MZANZI ISSUE 16

Summer Travel
Cape Town
The Mother City of South Africa of course needs no introduction
for people the world over… everybody has heard of Cape Town
and many have visited her. In terms of tourism numbers,
popularity, diverse attractions and the many awards this city
has won, Cape Town can be considered South Africa’s premier
tourism city. It is also South Africa’s oldest city following the
beginning of the colonisation of South Africa in 1652. Today
Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa where the
houses of Parliament are situated. Cape Town is the second
most populous city in South Africa behind Johannesburg with
an estimated population of 4.52 million according to current
UN projections (the 2011 census put it at 3.74 million.)
Cape Town sprawls across what is known as the Cape
Peninsula, stretching from its southern tip at Cape Point
– where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are said to meet
– around the False Bay coastline to Strand and Somerset
West, up along the western coast to Hout Bay, Sea Point,
Table Mountain and the city centre, across the flat and sandy
Cape Flats to the Northern and Southern Suburbs, and around
the Table Bay coast up to the beginning of the West Coast
at Melkbosstrand. Its southern and eastern regions hug the
warm Indian Ocean, while its western and northern parts are
cooled off by the breezes coming off the cold Atlantic Ocean.
Of course, dominating over it all is the majestic hulk of Table
Mountain flanked by Devil’s Peak and Lion’s Head.
Some of Cape Town’s most popular and world-famous
attractions include:
• Table Mountain, which rises up behind the city centre and
is itself the focal point of a national park that stretches
from Cape Point to the city centre.
• Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many other
ANC and other political leaders were once incarcerated.
• The Cape Winelands, with historical wine estates dotted
around the valleys and mountains of Somerset West,
Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Durbanville, Paarl and other
parts, and many still with their original Cape Dutch
homesteads. The world-famous Constantia wine estate
is in the heart of the city’s Southern Suburbs.
• Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, set along the
eastern slopes of Table Mountain, and one of ten National
Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa’s six
different biomes and administered by the South African
National Biodiversity Institute.
• The Castle of Good Hope, the oldest existing building
in South Africa built by the Dutch East India Company
between 1666 and 1679 when it replaced an older fort
called the Fort de Goede Hoop which was constructed
from clay and timber and built by Jan van Riebeeck
upon his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. The
Castle, as it is commonly known, today houses three
museums, some military offices and barracks, all of the
original structures and buildings, and a restaurant. Daily
guided tours are conducted through this fascinating and
historical complex.
• World-famous beaches, of which Cape Town has many,
from the warm water of the Indian Ocean at Muizenberg, St
James, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, Simon’s Town, Strandfontein,
Monwabisi, Macassar, Strand and Gordon’s Bay, to the
colder waters of Atlantic beaches such as Scarborough,
Kommetjie, Houtbay, Llandudno, Bakoven, Camps Bay,
Clifton, Bantry Bay, Sea Point, Lagoon Beach, Milnerton,
Table View, Blouberg, Big Bay and up to Melkbosstrand.
• Chapman’s Peak, one of the most breath-taking, scenic
drives to be found anywhere in the world, the toll-road
drive starts in Hout Bay, rising sharply and hugging the
cliffs high above the Atlantic with sweeping views and
numerous lookout points and with engineering features
offering protection against rocks that may become
dislodged higher up, and ends where it descends down
to the beaches and villages of Noordhoek and Kommetjie.
• V&A Waterfront, the bustling older but still working harbour
of Cape Town that has been turned into a shopper’s
paradise and entertainment hub with malls, shops,
pubs, restaurants, markets, museums, the Two Oceans
Aquarium, and much more.
• Townships, like Gugulethu, Nyanga, Langa and Khayelitsha
with their markets, arts and crafts centres, taverns, shisa
nyama eateries and guided tours.
Cape Town and surrounding suburbs and areas are also home
to many restaurants, theatres, cinemas, pubs, coffee bars,
bistros, night clubs, niche boutiques, museums, historical
sites, guided city tours, parks, hikes, harbour cruises, various
sports activities and some of the largest shopping malls in
the southern hemisphere.
• For more information: Love Cape Town (Cape Town Tourism)
tel 0861322223 or info@capetown.travel.co.za.
Mossel Bay & George
Until about two decades ago the towns of the Southern Cape
– Mossel Bay, Hartenbos, Great Brak River, Blanco, George,
Wilderness, Sedgefield and Knysna were distinct towns or
villages separated by many kilometres of farmland. Today
they form almost one continuous sprawl of coastal built-up
area dominated by the town of Mossel Bay and the city of
George, with the ever expanding Knysna on the eastern flank.
Mossel Bay is, in various ways, South Africa’s ‘oldest’ town.
Within the caves along the cliffs of the town’s southern
shoreline, its human inhabitants’ history can be traced back
more than 164,000 years. But it is also the place where the
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