On our way into Cape Town for a 5-day stay in an Air BnB
'luxury suite', we detour to Boulders Bay and the Cape of Good Hope, the former
to visit a penguin colony which allows visitors to walk and swim with the wee
ones. Paul and Deb opt for the pay and play option and spend an hour or so galivanting among the rocks with a gang of their favorite
creatures. We spend a while on the (free) boardwalk and get some close-up pics of
the guys hanging out.
Then we head off to the sound of music and find a black male
family group (brothers and uncles and cousins) serenading tourists. They are very Ladysmith Black Mombazo . . .
. . . and of course we have to have one of their CDs.
Off to the Cape of Good
Hope which is a surprisingly long way south of Cape Town. Along the road, we see numerous signs
warning travelers: Do Not Feed the
Baboons! They are Wild Animals and
Dangerous! (wait - aren't these the same creatures who were wandering freely in a family group of at least 25 within what seemed like yards of our cottage in the Crags??)
Arrive at the Cape of Good Hope Park and discover to our dismay that the admission fee is outrageous - almost $15 per person and decide to go for the photo op and call it good!
We negotiate our entry into Cape Town, thanks to GPS, and make our way to our flat which is indeed luxurious and smack dab in the center of the CBD, a totally happening place and ground zero for backpackers! We have secure, garage parking so the car (and driver Paul) will have a long-deserved break for the next five days while we explore this gem of a city.
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With our two-day 'Hop-On Hop-Off' ticket in hand and a map of all the bus routes (there are four) we're off for the Kirstenbosch Gardens, the most famous garden in South Africa and one of the most magnificent gardens in the world.
Cape flora is astounding in its diversity and sheer numbers. There are more plant species here than in all of the UK with species found here and nowhere else in the world. Thanks to the foresight of the early settlers of Cape Town, plans for the garden were begun as early as 1895 when Cecil Rhodes deeded to the Colony a large portion of his holdings for the establishment of a garden. He also planted the incomparable Avenue of Camphor Trees which is still one of the highlights of the Garden.
We just 'oohed' and 'aahed' and wanted to hug each and every one them!
When Cecil Rhodes died in 1902, plans to develop a garden began. Most propitiously, a young botanist from Cambridge, Henry Harold Pearson, made his way to the Cape in 1903 to assume the chair of a newly-created Department of Botany at the South African University. He immediately saw the incredible potential of Rhodes' gift and, in 1913, after much negotiating, the land was declared a national botanical site. Pearson devoted the rest of his life to creating this garden; he lived on site and is buried here.
In 1913 it was overgrown with invasive and alien plants and scores of feral pigs. It was pretty much a mess. It took decades to rehabilitate and, sadly, Pearson died in 1916, long before his dream, to create a botanical sanctuary to preserve and protect the local native plant species, became a reality. I can only imagine how delighted he would be with the 2004 designation of Kirstenbosch as a World Heritage Site, the only botanical garden in the world to have attained this status.
Since we're here at the end of the blooming season (May-October), we're seeing a mere fraction of the colors - especially for the wondrous protea of which there are over 300 varieties in South Africa alone, over 2000 varieties worldwide! And here I thought it was a single species with one maybe two, ginormous exotic blooms per plant and priced high enough to make me think about preserving them rather than putting them in an arrangement!
Protea range in size from a rather small bush to a huge tree, hence the origin of its name by Linnaeus (namer of almost all plants) in honor of Proteus the Greek god for its ability to morph, seemingly at will. It's also commonly known as the sugarbush. One of the late bloomers we did see.
And one factoid - the South African cricket team is called the Proteas. Imagine any other sports team named for a flower?? The Oakland Orchids? Detroit Delphiniums?? Atlanta Agapanthus??
Back to the native plant species - fynbos - that make this garden so remarkable. Most fynbos are what we would call understory and rugged, shrubby, tough plants able to survive the varied and extreme conditions on the Cape. Despite seeing a great many fynbos, the only one that stuck for me was the paper flower, a green, dense plant with the tiniest white flowers.
There are miles and miles of walking paths in the garden and one of the most dramatic takes us to the forest canopy walkway where we can look down on the birds and wildlife that live here.
One of the dramatic views from the walkway. . .
If I remember correctly, this is a eucalyptus tree that's over 500 years old. We both half expected some sort of Tolkien being to emerge from the base and beckon us into his kingdom!
Of course, we had to make a stop in the gift shop, and no surprise, we opted for several packs of protea seeds and will give them a go in our Arizonan/Tucsonan floral kingdom.
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In one corner of the gift shop we stopped to watch this young women making bead animals which are a big tourist item. I've been fascinated with these creations which range from wee key rings to ¾ scale zebra. She was working on a small lion (lying on its side on the table), and I couldn't imagine the tediousness of threading all these minuscule beads on wire. Well, lo and behold African ingenuity - her husband had designed this almost mysterious means for threading beads quickly. She loads a bunch of beads into the (green) well, pushes an old ball point pen set in the middle of the well, and the whole thing starts spinning. She gently tips the wire into the well and miraculously the beads just make their way up onto the wire! Something else for us to try after returning home.
Seeds and beads!!
Our first day in Cape Town and it was brilliant!
