The city of beautiful landscapes

Finally some time to chill, and not having to worry about work, we drove our car to the Joburg Tambo airport, where the rental service picked it up, and we boarded the plane to Cape Town. Flight went well, and our shuttle to the hotel was there in time. After we got our stuff to our room, we headed to the pool for the next few hours. When everyone had had their share of the sun, we booked a shuttle to the Waterfront, which revealed to be a really beautiful place with lots of tourists, great atmosphere and the smell of fresh fish! After wandering around for a certain amount of time, we booked a few tours to go along during the weekend, picked up some groceries, and headed to the hotel to prepare ourselves to the next day.

Weekend started with a tour along the Clifton beaches and the Camps Bay. Next stop was a harbor at Hout Bay and then we continued all the way south, to the Table Mountain National park. There we stopped at the Cape Point, where we climbed to the lighthouse for a fantastic view of the False Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. We also visited Cape of Good hope, which is the most south-western point of the African continent. From there our journey continued to Simon's Town, where the Naval base of the military is located. There we saw penguins at so close distance, that you could have pet them, which we of course didn't because they bite really hard, if you try to do so.



After the tour had ended we had a lunch in Waterfront, which were followed by some quick showers at the hotel, so that we could explore the Long Streets nightlife, which was located only one kilometer away from our accommodation. We went to different bars and enjoyed the local nightlife to the little hours, after which we got safely back to Best Western.

In spite of the late Saturday night Anniina, Jussi and Katariina were cheery enough to wake up early in the Saturday morning. We visited the famous wine area of Cape Town called Stellenbosch. Our guide Pim picked us up at 8 am from our hotel. Luckily the weather was very beautiful and it was not too hot. The views were amazing while we drove to Stellenbosch.

First we visited a small wine farm called Hazendal. The place was very pretty and the wines were excellent. It was our first time ever to do wine tasting so luckily we got Pim and the waiter who guided us. After Hazendal we headed to Blaauwklippen. It was a bigger farm and breathtakingly beautiful. The last farm we visited was Spiers. After the pleasant trip we headed to the hotel with a couple of wine bottles. After a quick lunch we took a taxi to Camps Bay beach where our other three group members were lying on the white sand.

In the evening we went to see the Table Mountain. It was very windy and cold up there but the incredible view was something that’s difficult to forget. The sunset was very beautiful and we took hundreds of pictures. We met Safipa and Nokia groups there too. After the sunset we took a taxi to Waterfront where we ate a lovely dinner.

On Sunday we headed to Waterfront again because the boat to Robben Island left at Nelson Mandela Gateaway at 9 am. First we toured around the island by bus and our guide Nandi told everything about the history of the island. We saw many interesting places like an old lighthouse and prisons. After the bus tour we visited the Maximum Security Prison where we were guided by an ex-political prisoner Glen. The place was very touching and interesting. We even saw Nelson Mandela’s former prison cell. After this historical part of our trip we had a lunch in Waterfront.

In the afternoon it was time to say goodbye to beautiful Cape Town. It would have been great to spend a couple more days in Cape Town but it was time to travel back to cosy Pretoria.