, things are okay – no one is hurt at our trekking company! All the people at the hotel Mandela are safe, and also, the girls’ school where we were going to  volunteer.  We are so thankful that everyone, including my friend, Seema’s, family is fine, and no one is hurt.

We had a very long plane ride and my Mommy and I got food poisoning when we arrived in Cape Town , via Doha, on Qatar Airlines.  Sometimes really unpleasant things happen when you are not in the mood.

Our first adventure in Cape Town was going on the hop-on/hop-off bus. It reminded me of the red double-decker buses in London.

We Took the Blue Route the Next Day

Camps Bay, back side of Table Mountain

We stopped in different places all over Cape Town. We did this mainly to get the overview of all of Capetown to see ere we where wanted to spend more time — I will tell you about this in future posts!

The Working Harbor at the Waterfront

The Waterfront

Cape Town Center has a New Orleans look and feel to it!

Lots of Day Activity at the Waterfront

And Fun Night Activity on the Waterfront

One place we stopped on the second day of the bus tour was the World of Birds.

Have a look and listen to what this fantastic place is all about on this video:

The world of birds is the largest bird sanctuary in Africa and is one of the top destinations in the world for ornithologists.

You will notice that there are no fences in between us an the birds!!

It was awesome!

Instead of having the birds in cages, you can walk with them – really walk with them!

Come on it is not every day that you go walking with peacocks, or owls for that matter!

As you can see, this place in Cape Town South Africa is not just for the birds!

It was a big day!  Thank goodness we had a great place to stay, right on the beach and our Airbnb hosts were wonderful!  More on our hosts in coming posts.

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Keep calm and travel around the world