Note: I am breaking our AMAZING trip to Africa into 3 posts, one for each leg of the trip: Cape Town, Kruger National Park, and Victoria Falls.  This is the first post.

I’ve had a hard time starting this blog post because I really want to do this trip justice.  It was truly a trip of a lifetime, a wonderful experience for every member of my family.  First a comment on traveling with teens – I LOVE it.  Yes, we like to share new experiences and cultures with our children.  But what stands out to me most at this age (currently 16 and 13) is that we get to enjoy them without all the distractions of home.  We are at a point in their lives where it has gotten harder to find quality time together.  Busy lives of today’s teens don’t always allow for a lot of free time.  When they do have it, they want to spend it with their friends, on their phones, in their rooms, or on the computer.  And I know it won’t be long before they go off and start their own lives separate from us.  So we savor the moments of laughter and conversation that we have with our kids when we are lucky enough to travel with them – knowing that they were much less likely to happen at home when everyone is going different directions.

It also added to the joy of the trip that we traveled with another family, close friends who also have two teenagers.  I think we all might be just a little better behaved when we’re with people who don’t live with us every day, who aren’t as intimately familiar with our individual flaws and idiosyncrasies.   You have more people you love to turn to with a grin plastered on your face and say “Can you believe we’re here?? This is amazing!”.  You know if something goes wrong, you have good friends to keep you company and commiserate with.  And adding other teens for mine to interact with prompted some interesting group dinner conversations.

We started our trip to Africa in Cape Town, which is a wonderful city to visit as a family.  It is beautiful, full of a variety of things to do and see, really something for all interests.  We experienced stunning scenery, a variety of wildlife, culture, history, and great food and wine.  And the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Rand is so generous right now that everything felt like a steal.

We had been advised to head to Table Mountain as soon as we had good weather because the Cableway is weather dependent.  I pre-booked tickets online before our arrival, which are valid for a 7 day period.  It was a nice sunny day when we arrived in Cape Town, so after checking into our hotel we headed to the lower cable station.

Once at the top there are magnificent views of the city and beyond.  It was a great way to get a visual overview of the layout of the city and surrounding areas.

Is this how you pictured Africa?  Not me – I wasn’t expecting so much green and mountains.  Such a gorgeous part of the world.  We were glad we visited Table Mountain the day we did because there was wind (and a little rain) later in our visit and the tram was closed intermittently.

The next morning we set off on a cultural day tour to learn about apartheid and its impact on South Africa.  The first stop was the District Six Museum which is in the former inner-city residential area where non-whites were forced out during apartheid.

The museum includes pictures and other artifacts to give you a feel for what the community was like before apartheid and how residents’ lives were impacted.

After visiting the museum and getting an understanding of how people were forced from their homes, we visited some of the townships, where people were moved.  I was surprised to learn that a majority of Cape Town residents still live in these primitive living conditions.

At one of the townships we visited we went on a guided walking tour and saw inside some of the homes.  When we were choosing our activities before leaving home for the trip, my 16 year-old wasn’t thrilled about the idea of visiting a township because he didn’t want people to feel like they were animals in a zoo for people to come and ogle out.  While it was an informative and eye-opening visit, there were uncomfortable moments where we felt exactly like that.  But the people in the townships were very welcoming and friendly, and the visits provide some revenue to the residents.

Part of our township tour included a visit to a pre-school.

The children were darling and sang songs for us, and a couple of the kids danced.

After visiting the townships we returned to the city and caught the ferry to Robben Island, the former prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned along with other political prisoners.  When we arrived on Robben Island, the tour started with a bus ride around the island.

Then you go on a walking tour in and around the cell block where Mandela lived, with tours led by former Robben Island prisoners.

 

This was a powerful and thought-provoking day for all of us.

The following day we went for a complete change of pace.  South Africa is one of the top places in the world to see great white sharks, so we ventured out on a shark cage diving trip!  Most companies go out of Gansbaii, but we were there at a time of year when you can also go from False Bay, which is much closer to Cape Town.  The boat heads out to Seal Island, home to 60,000 seals, which attracts the sharks.

The crew lures sharks to the boat using a fake seal as bait.  We put on wetsuits and climbed into the cage on the side of the boat.

When a shark approaches everyone dives under the water to get an underwater view of the shark.  This was much less scary than I expected it to be.  I was envisioning the shark attacking the cage but they would actually gracefully glide by.

Some of our friends chose not to go in the cage but still got a great surface view of the sharks from the deck of the boat.

All of us thought this was an awesome experience, whether we dove in the cage or not.

The following day we went on another day tour, this time to the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-western point of the African continent.  No, it apparently is not the most southern point, as many people believe.  On the drive down the cape we stopped in a few scenic coastal towns and an ostrich farm (where we fed the ostriches – their beaks are strong!).

We hiked up to the lighthouse at the Cape of Good Hope for amazing views in every direction.

 

We then hiked from the lighthouse down to Cape Point.

 

It was very windy at Cape Point and our guide said sometimes it is so windy that they have a hard time getting the car door open.

 

One of the last stops of our day was Boulders Beach to see the African Penguins.  They were so cute!

 

 

Phew – we’ve packed a lot of amazing stuff into a few fabulous days.  Our final day in Cape Town we stayed in town and explored the City Bowl area.  We started with the Castle of Good Hope, a 17th century fort that is the oldest building in South Africa.  The military museum there is supposed to be very interesting but unfortunately it was closed during our visit due to Castle renovations.

 

The Castle Guard performs a key ceremony twice a day which depicts the unlocking of the Castle.  This is followed by the firing of the signal cannon.

 

 

 

After the Castle we headed to the Company’s Garden, the large park and garden in central Cape Town.

 

It is a large park with many attractions, including a rose garden, Japanese garden, fish pond, and aviary.  Rather than a large open space there were many small areas to explore.  We enjoyed the chess set that we came across.

 

We did some shopping and had lunch nearby, and then the teenagers decided they were ready for a relaxing afternoon.  We had covered a lot of ground in the last few days.  So the kids headed back to the hotel while the adults did more shopping and wandering.  We checked out the Bo-Kaap area which is known for its brightly painted houses.

 

Finally, since the kids were back relaxing at the hotel, the adults decided to go wine tasting at a nearby estate.  Groot Constantia is the oldest wine producing farm in South Africa.  This pretty estate, about 20 minutes from central Cape Town, has been producing wine for over 300 years.  We opted for the chocolate and wine pairing tasting, that includes five wines (although they gave us a try of an extra too) with a series of chocolates specially made to go with each of the wines you taste.

 

South Africa is known for making excellent wine.  Some day I would love to get to the outlying areas like Stellenbosch and Franschhoek that are said to have excellent wine tasting routes.

We loved Cape Town.  We had a variety of experiences, the area is beautiful, and the people were warm and friendly.  We would be thrilled to visit again some day.  I wish it were closer.