Capetown | Hello from the Five Star Vagabond

Loving charismatic Cape Town

April 1, 2014 by David Herd

Cable car to the top

Loving charismatic Cape Town

Loving charismatic Cape Town & especially one of Cape Town’s most popular tourist attractions with approximately 800,000 people a year using the cableway. On the 29 December 2004 the cableway passed its 16 millionth visitor.

Loving charismatic Cape Town which lived up to what people had told me to expect, charismatic, colourful & spectacular. The city is dominated by the mystical Table mountain however the coastline & the V & A Waterfront have a huge amount of appeal also.

From the cable car

It’s a long way down, if you are afraid of heights you may find this ride a little challenging. 😳

Top of the mountain

Lots of thrill seekers actually climb to the top, I guess it also saves spending money on the cable car.

Downtown Cape Town from the mountain

Cape Town is such a windy city Table Mountain is often closed to tourists.

Signal Hill

Signal Hill, or Lion’s Rump, is a landmark flat-topped hill located in Cape Town, next to Lion’s Head and Table Mountain. The hill was also known as “The Lion’s Flank”, a term now obsolete.

Hout Bay

The sheltered bay of Hout Bay has a white sand beach, a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike. Hout Bay has one of the busiest fishing harbors in the Western Cape with and established tuna, snoek and crayfish industry. The harbor is home to the Hout Bay Yacht Club and several restaurants.

Coast near Hout Bay

Certainly the best way to get an appreciation of Cape Town is to ride the on & off bus, there are two routes, the red & the blue line. The blue is more interesting but does not include Table Mountain.

View from the bus

Cape Town has a beautiful coast line, one of the beaches however are clogged with seaweed which prevents swimming.

Waterfront homes

Some waterfront homes have a height restriction that does not let them build above street level giving unobstructed views from the road.

Green Point Lighthouse

If you were a Victorian-era sailor home from the sea in Cape Town, the Lighthouse Service beckoned. You learnt your new trade at the Green Point lighthouse, which was built in 1824. This lighthouse was designed and built by a German stone-dresser and architect called Herman Schutte. It was commissioned by the acting governor of the Cape, Sir Rufane Donkin, and building began in 1821. To receive my latest posts please follow me on Twitter Follow @David_Herd

Camps Bay Cape Town

Camps Bay is an affluent suburb of Cape Town. In summer it attracts a large number of foreign visitors as well as South Africans looking for a beach holiday, there are lots of trendy restaurants opposite the beach.

Here is where I had lunch in Camps Bay.

For most of the 1800s Camps Bay was undeveloped. Lord Charles Somerset used the area for hunting and used the Roundhouse as his lodge. Kloof Road was built in 1848 and in 1884 Thomas Bain was commissioned to build a road from Sea Point to Camps Bay using convict labor. The road was completed in 1887 and named Victoria road to honor Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1888. The road allowed people to cycle out to Camps Bay which had gained popularity as a picnic site. This led to the development, in 1901 of the Camps Bay tramway to bring people out for the day and with it the development of the tidal pools, the Rotunda (now the Bay Hotel) and a pavilion for concerts and shows. In 1913 Camps Bay was incorporated into Cape Town although it was still seen as a recreational area rather than a residential area.

Camps Bay

The first residents of Camps Bay were the San (Hunter Gatherers) and the Goringqhaique, Khoi pastorates. When Jan van Riebeek established a refreshment station for the VOC (Dutch East India Company), the 12 Apostles were covered in forests with lion, leopard and antelope.