5 day Cape Town & Surround

 This trip sets out to highlight Cape Town & surrounds as well as the winelands of the western Cape. Cape town has been voted one of the most beautiful cities in the world and some of the wines produced in the winelands have won international award.

Day 1 – Arrive Cape Town

One of our Pardus African Tours & Safaris guide will meet you at the airport to transfer you to your accomodation in Cape town, after settling into your room, our guide will give you a briefing of the days ahead at Dinner in one of Cape Town’s Restaurants at the Victoria and Alfred Water Front. (Dinner included)

 Day 2 – Table Mountain, Cape Point & Boulder’s Beach.

After breakfast you and your guide will set of on a tour of Capetown, our first stop will be Table Mountain, and weather dependant we will make our way to the summit to take in the the views of Cape town, this is weather dependant. Table Mountain is proud to be one of the official New 7 Wonders of Nature. Competing against major international attractions,  Table Mountain made it to the top seven after a campaign that attracted more than 100-million global votes.

English: Table Mountain seen from Lion's Head....
English: Table Mountain seen from Lion’s Head. Español: Montaña de la Mesa vista desde la Cabeza de León. Frysk: In panorama fan de Tafelberch. Ek it tafellekken is te sjen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After table mountain we will make our way past Camps Bay and the 12 Apolostles, and stop off in the the small town called Houtbay, Hout Bay (Afrikaans: Houtbaai, from Afrikaans for “Wood Bay”) is the name of a coastal suburb of Cape Town, South Africa with a mix of neighbourhoods from the very rich to the very poor. It lies in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula and is twenty kilometres south of the Central Business District of Cape Town. The name Hout Bay can refer to the town, or the bay on which it is situated, or the whole valley.

border|22x20px South Africa, Aerial view of Ch...
border|22x20px South Africa, Aerial view of Chapman’s Peak Drive. For exact location see geocode. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Heading off towards Chapmans peak, The western flank of the mountain falls sharply for hundreds of metres into the Atlantic Ocean. A spectacular road, known as Chapman’s Peak Drive, hugs the near-vertical face of the mountain from Hout Bay to Noordhoek. Hacked out of the face of the mountain between 1915 and 1922, the road was at the time regarded as a major feat of engineering. Chapman’s Peak Drive was closed in the 1990s, after a rockfall caused a death and a subsequent lawsuit, and subsequently reopened after being re-engineered to protect motorists from falling rocks. It was reopened in 2005 as a toll road, we will make our way to Cape Point.
Cape Point is situated within the Table Mountain National Park, within a section of the Park referred to as Cape of Good Hope. This section covers the whole of the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula and which takes in perhaps 20% of its total area. The Cape of Good Hope section of the park is generally wild, unspoiled and undeveloped and is an important haven for seabirds. The vegetation at Cape Point consists primarily of Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos.

Cape Point is often mistakenly claimed to be the place where the cold Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean and the warm Agulhas Current of the Indian ocean collide. In fact, the meeting point fluctuates along the southern and southwestern Cape coast, usually occurring between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point. The two intermingling currents help to create the micro-climate of Cape Town and its environs. Contrary to popular mythology, the meeting point of the currents produces no obvious visual effect; there is no “line in the ocean” where the sea changes colour or looks different in some way. There are, however, strong and dangerous swells, tides and localized currents around the point and in adjacent waters. These troubled seas have witnessed countless maritime disasters in the centuries since ships first sailed here. We will take some time to walk to the lighthouse, and take in the scenery.

We then head out to Simon’s Town for Lunch, and enjoy a meal at one of the historical towns many bistro’s, Simon’s Town (Afrikaans: Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town near Cape Town, South Africa, which is home to the South African

English: The African penguin colony at Boulder...

English: The African penguin colony at Boulders Beach in Simons Town, South Africa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Navy. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. For more than two centuries it has been an important naval base and harbour (first for the Royal Navy and now the South African Navy). The town is named after Simon van der Stel, an early governor of the Cape Colony. After Lunch we will visit Boulder’s Beach.

Boulders Beach is located a few kilometres to the south of Simon’s Town, in the direction of Miller’s Point. Here small coves with white sandy beaches and calm shallow water are interspersed between boulders of Cape granite. There has been a colony of African penguins at Boulders Beach since 1985. There is no record of the birds having lived here prior to that date, so their decision to settle in an area already well-utilized by humans is remarkable. There are only three penguin populations on the mainland in southern Africa; the others are close to Hermanus at Stoney Point and Betty’s Bay.

We will then make our way past Kalk Bay and Muizenberg back to your accomodation in Cape Town, after you have freshened up we will take a local taxi to explore Cape Town’s night life and dinner. (breakfast Included, Lunch and Dinner Own expense)

English: Kids in the township near Cape Town i...

English: Kids in the township near Cape Town in 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Day 3 – City and Township tour

After we have breakfast at our accomodation, we wil load our luggage into our vehicle, and make our way to the City to explore the history of the City, then head of to the The Cape Flats which is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. Described by some as ‘Apartheid’s dumping ground’, from the 1950s the area became home to people the apartheid government designated as non-White. Race-based legislation such as the Group Areas Act and pass laws either forced non-white people out of more central urban areas designated for white people and into government-built townships in the Flats, or made living in the area illegal, forcing many people designated as Black into informal settlements elsewhere in the Flats.

The Flats have since then been home to much of the population of Greater Cape Town, and most of the residents in the area are of African descent. This area includes the neighbourhoods of Mitchell’s Plain, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Langa, and Khayelitsha. (break fast, lunch and dinner Included)

Wine farm

Wine farm (Photo credit: slack12)

Day 3 & 4 – Franshoek

Once we have experienced a township, we will make our way to Franschoek.

Franschhoek (“French Corner”, (Dutch spelling before 1947 Franschen Hoek) is a small town in the Western Cape Province and one of the oldest towns of the Republic of South Africa. It is about 75 kilometres from Cape Town and has a population of 15,353. Since 2000 it has been incorporated into Stellenbosch Municipality, Here we will settle into our accomodation at one of the wine farms for the next 3 nights as we are going to explore the wine route tasting wines at various wine farms over the next 2 days. (Breakfast & dinner included, Lunch Own expense)

Day 5 – Cape Town International Airport

On the morning of Departure you will leave Franshoek and take to the airport by your guide, where you can fly off to your next tour or home. (breakfast Included)

See our other intineraries for add on trips

Included in this Trip:All transport and airport transfers,  all accomodation, park entrance fees, Breakfast and dinner as per the intinerary, Guide and tours, wine tasting. 

Excluded:Own expense meals as indicated on the intinerary, Optional extra drinks and refreshments, gratuities, souvenirs and international flights. 

Price: Starts at $1500 per person Sharing prices is dependant on your accomodation preference, please send your enquiries to Robert@pardustours.com

Braai’ed snoek, a regional gamefish – Recipe

Snoek-Thyrsites atun

Snoek-Thyrsites atun (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thyrsites atun, the “snoek” or “Cape snoek”, is a long, thin, perch-like commercial food fish belonging to the Gempylidae family. It is found in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere. It is also known in Australasia as barracouta though it is not related to the barracuda.

It can grow up to 200 centimetres (79 in) long and weigh as much as 6 kilograms (13 lb). It is found near continental shelves or around islands and feeds on crustaceans, cephalopods and small fish like anchovy and pilchard. This species will form schools near the bottom or midwater; sometimes even near the surface at night. It prefers sea water temperature between 13 °C (55 °F) and 18 °C (64 °F).

It is found off the coast of Namibia and the coast of the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa. It was originally called the “zee snoek” (Sea Snoek) by Dutch colonists who arrived in the Cape in 1652. It is said to have reminded them of the freshwater pike (or snoek) they found at home in the Netherlands. The snoek is widely distributed in the colder waters in the Southern Hemisphere. It is found from Namibe in Angola to Mossel Bay in South Africa, off Tristan da Cunha in the mid southern Atlantic and off Western Australia, where it is call the barracouta, off Chile and Argentina (where it is called the sierra).[1] Bluish-black on top with a silver belly, the snoek grows to over a metre in length. {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyrsites_atun}

Recipe – Braai’d Snoek
I always believe that cooking fish should be kept simple, dont over complicate the matter, why hide the natural flavour of fish, and Snoek is no different. You can buy them smoked or fresh, and what I like to do is Braai (barbeque) snoek in Swakopmund – Namibia, here i can source fresh snoek from a local fishmonger. its as easy as this:

Ingredients:

  • Fresh Snoek
  • Salted Butter – depends on the size of your fish about 500g should do it
  • Apricot Jam – about 4 table spoons
  • Lemon juice – juice of 2 lemons
  • salt & pepper

Method:

So once your coals are ready, place some tin foil under your snoek which has been butterflied, dont close the fish in foil, then melt the butter with the apricot jam, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and brush the fish with your butter mixture, and place on the grill of your braai, and every so often brush your fish with the butter, apricot and lemon juice mixture. Braai until the flesh is falling off the bone.

 Serve with baked potato, salad…and a glass of good South African White wine.