1.6. – 4.6.2025
For this summer’s longer trip we had chosen Southern Africa. Us adults were already partly familiar with the African continent, having visited West Africa on a six-month long overlanding trip before having children. As we had found a company that also took children on such overlanding trips, this was a pretty obvious choice for us. After all, Ronja and Risto also needed to experience Africa travelling on a truck and sleeping in tents.
Before we left, we had to get visas for four countries – Namibia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya. All the other visas arrived immediately, but the Tanzanian visa is still pending approval. Well, luckily, there is still a month to go before that visa is needed. I’m sure it will find its way to Marko’s email eventually. In addition to the visas, the initial preparations for the trip included a few vaccinations: yellow fever, typhoid and cholera. In addition, during the whole trip (and for 4 weeks after the trip) we also must take anti-malarial drugs. Fortunately, the Lariam prescribed for all of us is the kind of medicine that only needs to be taken once a week.
We left right after the school semester ended on Sunday 1.6. with an afternoon flight to Doha. We were incredibly lucky as we happened to get the first seats in the middle row, which had considerably more legroom than the other seats in the cattle cart. So this 6 hour flight went very comfortably. On the second flight from Doha to Cape Town we were not so lucky, but fortunately it was a night flight, so we spent part of the flight sleeping. On the latter flight, after the plane took off sometime after 2 a.m., they started serving dinner to passengers at 3.30 a.m., which was a bit of a surprise. The rest of us ate our food, but Risto wasn´t hungry at all at such a time in the middle of the night.
We arrived in Cape Town a little after 10am on Monday morning. We picked up an Über from the airport and drove to the apartment we had rented for five nights. The three tower blocks of our apartment complex were built sometime in the early 60’s and they are very distinct from the outside, to put it nicely, but inside our apartment is really cosy. But the best thing is the view from the windows. Simply stunning!
Once we were settled in, we all went to a nearby grocery store. After that, we took a couple of hours nap, as we all really needed it. Risto announced that he would just listen to an audio book instead of sleeping. When we went to wake the kids up for dinner 2 hours later, Risto was sound asleep with headphones in his ears. We went to the V&A Waterfront shopping centre for a quick visit and dinner and then returned to the apartment for a good night’s sleep.
The next morning, everyone was feeling a lot less tired. As the day was cloudy and rainy, there was no point in even considering any outdoor activities. So we headed to the Two Oceans Aquarium. The last time we had been there was when Ronja was a year old. The clown fish tank, where you could go inside to admire the fish, was still there in the lobby. So we just had to take another photo of Ronja inside the pool, admiring the fish. This time Ronja was tall enough to peek through the hatch herself.
After the aquarium, we visited the V&A Watershed, where local crafts, clothes and art were on sale. It was there that we had bought a rhinoceros painting directly from the artist on our previous trip, and it still hangs on our living room wall. The artist herself was not there this time, but her husband was there to sell Suzanne’s paintings. We chatted with him for a while, and sent Suzanne Elisabeth our best.
Before heading back to our apartment, we stopped for dinner at the local Spur steakhouse, where we adults had a delicious steak dinner. Risto ordered a double order of chicken nuggets, and Ronja had a burger. The classic Lazy Aged Steak, 500g of plain meat with a side dish, would also have been on the menu, but we didn’t order it this time. With desserts and tips, the whole group ate for 1050 rand (52€), so it wasn’t too expensive at all.
For Wednesday, we had booked ourselves a full day excursion to the Cape Town area. Our guide was a small Santa-looking man called Sean Casey, who lived in the tower block next door. We got his contact details when we checked into our own apartment, so we were pretty sure he was a good guide. The 8h day trip cost a total of 4000 rand (200€) for the whole group, but with that money we could choose what we wanted to see and where we wanted to visit.
We set off at 9:30am and headed first to Boulder’s Beach to see the African penguins. As we were not travelling in high season, the place was relatively uncrowded and the penguins were easy to see. It was very windy on the beach, so most of the penguins had cleverly turned their backs to the wind blowing off the sea. We should have done the same, as the fine sand on the beach got into our ears, noses and eyes very easily.
After watching the penguins, we jumped back in the car and drove to the south-western tip of Africa. People often think of the Cape of Good Hope as the southernmost tip of Africa, but the southernmost point is actually at the tip of Cape Agulhas. After taking the obligatory photos at the sign, we set off on a 45min walk along the trail to Cape Point Lighthouse. The scenery along the way was stunning. The brisk wind and rocky terrain made the walk a bit more exciting. Our guide said that it was lucky that the wind was blowing from the sea so it wouldn´t blow us into the surf below. The Cape of Good Hope National Park is also home to ostriches and South Africa’s largest antelope species, the eland. Sean told us that this animal has a shoulder height of 190cm, so it wasn’t just any little creature. We saw one just before we arrived at the lighthouse. Luckily, the antelope knew to stay a little further back, so we didn’t have to test who was running faster – the human or the antelope. Besides the antelope, we saw some small black lizards, but no ostriches this time.
We had lunch at the Two Oceans restaurant near the lighthouse and then started the drive back towards Cape Town. We had intended to stop at a place called The World of Birds on the way, but when we arrived, it had already closed for the day. So we continued on to Signal Hill, where we briefly admired the scenery. After that we returned to our apartment. The temperature inside the apartment had risen by probably ten degrees during the day. The walls of our apartment are all windows, and the sun shines in all day long. The rise in temperature was nothing but a positive thing, as it had been so cool in the morning that without wool socks and long sleeves, it would have been very cold to have the breakfast.
