There is no doubt that Cape Town in South Africa is one of the most beautiful and relaxed city on the continent to visit. The city of 4.3 million is famous as a tourist attraction with myriad interesting places to visit, activities and restaurants to patronized.
Among the list is a tour of thousands of hectares of vineyards in the outskirts where wine tours are popular which are crowned by a taste of some of South Africa's best wines and an opportunity to buy bottles of the leading export at subsidized rates. Another attraction in the Cape of Good Hope is a tour of one of the oldest car museums in South Africa and in Africa hidden in the valleys in Stellenbosch town which is the second oldest urban center in South Africa.
Cape Town is the second oldest city in South Africa after Johannesburg and is in Western Cape Province; it was discovered by Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, in the 1497 as a new sea route from his native country in Europe to India and the Far East to seek for spices, One's tour cannot be complete without two-ocean tour, where Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Oceans meet, and a hike up Table Mountain and/ or using cable cars.
The breath-taking summit overlooks another big tourist attraction, Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela, the first black South African President (1994-1999) was detained for 27 years together with fellow anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) leaders like Oliver Tambo, its first President.
The three of us, my wife, son, and yours truly, had our maiden trip in 2013 from Nairobi for one of the most relaxed, enjoyable and exciting holiday by then. But our daughter, was unable to join us as she was studying in Vancouver, Canada, at University of British Columbia.
Everything moved so fast from the day we received an invitation from our family friend in Johannesburg to attend their eldest daughter, Janine's wedding to Mohammed, and a Kenyan of Somali descent, whom she met at Harvard University during their undergraduate course.
We received the letter on a Monday for the garden wedding in Cape Town that Saturday at 3pm. So we fast tracked the arrangements applying for a South African visa, organizing round-trip tickets for three of us. But because of bureaucracy, the visa was not ready until Friday at noon forcing us to book an evening flight to Cape Town.
By the time we booked the air ticket and worked on the logistics, we had just a few hours to drive to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to catch the Kenya Airways flight. The five-hour flight to Johannesburg and another two to Cape Town were very comfortable with light snacks, good entertainment on the audio and movie channels. Our plane landed at our final destination close to midnight and we're glad to go through the immigration without any hitch ready to meet our host waiting for us.
He introduced himself and then helped us load our luggage ready for the 30 minute ride to the venue of Mohamed and Janine's colourful wedding. When we arrived at the venue at a wine farm, the church wedding session had ended, the hundreds of guests gathered from around the world were enjoying their dinner and drinks, while others like the newlyweds and their parents were on the dance floor already shaking a leg.
Great bash!
The conservative cultural and religious hiccups was thrown out of the window as the guests mingled freely, had drinks of their choice and snacks as they relaxed and stepped on the dance floor to dance the night away to South African, Somali and American upbeat songs.
We joined them at the reception and had meals, drinks and later went dancing on and on till 3am. when we called it a night and headed to our accommodation organized by our hosts. The following day, we woke up late, took a walk in the formerly whites-only neighborhood, and then had our home-made breakfast before being picked up by our host for a tour of Stellenbosch, the home of one of the oldest and well known South African Universities.
We detoured to a wine farm-cum-guest house where the Ghanaians from Kofi’s family, and Kenyan guests, relatives of Mohamed, had spent the night. That was the climax as we converged for a luncheon where we got to know each other a little more.
Stellenbosch is 50 Kilometers from Cape Town and is also renown for being the home of Stellenbosch University and has a population of 22,000, 66.6 per cent of them are white, followed by coloured (mixed race) 15.8 per cent and Black Africans (15 per cent) and Asians and Indians who are 0.9 per cent.
The town walk took us down memory lane of the history of the arrival of the Boers from Netherlands in Europe and how they settled and took control of that part of South Africa.
We later went on a day long wine tour where we saw hectares and hectares of commercial vineyard farming on beautiful the valleys and hills around Stellenbosch.
Wine tours and testing
We later settled for a wine-testing session where the tour guide cum wine-tester gave us samples of over 20 red and white wines to taste. For the adventurers, they had an opportunity to tour the cellars in the basement where bottles and barrels of the sweet and bitter wines were preserved; some were over 50 years old, and we're the most expensive.
From the wine-tour we visited the Franschhoek Motor Museum and for a second thought we were in Europe! The antic luxurious vehicles ranged from Mercedes Benz, BMWs, Ferrari, Cadillac, Rolls Royce, Ford, Jaguars and Bentleys among others.
Our son, who is a fan of sports cars, and us were spoilt for choice as we took photos of the gems and the museum on a 10 acre farm strategically located between the large scale vineyard and extremely beautiful and wonderfully refreshing view of the surrounding hills and valleys.
One of the tour guides was pleased to hear that we were visiting from Nairobi and informed us that they have a partnership with the organisers of the annual Concours d’ Elegance to release some of their vehicle for the annual car show held at Ngong Racecourse, the main and only thoroughbred racing venue in Kenya located off Ngong Road on the outskirts of the city.
During our mountain hike in Stellenbosch mountains on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, we were in a group led by our host, Colleen, and included some of the guest who attended the wedding. I love walking, but that was quite a killer as our son Biko led with Colleen as the rest of us, who included the Botswana Attorney-General and her husband, trailed them.
Mother-of-all hikes
Colleen loves the environment and is a hiking enthusiast; by then she told us she and her husband, Kofi, had 'conquered' Table Mountain in South Africa, Mt. Kenya in Kenya, and were planning to face Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, which is the highest peak in Africa. By then, Colleen and her husband were preparing for the mother-of-all hikes, Mt Everest, the tallest in the world, in Mongolia, in Asia. It reminded me of our Ngong Hills and Mt. Longonot, back home, with the wild flowers, shrubs and trees across the nature trail.
On the second last day of our family holiday, our host gave us a treat to the Cape Town Theatre where we watched a live performance by an international cast of actors performing The Secret Horse.
On New Year's Eve we spent the morning on top of Table Mountain and the evening on the Water Front and watched one of the most spectacular fireworks ever as several local live bands entertained guests as they enjoyed their dinner, drinks and dancing.
Our son, Biko, named after the South African freedom fighter, managed to visit the Rugby Museum where he bought some souvenirs of the leading team and national team, Springboks among others.
On New Year's Day, we were at Cape Town International Airport ready for our dawn flight back home having rested, relaxed and been fully exposed to the best that South Africa could offer tourist like us. On landing at JKIA, it was a sigh of relief "coming back to our world" and to face the New Year.
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