36. Day 12 (Aug 28) – Cape Point

Several times in the previous post I’ve mentioned Cape Point.  Some people think that Cape Point is just another name for the Cape of Good Hope but this is not the case.  Let’s look at a map to see the difference. 

Map of Cape Peninsula

This is an enlarged map of the very tip of the Cape Peninsula.  The tip at the bottom center, accessible by road, is the Cape of Good Hope, and from which we have just left.  The tip at the bottom right, without a road to it, is Cape Point.  The item both north (up) and west (left) of Cape Point, at the end of a road, is the start of the funicular leading to the Cape Point, to which we have not driven.

What most people mean by Cape Point is the old lighthouse at the top of the point.  This was the highest point on the Cape Peninsula and would be thought was therefore the ideal place for the lighthouse.  But over time it became clear that this wasn’t so for two reasons: (1) The height of the lighthouse meant that sometimes the cloud and fog cover would obscure the lighthouse while a lower one would have been visible; and (2) ships traveling south would see the lighthouse too early and turn east too closely to the cape.  On April 18, 1911, the Portuguese liner Lusitania was destroyed on the rocks of the cape, having turned too early.  As a result of this accident, the new lighthouse was built some 285 feet lower and apparently works well to this day.  It contains the most powerful light in South Africa and is visible for some 36 miles out to the sea.

But today we’re going to the original, old lighthouse.  It has the better views and is accessible to tourists.  And it has a funicular.  As you can see from the photo below, the old lighthouse is considerably above the parking area for the lighthouse.  

Cape Point Old Lighthouse

The funicular provides an alternative to some 1,900 feet of footpath, with an elevation gain of 285 feet, traveling the distance in just 3 minutes.  But there is still a significant climb from where the funicular lets you off as can be seen in these two pictures.

Footpath - 1

Footpath - 2

The funicular is called The Flying Dutchman.  

The Flying Dutchman Funicular

The name is geographically appropriate to the legend which tells of a boat of that name whose captain was a Dutchman named Hendrik van der Decken.  He was headed home from what is now Jakarta to Holland in 1641 and as he approached the Cape, storms shredded the ship’s sails and waves flooded the deck.  Even though his crew begged him to turn back, he refused and lashed himself to the wheel, swearing that he would sail around Cape Point, even if it took him until Doomsday.  While he did get around the cape, he and his crew were doomed to sail forever.  For more details, see Wagner’s Opera.  And remember the legend when the winds are blowing around you at Cape Point, as they were when we took the funicular (watch the trees whip in this video and understand that it is the wind, not the wake of the funicular, that is causing that action).

Trees Blowing

As you climb up to the lighthouse you see signs of the other major animal found at Cape Point, the baboon.

"Sign" of Baboons

Baboons at Cape Point seem to be the equivalent of bears at Yosemite.  They are attracted by the food that some tourists carry and you are warned not to have any.  Stories I’ve heard (and believe they are from a credible source) tell of people whose backpacks are ripped off by baboons seeking food.  Fortunately, we did not get an opportunity to experience this.  By the time we were climbing to the lighthouse, the weather had turned quite windy,, cold, and often rainy.  The baboons, intelligent creatures that they are, stayed under cover.  Only tourists were out in this weather.

At the top, right next to the Old Lighthouse, is a pole with a bunch of mileage markers on it.  I believe the correct name for this type of object, which we also found in several points in Antarctica, is a signpost, which seems rather prosaic.  If anyone knows differently, let me know.

Cape Point Signpost

The view from the top is quite expansive, as seems befitting for a place where there is a lighthouse.  Much of what you see from there is, of course, ocean, as seen in these two photos.

View from Cape Point - 1

View from Cape Point - 2

Just down from the lighthouse itself are two buildings.  One is the home of the lighthouse-keeper and the other is the office of the lighthouse-keeper.  The photo below is the office, built around 1860.

Old Lighthouse Keeper's House

I should note that while we were climbing to the lighthouse and at the lighthouse itself we had much wind and some rain – befitting a visit to the Cape of Storms.  Now we leave there to go visit, separately from the tour, homes of two families.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

35. Day 12 (Aug 28) – Cape of Good Hope

After leaving the penguins at Boulders Beach, we continue to head south down the Cape Peninsula.  Our next stop, at the extreme southern end of the peninsula, is the Cape of Good Hope. 

The geography of the Cape Peninsula consists of rock of the so-called Cape Supergroup which includes Table Mountain that we’ve already seen.  Here is what much of the countryside looks like.

Cape Peninsula Countryside

We’re still in the Cape Floristic Kingdom here on the Cape Peninsula with fynbos vegetation, here the sub-varieties are known as the Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos, which is endangered and endemic to the peninsula.

Cape Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos

There are two well-known land fauna in the Cape Peninsula, one of which we saw and the other of which we only saw signs – literally.  Let’s look at the one we saw – and it is an old friend.

Ostrich on Cape Peninsula

There are a couple of ostrich farms on the Cape Peninsula and I’m assuming that this guy (and remember how you can tell he’s male) is part of one of those farms.  We’ll talk about the other critter in our next post.

The cape area is well known for its stormy weather.  In fact Dias first called it the Cape of Storms.  And the day we visited the cape, in late winter, it showed its stormy and rapidly changing weather pattern.  Just pay attention to the sky in the photos in this post and the previous and next posts.  Be assured that these were all taken in the same day, in the same general area.  

Both Dias, and Vasco Da Gama were among the very first Europeans to sail in this area. Portugal, their native country, has seen fit to provide honors for them here as well as navigational beacons.  In the Cape Peninsula here is a Dias Cross and a Gama Cross which form one line.  Two other beacons in Simon’s Town, where we have already visited, form another line.  These two lines meet at Whittle Rock, a large submerged rock (and thus a shipping hazard) in False Bay.   Here is the Gama Cross unless it is the Dias Cross – I don’t know how to tell them apart and no one told me which one I was photographing when I did so.

Gama or Dias Cross

Along the road on the way to the Cape of Good Hope, inside the National Park, is Skaife’s Barn, a rustic, thatched roof structure.

Skaife's Barn

The barn is named in honor of Sydney Skaife, even though he never lived there.  But who is he?  Let's start by making the political comment that he comes from the good branch of the family that uses a "k" instead of a "c" in the name.

Skaife was born in England on December 12, 1889 and came to Cape Town at the age of 23 to teach biology.  He later became an important research entomologist with several important studies and was President of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa in 1940.    But he is honored here because of his efforts in founding the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, which later became the Cape Point Section of the Cape Peninsula National Park (and which is now known as Table Mountain National Park).

As we near the Cape of Good Hope itself, we see the ocean and the sky is clouding up.  Storms may be brewing.  Now, since we’re north of the cape on the western side, we can be sure that this ocean is the Atlantic.

Atlantic Ocean near the Cape of Good Hope

When we reach the cape itself, do we see the boundary between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans?  Well, let’s first look at the cape.

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape, by the way, is behind those people who are not wearing capes.  

But what does the sign say – “The most south-western point on the African continent.”  Humm – seems like an important proviso – “western.”  The Cape of Good Hope is not the southernmost point on the Africa Continent.  That distinction belongs to the much less known Cape Agulhas, about 90 miles east-southeast.  

So, then where is the boundary between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean?  Well, it’s complicated.  The International Hydrographic Organization notes that Cape Agulhas is the western boundary of the Indian Ocean and thus the Southeast boundary of the South Atlantic Ocean.  This is touted by the tourist bureau in Cape Agulhas.  

Wikipedia, perhaps under the influence of the Cape Town tourist bureau, notes that the currents of the two oceans, which differ in temperature, move, depending on the time of year and other conditions, between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point and thus the boundary moves, although as we’ll learn in the next post, Cape Point is not the same as the Cape of Good Hope so even if Cape Point is where the oceans divide, it is not here. This location also can’t be the division between the oceans for another important reason – there is no black dotted line on the water (joke alert).  But, when a ship is following the African coastline from the equator, the Cape of Good Hope is the place when the ship begins to travel in a more eastward direction (which it couldn’t do earlier because land is in the way).

The Cape of Good Hope has the advantage in this dispute of being first, being in many more books and memories of school children, being closer to a major city (around 30 miles from Cape Town center) and having a much more impressive sign.  I make the last comparison having seen the sign at the Cape of Good Hope but only seen pictures of the sign at Cape Agulhas.

As we leave the Cape of Good Hope, let’s take a closer look at that nice rocky structure that is behind us in the previous photo.

At the Cape of Good Hope

Now it’s on to Cape Point.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

34. Day 12 (Aug 28) – Just Nuisance and Jackass Penguins

Today we headed south from central Cape Town, down the Cape Peninsula, eventually as far south as Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (which are not the same place).  But first, a couple of other places catch our attention.

The first is Simon’s Town, also called Simonstown.  It is named after a Dutch governor of the Cape Colony between 1677 and 1699 (Simon van der Stel).  He noted it was a safe winter harbor.  Which brings us to a discussion of the geography of the Cape Peninsula area.  Let’s begin with a map.

Cape Peninsular and False Bay

In the upper left corner of the map Is Cape Town and Table Bay (named after Table Mountain a bit to the south.  In the middle of the map is a large body of water called False Bay.  It’s a bit of a misnomer, because it most certainly is a bay.  The name comes from the fact that many early sailors mistook this bay for Table Bay, because the cape just before the entrance to False Bay, Cape Hangklip (which is in the bottom right of the map) supposedly looks a lot like Cape Point (which is in the bottom left of the map) – at least when viewed from a sailing vessel being tossed around by winter storms.  And remember that before the Europeans called this the Cape of Good Hope, they referred to it as the Cape of Storms.  

Now, you might have noticed that Cape Hangklip is further south than Cape Point.  And if we included more of the map to the east here we would find even more land even further south.  But isn’t the Cape of Good Hope the southern-most place on the African continent and thus the dividing line between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean?  Well, it turns out it is the southwestern-most place – everyone agrees to that.  Whether it is the dividing line between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans is a matter of some debate, as we’ll discuss in our next post on the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point.  

Now Simon’s Town (remember that’s where we’re first heading) is located on the eastern shore of the Cape Peninsula about half way down, on a piece of land that faces north.  Because the land faces north (and thus the sun in the winter months here in the Southern Hemisphere), the residents claim that winter in Simon’s Town is much more pleasant that most any place on the Cape Peninsula.  Having visited on a particularly blustery and cold day, I can’t confirm that.  I do note that the claim is on the tourism bureau website and not repeated in Wikipedia.

While Simon’s Town was founded as a Dutch settlement in the middle 18^th century, it was occupied by the British at the end of that century and become a Royal Naval Base in 1814.  In 1883 it was finally declared a municipality.  During the Second World War it was heavily fortified against an attack that never came.  Following the war the town was visited by King George VI and the future Queen Elizabeth.  In 1957 the naval base was transferred to the South African Navy.  The South Africans declared it a White Group area in 1967, resulting in forced removal of nonwhites.  

Some of this is at least vaguely interesting but no reason to stop here (although we need to pass through Simon’s Town on the way to our second stop for the day).  It is a pleasant enough looking little harbor town.

Simon's Town Harbour

But to make a stop there should require something more.  Like this:

Able Seaman Just Nuisance

What you are looking at is a statue of Able Seaman Just Nuisance.  He was the only dog ever to be officially enlisted in the Royal Navy. When he died, in 1944 at the age of seven, he was buried with full military honors.  

A very short story about how he became an able seaman.  He hung around the ships at the naval base and preferred the gangplank – a particularly difficult spot given he was nearly 6-1/2 feet tall when standing on his hind legs.  This is how he got the name Nuisance.   He later developed a taste for train travel, and the seamen on the train would try to hide him.  However the humorless operators of the South African Railways and Habours warned Nuisance’s owner that he would be put down unless he was prevented from boarding the train, or had his fare paid.  The sailors, however, came to his rescue and since members of the armed forces could get free rail travel, naval command enlisted him as an Able Seaman, listing his trade as “bonecrusher.”  If you want the full story, he has his own Wikipedia article (of course).  And if your vision is especially good, you can try to read this display about him that was in the store nearby his statue.

Just Nuisance's Display

The statue that is pictured above was made by the artist Jean Doyle and erected in 1985.

OK – we’re in Africa and some of the reason we’re here is to see wild animals.  We haven’t done that well so far but that should change soon.  And Able Seaman Just Nuisance might have engaged in some wild behavior, but hardly qualifies as a wild animal.  But our next stop provides wild animals – although hardly iconic to Africa.  Penguins.

African Penguin

This is a classical specimen of the African Penguin – the pink gland above the eyes, which is emblematic of this species, helps them cope with temperature changes.  When the temperature rises, the penguin’s body sends more blood to that area in order to be cooled by the air surrounding them.  This causes the gland to turn darker pink.   Other characteristic features include the black facial mask, the upper part of the body are black while the underparts are white although spotted and with a black band.  

Until the 1980s they were only found on islands off the coast of Namibia and South Africa.  The Boulders Beach colony, which is where we saw them, did not exist until then.  The African Penguin is endangered and it is feared that it could be extinct within 15 years.

Here at Boulders Beach they are found at the beach:

Penguins at Boulders Beach

and on rocks:

Penguins on the Rocks (Not a New Style of Drink)

as well as on the grassy areas adjacent to the beach as in the case of these two love birds.

Penguins in the Grass (Holding Flippers)

OK – they’re probably not actually holding hands and I’m guilty of anthropomorphizing them shamelessly.  But I couldn’t resist both taking the picture and sharing it with you.  And it is apparently true that they are monogamous and each pair returns to the same site each year.  This is true of some of the penguins we saw in Antarctica as well.

The newborn penguins have fluffy downy feathers and which they gradually molt.

Molting Juvenile Penguin

This one was almost done molting, and they can’t go into the water until they have reached the adult plumage.

Next it’s on to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

Part 4 - Cape Town - 33. Day 11 (Aug 27) – Arriving in Cape Town

And so we come to Cape Town (two words), now the second biggest city in South Africa.  For many years, it was the biggest city until the discovery of gold and diamonds led to the growth of Johannesburg – much like what the discovery of gold did to San Francisco.

South Africa has three capitals, of which Cape Town is the legislative capital.  (Pretoria is the administrative capital and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital, although the Constitutional Court of South Africa sits in Johannesburg.)  There is some dispute as to whether these three cities are de facto capitals because they are where the legislature, the courts, and the administrative centers are placed, or whether they have legal basis.

The placing of various parts of the government in different locations has historical basis. The Republic of South Africa dates from 1961 and replaced the former Union of South Africa, which was formed from four separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony, and Orange River Colony.  Cape Town, the capital of Cape Colony, had a flourishing legislature and thus become the seat of the Union’s legislature.  

(Voting for the Cape Legislature was originally based on the Cape Qualified Franchise which gave the vote to all property-owning men, without regard to race.  But this changed so that in 1930 white women were allowed to vote.  In 1931, a property requirement for white voters was eliminated.  In 1936, black voters were restricted to voting for a separate black legislature.  In 1958, the same provision was applied to coloured voters.  And in 1960 and 1970, blacks and coloureds were effectively disenfranchised.) 

Cape Town is, not surprisingly, situated on the Cape Peninsula.  Our trip included visits to various places there, including the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point (not quite the same as the Cape of Good Hope), Boulder’s Beach (where the Jackass Penguin resides), and Simon’s Town.  Off the coast is Robben Island, site of the infamous prison where Nelson Mandela and many others were imprisoned as part of the repression by the apartheid regime.  Subsequent posts will include descriptions of these areas and other places in Cape Town.

Cape Town is one of the most diverse cities in the world, both in terms of human population and plants.  Before apartheid much of the city was multiracial and multicultural.  When the racist policies of apartheid enforced segregated living areas, the multiracial areas were purged or demolished, almost always to the disadvantage of the blacks and coloureds.  We were supposed to visit District Six, which when it was declared a whites-only area in 1965 had all the housing demolished and over 60,000 black and coloured residents forcibly removed.  (I’ve previously mentioned why we did not get to visit District Six and will try not to harp on that further.)

The apartheid policies resulted in the establishment of “labour preference areas” in which only certain of the non-white population, based on race, were given preference for the mostly menial jobs.  Cape Town was an area that gave preference to coloureds rather than blacks. To this day the population of the city, 3.74 million, is 42% coloured, 39% black, 15.5% white, and 1.5% Asian.  These figures, from the 2011 census, are based on self-reporting of race.

Cape Town is also an area where Afrikaans is a dominant language.  The first language of 36% of the population is Afrikaans, 30% Xhosa, and 28% English.  

Housing is an important need in South Africa, and while perhaps a bit less than other places, it is still a problem in Cape Town with a significant amount of substandard housing.  About 20% of the population live in “informal structures” (aka shacks), 6% have no electricity, 13% do not have water piped to the dwelling. 

As for biodiversity, the area has nearly double the number of species of plants just on Table Mountain than in all of the United Kingdom.  (Table Mountain, as we’ll discuss later in this post, is a major mountain that is part of Cape Town and forms part of the Table Mountain National Park.)

So, in short, Cape Town is a city with a rich and varied history.  It is a busy and vibrant place, at least in many parts.  On the day we arrived, in winter with alternating clouds and rain, I took a few photos just driving around the city.

Cape Town - 1

Cape Town - 2

Cape Town - 3

The central part of Cape Town is located in what is called City Bowl, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and Table Mountain Park on the other.  The photo below was taken several days after our arrival, when the weather had somewhat improved and we were on a boat heading to Robben Island (see subsequent post).  Table Mountain is in the center of the photo, and you can see how flat a top it really is.  It is about 3,500 feet high and there is a cableway to the top of the mountain.  

Table Mountain

To the left of Table Mountain is a mountain called Lion’s Head and to the right is Devil’s Peak.  Our trip was supposed to include a cableway ride to the top of the mountain but the day that was supposed to happen there was a “table cloth” on the mountain – i.e., a cloud cover and rain, and the cableway was closed.

Also in Cape Town is the Castle of Good Hope, a star fort dating from the 17^th Century, which is considered the best preserved example of a Dutch East India Company fort.  (And if you really want to know what a star fort is, and why it is the shape it is, go here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_fort).

Castle of Good Hope

The fort is located inland off the coast forming the water side of the City Bowl.  The Castle was originally on the bay itself but land reclamation has deprived it of its position next to the water, just as is true of many of the streets inland from the present San Francisco waterfront.  

We also passed the area known as the Company’s Garden.

Company's Garden

Like the Castle of Good Hope, this area was developed in the middle of the 17^th Century to aid ships of the Dutch East India Company in their voyages from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).  The fort helped protect the routes where the ships traversed the treacherous waters of the Cape of Good Hope.  The Company’s Garden grew fresh produce to replenish ships.  It uses water from the springs on the lower slopes of Table Mountain.  Among the features of the garden are the oldest cultivated pear tree in South Africa (dating from the building of the Garden), a fish pond, and an aviary.  During the optional part of our tour, some members of our group went to the Company’s Garden.  We chose instead to visit Robben Island.

The last part of Cape Town we visited this first day was the area known as Bo-Kaap, an Afrikaans term meaning top cape.  The area is today best known for the very colorful houses which are painted a variety of anything but subtle colors.

Bo-Kaap - 1

Bo-Kaap - 2

Bo-Kaap - 3

But the real story of Bo-Kaap, which is fighting gentrification, is much more than just brightly colored houses.

The area was racially and culturally diverse in the pre-apartheid days and was inhabited by both Europeans and Asians.  In 1834, slavery was abolished in the Cape Colony and many of the slaves who had been brought to Cape Town by the Dutch during the 16^th and 17^th centuries settled in Bo-Kapp.  About the same time, Islam was introduced in Cape Town and resonated with the former slaves at least in part because it was not the religion of the oppressor.  The first mosque in South Africa is found here, as are many other mosques.

These former slaves and their descendants, who had been brought from Africa, Indonesia, Java, Malaysia, and elsewhere in Asia, were called “Cape Malays”, even though most were not entirely of Malaysian descent.  Nonetheless, there are parts of Indonesian vocabulary in Bo-Kaap’s dialect such as “trim-makaasi” (thank-you) and “kanalah” (please).  Because the people were incorrectly known as Cape Malays, the area became known as the Malay Quarter.

Historically (i.e., pre-apartheid), up to 40% of the neighborhood was Christian even through the dominant religion was Muslim.  Under apartheid it was designated a Malay area under the Group Areas Act and was one of the only sections of the central area of Cape Town that had nonwhite residents.  

So, why are the houses painted the bright colors?  That’s a good question (says he who doesn’t really know the answer).  But the best I’ve been able to find out is that the colors date from the end of apartheid in the 1990s and represent a way to express happiness and joy and thus became a neighborhood tradition.  The custom (or rule?) is that the owners may paint their homes any color as long as there is variety.

Tomorrow we continue of exploration of the Cape Town area, and have a most wonderful visit with a legend of the South African judiciary.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

32. Day 11 (Aug 27) -- A Bit of France

As most of you know, I’m a Francophile.  I freely admit this.  So, finding a bit of France in South Africa – in a town known as Franschhoek – was a pleasant surprise.  Given that many of the white European settlers of South Africa came from the Netherlands, it should not be a surprise that some of these settlers were French Huguenot.  And in 1688 a group of 176 such Huguenots were given land by the Dutch government in a valley called Olifantshoek or Elephant’s Corner because elephants crossed into the valley to give birth to their babies.  Later the name was changed to “Le Coin Français” which means French corner in French.  And subsequently the name became Franschhoek which also means French corner but this time in Dutch.

(The Huguenots were French Protestants, principally followers of John Calvin, who had fled France due to prosecution by the French government.  France had earlier provided freedom of conscience to French Protestants under the Edict of Nantes in 1598.  This was the act of the formerly Protestant King Henry IV of France, who renounced Protestantism and accepted Catholicism in order to be crowned King of France and be able to live in Paris.  He is famous for the statement made at that time, “Paris is well worth a mass,” although there is some controversy as to whether he actually said it.  However 67 years later, under a different king, Louis XIV, the Edict of Nantes was revoked and the Edict of Fontainebleu was issued.  This edict led to the prosecution and exile of the French Huguenots, who might have been Protestant rather than Catholic but were nonetheless French.)

Back in Franschhoek, South Africa, there is a Huguenot Monument at one end of the town,  designed by J.C. Jongens and completed in 1945.

Huguenot Monumnet, Franschhoek

The symbolism of the monument is not obscure.  The three high arches represent the Holy Trinity.  The sun on the spire atop the middle arch is the sun of righteousness and the cross represents their Christian faith.  The female figure represents religious freedom with a bible in one hand and a broken chain in the other.  The cloak she is discarding is the cloak of oppression and she stands on top of the globe to show spiritual freedom.  There is a fleur-de-lis on her robe because she is, after all, French even after all these many years.  On the globe, at the southern tip (where South Africa lies) are symbols of the Huguenots’ religion (bible), art and culture (harp), agriculture (corn sheaf), viticulture (grape vine), and industry (spinning wheel).  In the front of the monument is a water pond which expresses the undisturbed tranquility of mind and spiritual peace the Huguenots experienced here in Franschhoek after so much conflict and strife.

I have to admit that I find the description of the symbolism interesting, although not compelling.  My source is the Wikipedia article on the monument, which cites no authority for its statements, a rare occurrence in Wikipedia and even rarer there is no noting or questioning that lack of citation of authority.

Franschhoek is a small and fairly quiet town, at least on the winter day that we visited it. 

Franschhoek

The town is by no means exclusively French.  For example, this homage to bacon complete with a couple of angelic pigs in the front of the restaurant.

Mmm - Bacon

You probably can’t read the handwritten sign in the middle of the picture but it states one of the “favourites” of the restaurant is “bacon bread French toast, maple syrup, cinnamon sugar and streaky bacon” pronouncing it as “porktastic!” (Exclamation mark in the original.)  (For those of you who haven’t been exposed to the food of our cousins across the pond, streaky bacon is their name for what we call simply bacon.  Bacon in the UK is a leaner and more like, but not exactly, what we call Canadian bacon.)

The town has a number of picturesque little alleys.

Franschhoek Alley

as well as some shopping arcades that could be mistaken for those in Paris.

Shopping Arcade

Signs in the town often express a very French attitude. 

French Attitude (with Which I Agree)

The blending of the French with the South African is seen in such things as this piece of cloth which with something that should be the official emblem of Franschhoek (but probably isn’t).

Probably Not the Official Emblem

The inclusion of elephants in the emblem seems very appropriate once you know the former name of this area (given earlier in this post).   There are elephants combined with French motifs in other places in Franschhoek as well.

Elephant Head Cork Holder

Street names are what must be described as a mashup between French and Dutch.

What Language?

Sometimes we find that well-known extension of French influence (although they would protest mightily at my stating so), namely the Walloon portion of Belgium.

Mmm - Chocolate

Franschhoek has a restaurant that Wikipedia says has won an award as one of the 50 best restaurants in the world.  The restaurant, The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français ranked #36 on the 2011 list but is not to be found on the list in 2014.  The following photo is of some restaurant in Franschhoek that is probably not an award winner but is definitely a very picturesque place to have a meal (which we did not have).

Restaurant

It is not only the town itself, but the surrounding area that gives Franschhoek its reputation as one of the nicest places to live in South Africa.  So, as we now leave Franschhoek to go to Cape Town, we get a glimpse of that surrounding area.

Countryside

Yes, those are waterfalls a bit off center to the right.  I think they are highly seasonal but picturesque none the less.

Next stop – Cape Town.

Link to Full Resolution Photos