Durban, St. Lucia Estuary - South Africa - November 2021

 We left Cape Town on a very early morning flight for Durban. The big tour bus was already at the airport upon our arrival. The driver and the bus would be with us for the rest of trip. It was a long drive from Durban to our first night stay in the north eastern part of South Africa. Due to military upheaval, Eswatini closed the border to tourism a few days before we arrived.  Instead of traveling to Eswatini, we would stay near Hluhluwe Game Reserve one more night and a longer game drive in Hluhluwe.

Art work at Durban airport restrooms

Taking a break by the Indian Ocean 

Indian Ocean

We traveled north along the coast and made it to St. Lucia in the afternoon. The boat was already there waiting for us to tour its famous estuary. St. Lucia has one of the largest estuary in Africa with an incredible home for hippos, crocodiles and abundance of birdlife. 

Boat ride to visit St. Lucia Estuary

Estuary bank with (yellow) bird nests

Hippo home

One of St. Lucia estuary's many hippo pods

Another large pod of hippos

 

They're looking at us

Relaxing and cooling off

After visiting Saint Lucia Estuary, we headed out to Hluhluwe. ANEW hotel in Hluhluwe was near the Game Reserve where we'll stay for the next two nights.

Cape Town - Cape Winelands District, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - November 2021

 While some people in our tour group did "Shark Diving" our last day in Cape Town, we chose to go on a wine tour. We had wine tasting at four well established wine estates in the Cape Winelands district. It was a very pleasant drive. The tasting was fun and relaxing. The wine tour took us through the beautiful country side and enable us to enjoy more beautiful scenery outside the city.   

Scenery from the wine tour drive - View of Boland Mountain Complex

In KWV tasting room 

In the production room

A communion wine barrel at Southern Paarl winery

The goat tower at Fairview Wine and Cheese. There was one goat in the tower.

Goats in the Fairview farm

(Wine) Cathedral room

After the wine tasting and on our way out of Cape Winelands, Belinda, our tour guide had a surprise for us. It was a stop at a national heritage site where Nelson Mandela spent 14 months of house arrest after leaving Robben Island to finish his jail sentence. It's also the place from which he took his first steps to freedom.

National Heritage Site

The National Heritage site- Home of Mandela where he spent the house arrest.

  

The front gate to Nelson Mandela's home 

We stopped in a little quaint town in the Western Cape province called Stellenbosch for lunch. It was a good choice of a stop over. Stellenbosch, the second oldest town in South Africa, is known for its natural beauty, matured trees-lined avenues with shops, cafes and restaurants.

View from Stellenbosch park

 Stellenbosch Central 

The Rhenish Mission church in Stellenbosch

To wrap up our visit to Cape Town, we spent some time in Kristenbosch National Botanical Gardens. It's a grand park, nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain. We could easily spend a full day to explore the beautifully well groomed gardens.

Kristenbosch Gardens

View of Table Mountain from Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens 

Cape Town - Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point, Boulders Beach - November 2021

 A full day of sight seeing trip from Cape Town was a bus tour from Cape Town to Cape Point, our first destination. It was one of the most scenic coastal drives in the world. We saw the  magnificient views of beautiful little bays, quaint villages nestled in the clear turquoise blue seas with crashing waves backed by steep granite cliffs and towering mountains. We passed Clifton Beach, Hout Bay, Noordhoek, Chapmans Bay, Scarborough with a few short stops before reaching Cape of Good Hope, the south-western most point of the African continent.

Map of Cape Town and southern coast

Clifton Beach

View from Clifton Beach

Hout Bay

Hout Bay - Tokai Forest Reserve

View from Chapman's Peak Drive

Chapman's Peak View

Ostrich @ Dias Beach

"Cape of Good Hope" Signage

Cape Point, southern most of the peninsular and Africa

A  funicular took us to the top of Cape Point's light house. 

View of the Cape peninsula

The Cape of Good Hope looking towards the west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point 

We took the Funicular from the Cape Point car park to the upper lighthouse. 

The old lighthouse at Cape Point Peak

View from the lighthouse

View from the walk near the lighthouse

Our next destination after Cape Point lighthouse was Simon's Town, a picturesque coastal village where we had a delicious seafood lunch before walking a short distance to visit the African Penguin Colony at Boulders Bay Beach. 

Atlantic ocean from Simon's Town

Colony of African Penguin at Boulders Beach

Penguins @ Boulders Beach

An African penguin 

The beautiful coastal drive back to Cape Town, again was a pleasant drive. We're relaxed and enjoyed another wonderful day in Cape Town.

Smitswinkel Bay Beach from the coastal drive