My initial thoughts last week when I boarded a plane to South Africa’s Cape Town to cover a SONY Conference for Africa turned around the idea that I was going to have average fun in just another African city.

I thought I would perhaps enjoy walking in dust-filled streets, eat chicken and beef cooked in a well done style with lots of rice or green banana, as well as swim in one lake or two. And why not end my days here in my average travel style with a beer, just like I do when I kill a Mutzig in Kigali, a Bell Lager in Kampala, or a Tusker in Nairobi.

But I was wrong. Little had I bothered to research more or easily figure out that I was going to be in the most southern part of the continent whose mountainous topography and full access to both the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean make it some kind of a paradise.

Well, for one thing: I like looking at and swimming in large waters and sunbathing at sunny beaches. But I am also very fond of a mountainous topography, especially when there are rocks on the hills. I normally enjoy looking at both when I get a chance to be at the shores of Lake Kivu in Kibuye, south-western Rwanda, and my appetite for this was well filled when I spent a day visiting Table Mountains National Park in Cape Town.

What if I talk about visiting the park before I come back to issues of how my expectations of walking in the dust, drinking beer, or eating well done meat were all compelled to fade?

Officials at Table Mountain National Park say it’s a must-visit for anyone in Cape Town, whether they are local or international visitors, and I would like to agree.

The park is among natural world heritage sites certified by world cultural and scientific organisation UNESCO and it was voted among the new seven wonders of nature by 100 million people from across the world during polls that were concluded in 2011.

It is a place where wonderful mountains stand into the seas whose long beaches are covered with either white sands or rocks of the Cape Peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. The mountain chain stretches from Signal Hill in the north, to Cape Point in the South and is also home to the world’s smallest, yet most diverse floral kingdom, The Cape Floristic Region, which UNESCO put on its World Heritage List.

While must-sees for the park include Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Penguin Colony, Table Mountain, Silvermine, and Signal Hill and Lions Head, I and other journalists invited by SONY were only able to visit the former four sites in this order. 

Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope are found at the southern end of the Cape Peninsula. Standing at the Cape of Good Hope, I had an amazing feeling as the tour guide said that we were at what seemed to be the southernmost part of the African continent for Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias in the 15th century even if it was later believed to be the most south-western point of the continent.

Dias had named the place "Cape of Storms” due to debarkation complications as storms wrecked his vessels in this area but King Juan the Second of Portugal renamed it Cape of Good Hope to encourage future explorations in that direction as he kept hoping that the route would one day lead to India. His dream was finally realised by an expedition led by Vasco da Gama, a success that won the sailor much fame as it made him the first European who sailed to India.

At the Cape Point, a ride in a cable car took us to a high hill from where we had a panoramic view of the ocean and the nearby mountains.

And talking of mountains, a ride in a cable car allowed us to be on top of the Table Mountain, which allowed for wonderful, panoramic, view of the city of Cape Town.

Our visit to the Boulders Penguin Colony in Simons Town was useful for seeing African penguins which are birdlike species that are land-based and remain endangered at the moment.

As we went back to the city, I was feeling happy about the discoveries I had just made by visiting Table Mountain National Park.  And what else did I need next if it wasn’t treating myself to a nice meal and drinks in Cape Town? My average beer was dumped at dinner and I instead made sure to have wine because some of the best are famously made here in South Africa. My ordinary well done meat was replaced by half cooked beef because I knew chefs here would have a better idea of how to make it since they serve the same tourists as the ones I saw in other international cities like Toronto and New York when I first tasted it.

As I boarded a plane back to Rwanda, I knew that I would need to spend at least seven hours on a plane before arriving in Kigali and that I would later have to deal with a terrible jetlag. But I at least knew that I had just visited one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

*****

About Cape of Good Hope

Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope are found at the southern end of the Cape Peninsula. Standing at the Cape of Good Hope, I had an amazing feeling as the tour guide said that we were at what seemed to be the southernmost part of the African continent for Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias in the 15th century even if it was later believed to be the most south-western point of the continent.

Dias had named the place "Cape of Storms” due to debarkation complications as storms wrecked his vessels in this area but King Juan II of Portugal renamed it Cape of Good Hope to encourage future explorations in that direction as he kept hoping that the route would one day lead to India.