Exploring Cape Town

by Elizabeth Gehrman

Just up the coast from the Cape of Good Hope, which was first sighted by the Portuguese in 1487 and so called because it provided hope of a sea route to the riches of the east, Cape Town, South Africa, was home to the San and Khoikhoi peoples until it was settled by one Jan van Riebeeck as a refreshment station for passing Dutch East India Company ships. It is shadowed by the massive bulk of Table Mountain, a 3,500-foot high slab of sandstone that stretches two miles along the skyline and marks the northern terminus of the Peninsula chain.

Since the mountain is visible 90 miles out to sea, it has always been a bearing point for sailors, but today it also serves the considerable naturalist and adventuring communities of Cape Town. Paragliding is popular here, as is rock-climbing (one outfitter’s sign, perched above a perilous cliff, is “Dopes on a rope”), but by far the biggest draw is hiking. The 350 or so trails, ranging from simple to intense, offer enormous biodiversity, with 900 bird species, 3,000 types of plants, and animals including several kinds of antelope, baboons, caracal and even a couple of leopards. If you opt for the easy way up, by cable car, you probably won’t catch much wildlife, but you will be rewarded with fabulous views of the wine country, the sea and the city below.

Few of the world’s great cities are known for their natural beauty. But Cape Town, buffeted by the warm waters of False Bay to the east and the cold seas of the Atlantic to the west, is a study in contrasts, a successful mix of old and new, indigenous and imported, vibrant and languorous. It is a place where you can hike through dense forest or stroll the beach with penguins in the daytime, and settle in to world-class cuisine and sophisticated nightlife in the evening.

Though Greater Cape Town is sprawling, many of the more interesting sights are located within the relatively small city center, which is easy to get around on foot. The first attraction on every visitor’s list is the Castle of Good Hope, completed in 1679 as the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, and the oldest European building in South Africa. Tours led by soldiers in full dress uniform offer colorful and diverse colonial history in the form of torture chambers, two centuries of graffiti carved into the doors of the holding cells, and an exquisite store of Africa-inspired furniture, housewares and paintings in the William Fehr Art Collection.

Just a few blocks away are the tranquil Company Gardens, the remaining eight acres of a 45-acre plot laid out in 1652 by van Reibeeck to provide fruit and vegetables for ships’ crews. Today the English-style perennial beds, enormous old-growth exotic trees, fountains and curving walkways provide the perfect escape from a sometimes hectic city.

There are several worthwhile museums in this area. At the west end of the Company Gardens is the South African Museum and Planetarium, with its exhaustive exhibits of flora, fauna and the Southern Hemisphere’s night skies, as well as an extensive cultural display that examines the histories, traditions, myths and dress of indigenous peoples. The Jewish Museum, the National Gallery, or the Rust-en-Vreugd Museum, also near the west end, might merit a stop depending on your interests, as do the Koopmans de Wet Museum, the South African Cultural History Museum, and the Sendinggestig Museum, each just a short walk from the east end of the gardens.

The seemingly sleepy Bo-Kaap, or Malaysian quarter, is one of Cape Town’s most interesting neighborhoods from a historical and cultural perspective. Most of its residents are descendents of slaves brought from Indonesia and other eastern ports to work, often as skilled artisans and carpenters. Despite official bans, these educated Sufis managed to keep alive their strong ethnic and religious identities, their Arabic language, and their history and traditions through a network of underground learning. The petite Cape Dutch houses in this part of town are painted in vibrant pinks, greens, yellows and blues, but the only true peeks you’ll get into Muslim life here are at the small but fascinating Bo-Kaap museum, and during the wild January Carnival that celebrates the abolition of slavery in 1834.

An irresistible locale, even for those who don’t consider themselves shoppers back home, are Cape Town’s flea markets. One is held in Greenmarket Square, built in 1710 for just this purpose. These few city blocks are perpetually crammed with every kind of African wares and eastern imports imaginable — batik wall hangings, geometric-print rugs, carved furniture and statuary, masks, jewelry, clothing and baskets — at very reasonable prices. Buskers pantomime, sing, dance and play guitar; drumming lessons are offered in the square’s center; outdoor cafes all around the periphery are bustling; and people of all ethnicities can be found socializing as they shop. For the best deal in art around, stop by Walter Lewis’s booth in the square’s northeast quarter and pick up a few of his enchanting postcard-sized original watercolors for about $3 each.

Another shopper’s paradise is the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a once-derelict harborside spot that has been beautifully renovated in the past decade to become the city’s No. 2 tourist attraction after Table Mountain and a favorite with locals, too. In fact, it may well be the most successfully renovated waterfront in the world — certainly better, and bigger, than any that comes to mind in the States. Ornate Victorian architecture mingles easily with more modern structures to house shopping malls, restaurants, an aquarium, an IMAX theater, and a maritime museum, as well as the largest crafts market in the country, with everything Greenmarket Square has and much more — though perhaps at slightly higher prices.

Here you can catch the ferry to one of the most moving symbols of the new South Africa: Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for his participation in the African National Congress, just one of the 3,000 political prisoners that passed through these gates over the years. Former inmates guide painfully personal tours of the cells that once held them and the limestone quarry they were forced to work for hours without rest to make gravel for the roads on this small island.

Prisoners were forced to chip rock robotically, with only a 30-minute break daily, under the watchful eyes of often inhumane guards. The quarry’s blinding whiteness and relentless dust caused lasting eye problems for Mandela and hundreds of others; many left the prison physically broken or mentally ill because of the psychological torture they endured.

It was at this quarry, too, however, that the informal “University of Robben Island” sprang up, with the slogan “each one teach one”: Inmates snuck away in pairs or small groups with empowerment as their goal; many who had been illiterate when they were incarcerated came back educated, thanks to the efforts of fellow prisoners like Mandela and other learned “agitators.” On the day apartheid ended, Mandela visited the quarry and placed a stone on the ground near its entrance; each of the men who was with him did the same, until a pyramid was formed that still stands today, a symbol of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity that gives new meaning to the words “Good Hope.”