Cape Town and Western Cape Map
Cape Town, at the southern tip of Africa where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet, has one of the most beautiful settings of any major city in the world. Surrounded by the flat-topped Table Mountain, the city centre is striking in itself. Just outside of the city is a lush wine growing area, the glorious Cape of Good Hope, and mountainous areas. The variety of flowering plants in the Cape Province of South Africa is bewildering. All in all, a fortunately situated city that I was lucky to spend some time in in 1997.
Photo List (Total 181 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Cape Town City (55 photos) - Photos of the city of Cape Town, including buildings, and a visit to the top of Table Mountain. This gallery also includes photos of the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which is stunningly beatiful.
Surrounding areas
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Cape of Good Hope (21 photos) - Immediately south of Cape Town, almost in it's suburbs, is a point of land where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. Gorgeous scenery down the cape.
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Wine Region (24 photos) - We spent a number of days touring wineries in the Western Cape region, which is really quite beautiful. Here are photos of us sampling the wares, and lots of Cape Dutch architecture.
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Karoo National Park and Matjiesfontein (55 photos) - After the wine region, we went through the Franschhoek Pass and arrived in a strange hotel in a town called Matjiesfontein. The hotel had decayed grounds with a pool you wouldn't put a toe in, and a cactus garden that had seen better days. But the place had a kind of faded majesty about it, and I recall standing in the cactus garden at dusk and watching trucks go by, pondering how different life could be. Then we went to Karoo National Park, and ended getting sort of lost on a walking trail, where Jim and I ended up following a trail that was meant to be done in three days, on one little bottle of water. It was almost scary, especially when we realized how very far we were from our hotel.
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Tsitsikamma National Park and a steam train ride in Knysna (26 photos) - We went down to the coast again after venturing inland to Tsitsikamma National Park. There, I ruined my camera by wanting a photograph of myself in the spray from the sea crashing in on the rocks, but at least I survived. We also took a very cool steam train ride from Knysna along the coast.
