CAPE TOWN,

SOUTH AFRICA –

CLOUDY START – DAY 1

Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 6:00 AM, Temperature: 64 Degrees, Humidity: 85%, Wind: NW 17.3 mph.

We’ve finally hit some cooler weather! We’re just a little further South than Sidney, Australia, but it’s almost a month and a half later – early Fall here. Although our starting temperatures are about the same, it didn’t warm up as it had earlier in Australia. The high was about 72 degrees, perfect in our book!

Many people had told us what a great city Cape Town is – they didn’t exaggerate! Bright, modern & busy – lots of cars and freeways. The Guide on our tour on Day Two said the freeways were built in the 1970s and wouldn’t be “allowed” by today’s standards (more in tomorrow’s Day Two Blog). One of the landmarks of Cape Town is Table Mountain, which is just opposite the Zuiderdam. It’s like Mt. McKinley in Alaska (or whatever it is called now), the clouds roll in and out; often, the summit is not visible. This was one of those days for Table Mountain. Cruisers were scheduled for Excursions to the top of Table Mountain via its cableway, but were “out of luck” and rerouted to a nearby museum.

Remnants of early civilizations were dated between 15,000 and 12,000 years old. The first European explorers reached the area in 1488 and named it “Cape of Storms” (fortunately, we didn’t experience any of that). Later, it was renamed “Cape of Good Hope” because of the enthusiasm for the travel route to the India subcontinent and the East Indies.

Like many other cities in this area, Cape Town experienced a Dutch and British period. In 1652, Jan van Riebeech was sent by the East India Company to establish a way station for ships traveling to the Dutch East Indies. Almost all European traders (French, Danish, Dutch, English, and Portuguese) stopped there; Spain established their own “stop” elsewhere. During this time, Cape Town was known as “Tavern of the Seas” – obvious what the sailors were doing during their time in port! A lack of local labor was slowing the growth of the settlement, so local authorities imported enslaved people from Indonesia and Madagascar. They are the ancestors of many modern-day Cape Town communities.

Britain captured Cape Town in 1795 but returned it to the Dutch by treaty in 1803. British forces occupied the Cape again in 1806 and it was permanently ceded to the United Kingdom in 1814. Cape Town is the oldest city in South Africa and is known as The Mother City. It was founded in 1652, 373 years ago.

Cape Town is today a bustling port city with a population of 4.7 million. It is the legislative capital of South Africa; the Parliament is based there. Cape Town is the second largest city in South Africa, after Johannesburg.

Everyone (crew and guests) on the ship underwent a one-on-one Immigration check when we entered Africa at Richards Bay on March 21. We showed our passports and received an official stamp. It wasn’t required in Durban, but we had to do it again in Cape Town (and when we depart the next day). We had no Excursion scheduled today; we boarded the city-provided Shuttle Bus for a trip to the V&A Waterfront. I assumed it was named for Queen Victoria and her husband, Albert, NOT! It was named after Queen Victoria and her son, Prince Alfred. When Britain determined that it needed to develop a better Harbor area in Cape Town, it brought in a Dutch engineer to build a retaining wall and create additional land from rock and sand. Queen Victoria sent her son, Alfred, to supervise the project.

Because of its old-fashioned name, I was expecting a charming seaside collection of quaint, British-style shops – NOT! It’s an amazing, large shopping complex with numerous shops and restaurants – in fact, as we were walking around, we ran into friends from Australia who had disembarked from the ship that morning. They are staying in Africa for a two-week Safari. Guess it's a small world after all; we joined them for lunch. We also encountered many of the ship’s crew. They always make the most of their time in port and love to sightsee and shop during their very limited time off. There was a large merry-go-round and our first view of the Atlantic Ocean since we left Fort Lauderdale 80 days ago!