Our one month of winter in Cape Town included some cloudy or rainy days, but mostly warmish (to us) and sunny weather. We observed that many local residents, however, wore heavy sweaters or coats. Snow-themed street decorations were even on display on some of the coastline roads. 

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Beach – We resumed our almost daily walks along the beach, noticing the significantly different characteristics of the shoreline at low tide versus high tide at Gordon’s Bay.

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Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden – We spent a day exploring this beautiful nature park at the base of Table Mountain in central Cape Town. The garden was filled with luscious green lawns, many shady trees, both traditional African and modern styles of artwork, plus numerous thematic beds of flowers and shrubs (fragrant, medicinal, water-wise, Protea, etc.) Over 7,000 species of plants from South Africa are represented. The name of the garden means Kirsten’s forest and approximately 500 hectare parcel of farmland was bequeathed to the government by Cecil John Rhodes in early 1900s.

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A fun part of our visit was traversing the Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway, affectionately known as the Boomslang. The 130-metre bridge made from steel and wood snakes its way through and over the trees of the garden. From the elevated walkway we had clear views of Cape Flats and a partially cloudy look at the Table Mountain summit. 

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Favorite Coffee Place – One of our favorite activities was to stop at Little Bean Coffee Shop for a delicious hot drink and occasionally something to eat. We  got acquainted with the staff and they soon learned our favorite drink orders. The salads and wraps were quite tasty and we enjoyed quite a few flavors of their cakes made by their very own baker. 

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Coast – We drove a second time along the coast on the east side of Gordon’s Bay. After stopping in Hermanus and not seeing any whales in Walker Bay, we continued on to Gansbaai and Klipgat Cave, meaning Stone Hole. Gansbaai is a small fishing town and popular vacation spot because of its great ocean views and panoramic cliff pathways that make whale watching even easier. We didn’t spot any whales at this location either, but we enjoyed our walk along the coast in the warm sunshine. 

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Next we headed to Walker Bay Nature Reserve at the west end of Gansbaai.  We climbed down a sandy, rocky trail to explore Klipgat Cave, reportedly used by people during the Middle Stone Age civilization thousands of years ago. In the late 1900s archeologists removed stone artifacts, beads and pendants made from shells, bone tools, tortoise shell bowls, an intact water flask made from an ostrich egg, human remains, and sheep bones from the cave. Fortunately we explored the cave during low tide. Using the trail to the cave during high tide would have been challenging, if not impossible. 

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Trenches – During our time in Gordon’s Bay we watched the slow, continual progress of underground fiber optic cable installation in business and residential areas. Workers with picks and shovels dug ditches along the sides of the streets. Even though the project could have been completed much more efficiently with a Ditch Witch or similar trencher, more people had the opportunity to work with this construction method. 

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