Jenn and I went to South Africa for the last week or two of November. Jenn had a work conference in Cape Town so I followed her a few days later. The trip was absolutely incredible!

Cape Town is a large city, not unlike many others we’ve seen. There is quite a bit of beautiful old Dutch architecture alongside more modern skyscrapers. Naturally, one can see a large income disparity in the city, with parts being beautiful and clean and other areas pretty sketchy- not so different from Chicago or any other large, bustling city.

On my first morning in the city, I walked to the V&A Waterfront. It’s a lovely part of the city along the docks. I’d guess it’s pretty new and wealthy part of town. The aquarium is here, along with a massive ship repair yard. The Watershed Market has many merchants with handmade goods. Later in the day, Jenn and I took a ‘Three Bays tour’ helicopter ride from the Waterfront. This took us south past Hout Bay and back north behind Table Mountain.

The next day we took the cable car up Table Mountain. We were lucky to visit on the only clear day we were in Cape Town. We also stopped by Signal Hill to hear the noon gun (canon firing at noon) before passing through the Bo Kaap neighborhood, known for it’s colorful houses. For dinner, we went to Gold Restaurant and enjoyed a fantastic dinner comprised of dishes from many different countries in Africa. They also performed traditional dances and sang during the meal. It was a really neat experience.

On Saturday we did a driving tour to the Cape of Good Hope and Hout Bay. We managed to see baboons not far from the cape! After the cape, we went to see an African Penguin colony.

The following day we spent at Kirstenbosch gardens. The botanical gardens were incredible. There were so many different types of flowers and trees (and even birds!). I never remember in the planning stages of our trips how much I enjoy botanical gardens. Thankfully Jenn makes sure we see them. Near Kirstenbosch was a Sunday market in which we spent a few hours browsing.

Monday, we headed to Hermanus for whale watching. Sadly, the weather was against us and none of the boats went out. We walked along the shore at Hermanus for a bit, before heading to another penguin colony and Monkey Town (where a monkey stole Jenn’s phone!) before heading back to Cape Town.

On Thursday, we left Cape Town and flew to Kruger National Park for our Safari. We were very excited as we’d not yet experienced a Safari. It was everything we could have hoped for. The lodge we stayed at, Klaserei Sands, was amazing- the accommodations were great, the food was incredible and our Tracker and Ranger were a fantastic team that lead us to every animal we’d hoped to see and much, much more. Over the next four days we were able to see a dizzying array of animals including Elephant, Giraffe, Kudu, Impala, Wildebeast, Buffalo, Hyena, Zebra, Spitting Cobra, Lion, Leopard, Painted Dogs, Hippo, Rhino, Duiker, Cheetah and more, as well as countless different birds.

It was an amazing trip! We would love to go back some day.