Travel article: Cape Town

Off to Cape Town now, this city opens towards the Indian Ocean is with its beaches and its dynamism a dream to a lot of people.

We enter the city by the road Nelson Mandela and drive past many townships, the city is dynamic economically but not for everyone ... It's the same thing when we arrive in our Airbnb, the car park is full of Porsche , Audi, Mercedes, BMW and one kilometer from the building, dozens of homeless people... Extreme inequalities probably related to the ravage of apartheid, which really make us feel uncomfortable.

If the city will not leave us with an unforgettable memory, the surroundings though are incredible.

We will start discovering the city with the center of Cape Town, the Green Square Market, Bokaap - a small historical heritage district, historically populated by ancient Malay and Indonesian slaves. When they emancipated, they painted their houses in bright colors to claim and celebrate their newly acquired freedom.

While strolling in the center we will discover that here the parking meter is human and mobile! Municipal employees cover streets area and using their credit card machine print parking tickets and fines!

Finally, we discovered the District Six Museum which tells us more about apartheid and how the government formed the white neighborhoods and in response dislodged the blacks and moved them to new neighborhoods on the fringes of the cities, becoming later Townships.

The city is culturally and culinarily dynamic thanks to successive waves of immigration. We ate very good brunch on Long Street and Bree Street for a ridiculous price, again we feel in Australia! (except for the prices;)) these streets also concentrate many designer shops, with close by many homeless people again. Hard for us to deal with it.

The Old Biscuit Mill is the place-to-be on Saturday morning. Trendy market with many food stands and designers.

Finally, African night at the Gold Restaurant where a 14-course menu was served. Varied dishes from Algeria to South Africa, enhanced by a colorful show and rhythms.

Now time to discover the surroundings of Cape Town which did not disappoint! The city is surrounded by mountains, at the bottom of which we find beautiful beaches.

We are getting high at Table Mountain. Thanks to its 1086 meters height we discover a clear view of the city, the port and especially on the steep coast and the mountains. Wonderful !

If we went up by cable car, we go back down walking under the colors of the sunset.

Then we climb again and walk up this time to the top of Lion's Head at 665 meters above sea level. As we climb (and after many breaks, it climbs hard) we get to see many beaches with white sand like snow. Camps bay, Clifton Beach, it's beautiful. We will go there as well as Muizenberg Beach known for its colorful cabins and surfers from all horizons.

Then we will take another well-known road, Chapman's Peak Drive. The driving on the mountainside is sporty, there are many points of view just as sublime as the others. Colors of the sunset, the sea with different shades of blue. Top !

Finally we go to the southernmost point of Africa (well not really, it is mostly a marketing strategy / error of judgment from European sailors, the southernmost point being at Cap des Aiguilles). The Cape of Good Hope is known to all sailors and European explorers wishing to get to the Indies. It was also feared because of regular storms and many sailors ran aground there.

If we survived the wind, it was not the same story with local wildlife and a baboon attack! Our sandwich almost disappeared ...

The national park is ideal for hiking and we are happy to share the path along beautiful beaches and cliffs with three wild ostriches. We love their nonchalant pace and plumage.

And to end this perfect day, a little stop at Boulders Beach to see a colony of penguins basking in the sun on the white sand with the turquoise sea in the background. They are having fun on this perfect spot!

End of this South African trip, we leave to get to Namibia. We were charmed by its landscapes and safaris, less by the history and inequalities...

Some recommendations:

# Woodstock neighborhood is ideal for accomodation. Near the center, near the motorway junctions. We had a great 2 bedrooms Airbnb, very modern for 45 euros per night.

# Brunch: the Raptor Room. Very good

# Cable car for Mountain table: one way, 190 rand. We walked down a nice path but with many rocks. 2 hours of walking.

# Lions Head Trek: 3 hours round trip. Stunning unobstructed views of the city and the coast.

# Cape of Good Hope Park: 303 rands

# Boulders beach: 174 rands

# an ideal day: Boulders Beach in the morning, Cape of Good Hope Park in late morning and early afternoon then chapman's drive at sunset.

  .   .  .