What to do for my 40th birthday?
It could NOT be just anything but it had to be something special, so Africa it was!
In the summer I traveled to Madagascar, then towards the end of the year 2024 I decided to travel to South Africa and Namibia to complete my mini series of “special birthday trips” 😀 I´m here to share my Cape Town traveling experience
Little did I know I would be shocked and amazed how naturally beautiful this spot of the world is. I can truly say it is a nature and wildlife lover dream! There are many things to do but for me the natural beauty took all my attention! Cape town is very cosmopolitan and that´s great, but in my world.. nature ALWAYS wins 😉
In this post I´m sharing my highlights during 4 days traveling solo, starting more with wildlife, nature until the beauty and warmth of African people.
African penguins
The wildlife adventure started with penguins at Boulders Beach, a short drive from Cape town city center. If not driving by yourself, it´s very easy to find a tour to get there as a half-day tour or full day tour down to the Cape of Good Hope.
Officially this was my 4th penguin species seen in the wild (the other 3 in Antarctica). My expectations were high since watching penguin colonies in the past has been a blast! They are usually super fun to watch.. smelly but fun!
What’s not to like about penguins? Boulders beach is the home of approx 2000 African penguins. They are medium size and have little dots on their chests that make them unique! That was a cool fact, same as their pink patches in their eyes (actually, skin)
I heavily associate wild penguins go together with icebergs and cold weather only based on my previous experience, so the whole idea was shocking 😉 It was truly a joy to watch a penguin colony in nice warm weather. I learned this is not unique to South Africa, for example there are penguins in Australia, New Zealand and Galapagos but it was a “first” for me in such landscape.
There is no limit to penguin cuteness, so sharing even more photos on my Instagram! You see everything from little ones, those molting.. hence looking all weird 😉 but also those with the full new coat
As a wildlife lover, definitely a must!
Cape fur seals
Just walking around Cape Town´s Waterfront is very easy to see a lot of seals! They are still wild but living very close to the port. They “benefit” from human facilities such as jetties or specially designed platforms for them.
It´s not absolultey necessary to take a tour to find them but just being in Cape Town I can guarantee you can see them quite close if you spend quality time at the port or nearby the Aquarium.
I spent a fair amount of time just watching them play (or fight?) with each other and even hunting their fish. It was very funny to watch how, having a loooot of space to land and just be, they love being very close and often literally on top of each other! Personal space is not a seal concept at least on land 😉
-no wonder they don´t live in Finland – 😉 local joke! Anteeks Suomi
Seal Platforms
One interesting concept was the Seal platforms. Seals love jumping on jetties , but these are not meant for them obviously and sometimes they get stuck. Cape Town city has created couple of spaces where the platforms are designed to be used only by the seals. See picture below with the full explanation.
It is estimated that approximately two million Cape fur seals inhabit the coasts of southern Africa. Like many seal species, Cape fur seals display a large degree of sexual dimorphism – meaning males are significantly larger than females, almost double their size –
Males grow to about 350kg, while females only reach about 150kg. Being very social animals, this was easy to see. In my videos you can distinguish the babies, the females and the huge males dominating the scene.
All of this is “just in town”, and if you are new to seal watching I consider this already a prime experience. However, if you travel a little bit south ,you can visit a true natural seal heaven.
Seal island
The island is named so because of the great number of Cape fur seals that call it home, approx 60,000! Now we are talking!
I visited the island as part of a day tour on the way to the Cape of Good Hope, after visiting the penguins. We stopped in Hout Bay and then took a 45-minute ferry to reach the island. There is PLENTY of activity both on the rocks and in the water.
An image gives an idea, but nothing like a short video to show you how many seals there are!! Youtube link below.
Table Mountain National Park
One of the “must-do” activities is admiring the views to the city and whole area from Table Mountain, one of the New Seven Wonders of nature since 2011 when 500 million people worldwide voted for their top wonder of the natural world and this landmark made it to the top 7.
Table Mountain got its name because of its flat top. The highest point of Table Mountain is 1086 meters above sea level. On a clear day, you can surely see it from everywhere in Cape Town.
For the more adventurous, or simply having more time to spare in the city, you can also climb it yourself. However, I visited in the most “touristy” way in the comfort of the gondola 😉 There a few paths, I took it easy and followed what seemed more panoramic. In about an hour you can get 360 views, enjoy the vegetation and even wildlife.
The wind in Cape Town can be so strong so it is not uncommon the gondola is closed. In fact, in my first attempt I could go up, but thankfully I spent few days in the city and I was able to visit another day with decent visibility conditions! Just a bif of the dazzle but great visibility overall!
The Table Mountain National Park is famous for having one of the richest floral kingdoms in the world. It contains 1470 floral species and 8200 plant species, The most common vegetation type is the fynbos (meaning fine bush). Many of the plants here are endemic.
Tip: In high season you may need to queue for a long time to go up with the gondola. Checking the wind conditions and the park´s official website before heading there is a good idea, if days look good I think it´s worth being there super early to enjoy that time hiking instead of waiting!
Without a tour or private taxi, the hop-on, hop-off bus takes you there!
Camp´s Bay Beach
Without a doubt this was my favorite place when it comes to beaches! According to my local tour, many Hollywood actors have been spotted in this beach, provided its beauty but at the same time how “easy” it is to be in peace compared to more crowded beach destinations. This is still relatively a hidden gem, and so it was for me!
There are many restaurants and luxury accommodations in the area, but I loved that the sandy beach itself is protected. I walked by the beach and then by the road, I remember wanting to take pictures every 10 steps or so as the angles were getting more and more impressive with the trees, the background, everything!
There were local buses going to this area, I also used the hop-on hop-off red buses for 2 days. In Cape Town, the red bus also gives you an awesome ride through the coast. That´s how I saw this spot, it caught my eye and I stopped there until sunset. Then I came back the next day as it was super convenient.
Hout Bay lookout
The whole journey from Cape Town city to the Cape of Good Hope is worth the trip alone. Apart from penguins and seals, the views and lookouts when driving by Hout Bay are out of this world. The vastness of it, the views to Chapman´s Peak, uff. Lovely!
Cape of Good Hope
As anticipated, the final reward of this incredible journey by the coast is to reach the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape and the National park are breathtaking but I enjoyed equally just getting there, the different stops to photograph the beaches, bays and panoramic views, wow!
The Cape itself is historically very important as it became the trading route from Europe to Asia. Discovered by the Portuguese, originally named the “Cape of Storms” due to the harsh weather and rough tides.
Then the Dutch took over, and finally the British -surprise!- before South Africa gained independence. It was the stopover on the way East, which turned into the settlement of current Cape Town, but also became a witness of slavery and all the negative implications of colonization, to be fair.
Normally, when you take a full day tour, it includes going to Boulders Beach to visit the penguins, take the ferry to Seal Island and finally down the Cape of Good Hope National Park.
Purely from natural perspective, it´s beauty is undeniable. It´s a well protected park with plenty of hiking opportunities. At the end of the day, it´s pure nature.. this is Africa.. so also interesting wildlife can be seen! We saw elands and baboons, for example.
And, of course, I picture any reputable tourist should not miss if you are there already 😉
More coastal views – panorama
I am so excited about azure waters (I mean, who doesn´t, right?) but someone I met once told me: “well it´s just a beach”.. so you never know!!
All I say is, at least I do find this amazingly beautiful time after time, and no.. it was not just a beach 😉 This fulfills my heart way more than any fancy belongings, 5-star hotels or fancy food.
So you get the idea, to coastline is absolutely worth the drive. It´s always ideal you´re driving on your own so you can stop anywhere, but it´s very doable with small groups tours! Plus so can concentrate on admiring the views only!
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden
South Africans proudly say this is one of the 7 greatest Botanical Gardens in the world, and it is for a reason. The natural setting alone is impressive and worth the visit, along with the big collection of Fynbos, Ericas and many other species native to this region!
Note to self: I wished I could really remember all the details and differences between plants because the observed variety was just amazing 😉 but those that caught my eye for photography were definitely the Proteas!
The garden includes high-level bridges to admire the forest canopy. This was truly wonderful.
VA Waterfront
This is a touristy and commercial area where life is! It used to be just a port but recently it was re-designed to make it fancy and utilize better the spaces. The whole area is walkable and nice, my favorite part was how lively it is!
Here you find abundant restaurants, shops, artcraft, big mall, yatches, tours, everything! Just a taste..
Abavuki concert
On my first day there was a free concert from Abavuki band, and I can tell you they had their fans! There is an open auditorium in the Waterfront neighborhood surrounded by a small park. If there is something going on, it´s impossible to miss!
Abavuki is an Afro-Fusion World Music Ensemble from Langa, Cape Town. They have been playing across South Africa and internationally since 2001. Abavuki are renowned as spectacular live performers and have played their original tunes in 13 countries to date.
They have performed for crowds of up to 80000 people, showcasing and sharing their connection to rhythm, joy and life, resonating easily across cultures to bring people together and get everyone dancing!
Local performers
There were also other local performances (singing and dancing) from young people groups. That was the glory of being on my own and without an agenda, I spent pretty much all afternoon just enjoying live music and dancing basically for free! -minus expected tips- After the bigger band concert, I just kept walking and heard music again so obviously I had to see it!
I don´t know how frequently they perform but it´s a fair assumption it´s everyday with tourists as a way of living, but also to preserve their traditions (this was a Sunday in November) I liked how they are uniformed and certainly there is some practice with it!
Then, again I just kept walking on my way back to my hotel.. and not so far from them I found another group. They were also nicely dressed but it was a similar vibe: A combination of young women and men, but in the second group they said you could follow them on Instagram and even had some recordings.
I´m not sure if I just missed that for the first group but I would say the concept was the same. Again, since I had all the time in the world, I just watched them both! They were couple of blocks apart but it was nice they were not performing at the same time.
… And the beginning of something great …
Last but definitely not least.. while Cape Town was mainly a “solo” adventure, it was officially the beginning of my tour up to Namibia with this amazing group!
Officially our day 1 was planned to meet at the hotel for dinner and opening words (aka a million instructions for the next 2 weeks) , and the next day we started driving out of Cape Town. On the way we stopped in this iconic view of Table Mountain.
Fun fact is most of the group was already in Cape Town for few days just like me, but we had no way of communicating with each other yet, so we all explored on our own but I dare to say most of us wished we would have spent those extra days in Cape Town together!
I did not know it yet, but I would end up REALLY liking this group of people.. but that will be more on the Namibia blogs 😉
Bonus: Real Africa though?
It is often said Cape Town is not real South Africa, and if we want to be more dramatic even real Africa all together. For me, it´s a little hard to say provided I was only in Cape Town (and one day in Lambert´s Bay on the way to Namibia), so I cannot really compare to the rest of the country.
However and to be frank, the European heritage is very visible in different ways. And not always for the right reasons. The city center, the developed areas, the “luxury” houses overlooking the beautiful ocean, etc.. yes where we tourists normally are everything looks pretty and clean, nice architecture, great restaurants, multinational vibe etc. Nevertheless, this is not how the majority of South Africans live.
Apartheid was not a minor topic, and even though it was revoked and the right to vote and move freely was given finally to all residents (before, only allowed for white people), Nelson Mandela became their first black president and people had hope, but it does not immediately and magically take away or dissapear the townships and bad conditions all the black people -sadly enough, the majority of the country!- used to live it.
It is still controversial as some people are still waiting for promises of a better relocation, but the inequality is very visible when you see the townships, mainly on the roads to the Cape of Good Hope and other nearby locations. It´s totally different reality to the “beautiful” part of Cape Town. Apart from other tourists, I didn´t really get a chance to meet many locals so I would not say I am very authorized to say that.
So, regardless of it´s very “European” feeling, and for some people actually because of that… (it depends).. Cape Town is absolutely worth the long trip. Its nature combined with european influence is great, only not forgetting it´s not all what it seems…
Cheers!
Nat
