🇿🇦 We enjoyed two perfect days in the Cape Town area with sunny, mild weather.

DAY ONE The first day was nerve-racking since the entire ship had to go through immigration. We got up at 5 AM to get in line for a low exit number, in order to get to our transport early enough to make our private e-bike safari with African Eagle Tours that Rich had been planning for months. The seven of us from the ship succeeded and joined our guide Eduard for the 1 Hour drive to the West Cape area.

At Buffelsfontein Game reserve we were fitted with powerful e-mountain bikes with very wide tires that were necessary to ride through the dirt and sand roads and trails in the preserve. We spotted ostriches and herds of wildebeest, eland, zebra, and South Africa’s national animal, the springbok. We were followed by a ranger in a Safari vehicle in case anyone got tired and also to view the white rhinos and Cape Buffalo, which weren’t safe to bike near. The horns of rhinos are cut off to discourage poaching. We also saw a family of giraffes on the entry road while driving in and out. Their lions were in large caged areas. The tour included lunch in a poolside building, and we both had the South African dish of boboti, which was very good.

After lunch we and our bikes were transported to nearby West Coast National Park, a very scenic seaside area. We set off on dirt and rock trails with beautiful ocean vistas; very enjoyable novice level mountain biking. Once we emerged on the Park Road Eduard told us to get the most out of our powerful mountain bikes and we just zoomed along, which was fun.

We returned to the ship around 6:30 pm having had an exhilarating fun day. It was worth all the planning that Rich had done to make this happen, the perfect African representation for our biking around the world endeavor. It was also the priciest excursion at $185USD each.

DAY TWO: We booked via Get Your Guide ($60 USD) a half-day van tour of the Cape Peninsula with Beyond African Safaris. The scenery along the drive down the Cape from Cape Town was simply spectacular, with jagged mountains against the sea. At the Cape of Good Hope, Africa’s southwestern-most point, we fought the crowds for a picture in front of the iconic sign. We drove to Cape Point, home of the famous lighthouse. With limited time and tired legs from the previous day, we opted to take the funicular up to it instead of the steep hiking trail. The coastal views all around the point from there were breathtaking, like Big Sur. Next stop was Boulder Bay penguin reserve, where from a boardwalk we observed lots of African Penguins on Boulder Beach, swimming around near the shore, and even up in the bushes, very fun to watch. Our return drive took us along some tony seaside communities like Camp Bay. Unfortunately we never got to see the main part of Cape Town except driving on random streets on our way in and out of town.