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South Africa History Highlights

Early History:

*The original people in South Africa were the San or Bushmen, who were nomads and hunter-gatherers, and the Khoi, who were herders who had land.

*The first Europeans to land in South Africa were the Portuguese in 1488.

*The first European settlers were the Dutch.  In 1652, representatives of the Dutch East India Company built a food-supply station for their ships in the Cape Town area.

*The British first arrived in 1795, with settlers coming in 1806.

*Between 1658 and 1834 (when slavery was outlawed), 60,000 slaves were brought to the Cape area from India, Southeast Asia, and other parts of Africa.

*The British ruled South Africa as a colony until it was given its independence in 1910.

*Today South Africa has three capitals, spread over the country:  Cape Town (legislative, where the Houses of Parliament are located), Bloemfontein (judicial), and Pretoria (administrative).

Treasures Discovered:

Two of South Africa's largest cities were created in the areas where treasures were discovered.  In 1866 diamonds were discovered in what is today's Kimberley area, and the discovery of gold in 1886 led to the development of Johannesburg, a city nowhere near a lake, river or coastline.

Race:

Racial separation and the denial of black South African rights began in 1652 with the arrival of the Dutch.  In 1948, the official policy of apartheid (an Afrikaans term meaning "apartness") was established.  It wasn't until April 27, 1994, that the first democratic election was held in South Africa.  Nelson Mandela was elected president, the first black man to hold this office in what had always been a white-dominated government and country.

Travel Tips Links

Cynthia, Leanne, Connie and Sue

Last September four of us spent two weeks in South Africa, with six days in and around Cape Town on the southwest coast on the Atlantic Ocean, and six days on safari at Zulu Nyala in the province of KwaZulu-Natal on the east coast near the Indian Ocean. It was a trip filled with amazing scenery, historic sites, friendly people and beautiful beasts.

Touring Cape Town

In Cape Town we stayed at the Villa Victoria, a Victorian home remodeled into a cozy B&B.  Set in the Garden District, on the way from downtown to Table Mountain, the Villa Victoria provided a very welcome home to return to after our days of exploring.  The hospitality of the manager Lou Ann and her staff went above and beyond usual B&B service, providing us with a cell phone to use during our stay programmed with all the essential telephone numbers we would need, tea and cookies in the afternoon, and delicious South African wine in the evening.

Cape Town and Table Mountain

We spent our first day riding the hop-on/hop-off City Sightseeing Bus, a double-decker with an open top (someone called it the "topless bus").  Under a clear blue sky it was the perfect vehicle to view the stunning scenery of Cape Town with its contrasts of mountains and water views.  After a short tour through several locales, including District Six (the area devastated by the authorities during apartheid), we got off in the heart of downtown.  We walked through the outdoor mall, with its stands of bright African paintings, leather goods, and the noisy vuvuselas, the plastic horns made famous by the World Cup fans.  We toured St. George's Cathedral, including an exhibit in the basement about the apartheid years.  In 1989 it was from this cathedral that Archbishop Desmond Tutu heralded the end of apartheid by leading thirty thousand people on a march to City Hall, proclaiming that "We are the rainbow people."  We wandered through the remnants of the Company Gardens, now a beautiful park.  The gardens were established in 1652 to supply fresh produce to the Dutch East Indian Company ships travelling between the Netherlands and the Far East.

Picking up the bus again, we headed through the Garden District to the

Beautiful Condos at Camps Bay

foot of Table Mountain.  Since we were postponing our exploration of this landmark to another day, we stayed on the bus to Camps Bay on the Atlantic Ocean.  After a short frolic on the white sands of the beach, we found a great restaurant for a late lunch.  We sat outside and enjoyed the sun, the view, and our first meal of Cape Town fish.  Back on the bus, we completed the tour of this area where the road perches directly over the sea and winds through the modern apartments and condos built on the hills.  Coming back into downtown, we passed the modern soccer stadium built for the World Cup:  the stadium itself resembles a huge, somewhat deflated soccer ball.

Dinner was at the Opal Lounge, an atmospheric restaurant in our neighborhood.  Besides wonderful food and wine, including plenty of seafood, we made the acquaintance of four Cape Town women seated at a table near us.  Soon all eight of us were chatting up a storm.  The women worked at Woolworth's (not the five-and-dime store of our childhoods but an upscale department store with a high-end food mart).  We had such a delightful time with them that we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet up again during our time in Cape Town.

The Winelands

Today we took our first excursion out of Cape Town to the Winelands. 

Shanty Town outside Cape Town.

The beginning of the trip was a sobering experience as we passed the miles of shanty town on the outskirts of Cape Town and heard from our guide the story of the folks who lived there due to the dire housing shortage, not just in Cape Town but in all the cities of South Africa.  It was a stark contrast to the waterfront condos we had seen the day before in Camps Bay.

Our first stop was a cheetah sanctuary, where our love affair with this magnificent animal began. We even got to enter an enclosure and pet one of the cheetahs (after being disinfected and told how we must behave).

Cynthia, Connie at the Cheetah Preserve

Continuing on we began to see the famed Cape Dutch style architecture as we passed through the small towns, such as Stellenbosch, founded by the early Dutch settlers.  We stopped at Muratie Wine Estate, a 300-year-old winery (the cobwebs in the corners of the windows are supposedly original!) for a tasting then ventured on to Franschhoek, nestled among the vineyards.  We headed up into the hills above the town for lunch at the ultra-modern Dieu

Franschhoek Wine Region

Donne Winery, a major contrast to Muratie.  Lunch was another fine South African meal, on the terrace overlooking the beautiful valleys, of course accompanied by more fabulous South Africa wine.  After lunch, we stopped in Franschhoek with its exquisite chocolate shop (just one piece each!), boutiques and art galleries filled with bright South African paintings.

Robben Island and the Harbor

We started the day at the Victoria and Alfred Harbor in the Nelson Mandela Museum, which tells the story of those who actively opposed apartheid.  From the museum, we took a boat out to Robben Island, where many Africans, including Mandela, were incarcerated for political

Nelson Mandela's Cell on Robben Island

activities.  Robben Island is no longer a prison but a monument to those who suffered and died for freedom in South Africa.  Our tour leader was a former prisoner - he had been imprisoned for gun running - and he took us through the cell blocks, including Mandela's cell, and explained the awful results of apartheid.  Back at the harbor, we had another fish-filled lunch with tasty local beer at an outdoor caf�, where we watched the varied waterfront activities, followed by an exploration of the shops.  All four of us concluded we could live happily in this beautiful city.

Table Mountain and Around the Cape

This morning we rode the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, which rises 3,563 feet above Cape Town, to take in the stupendous views of the

View of Cape Town and Atlantic Ocean from Table Mountain.

city and the Atlantic Ocean.  Charl, our guide for the day, was knowledgeable on everything about Cape Town and had a dry sense of humor.  A retired government worker who had helped with the implementation of the new constitution after apartheid ended, he provided a context for all of the sights and people we'd encountered.  From Table Mountain we started our journey south around the cape, with our first stop at Boulders to experience the antics of the penguins at this oceanside reserve.  Then we drove along the amazing Chapman's Peak Drive on a road hewn out of the rock and perched right above the sea.  The scenery was magnificent; the road was a bit scary.  As we pulled into the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, we stopped to watch the troupe of baboons who live in the park.  We took lots of photos at the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, marveling at the ocean's strength and beauty, and the fact that we were nearly at the southern tip of the African continent.

Flowers, History and New Friends

In the morning we toured Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, nestled below the backside of Table Mountain. The magnificent gardens are filled with 22,000 indigenous plants, including oodles of the colorful

New Friends in Cape Town

proteas.  In the afternoon we visited the District Six museum, dedicated to showing the atrocious actions of dismantling one of the truly multi-ethnic/multi-cultural areas of Cape Town during apartheid.  That night

two of our new-found friends from the Opal Lounge (and one gal's mother) came to Villa Victoria for wine and appetizers, bringing with them goodies from Woolworth's food mart and a special Indian dish.  It was a great way to get to know some South Africans, one of the best things about traveling to other countries.  

Traveling from Cape Town to Zulu Nyala

This was a travel day, with flights from Cape Town to Johannesburg and Jo'burg to Richard's Bay, on the east coast, followed by a van ride to Zulu Nyala, the private game reserve where we were "goin' on safari" with cameras, of course, not guns.

On Safari at Zulu Nyala

At Zulu Nyala we spent our first three nights in tents in an area near a Zulu village, where from our porch we could watch animals as they meandered by on their way to a nearby watering hole.  The tents were quite luxurious with full bathrooms including both a bathtub and a shower,

Cynthia in tent at Zulu Nyala

and our front porches were the perfect perch for a morning cup of coffee and game viewing.  The tents themselves proved to be a bit noisy the night we had a windstorm:  it sounded like we were sleeping on a sailboat with the sails flapping above us. On the subject of noise, whispering was required so we didn't disturb our tented neighbors, not to mention the animals grazing just out front.

Our second three nights were at the main lodge, perched on the top of a hill with great views of the reserve. The meals at both camps were excellent buffets with fresh baked croissants in the morning and a

Warthog = Dinner

different wild game (such as wildebeest) on the menu each night. Cynthia ate warthog one night and said it tasted just like pot roast.  After dinner our first night, we were entertained by young, vigorous Zulu dancers in authentic costumes who kicked higher and faster than any can-can dancers. 

We went on nine game drives while at Zulu Nyala - most in the reserve

Ranger Gerrit

and a few outside.  Gerrit, our young and energetic ranger, was bound to show these women from America every species of animal in the reserve as up-close and personal as possible.  We went for drives early each morning and late each afternoon, riding on bench seats built over the bed of the truck.  The seats gave us clear views of the animals.  The 5,000-acre reserve is a maze of dirt roads and trails, and we explored all of them (some several times) as we searched for new animals.  We saw giraffe, zebra, warthogs, African deer (nyala, impala and kudu), crocodiles, hippos, monkeys, cheetahs, rhinos, Cape buffalo, and the rear-end of an elusive leopard.

Mama Cheetah

One special experience was to watch a mama cheetah fend off two aggressive male cheetahs, after pushing her four cubs to safety on the other side of a fence.  It was high drama in the animal kingdom.  We also loved watching a huge mama white rhino act as a sunscreen to her baby rhino, named Jamie for the Zulu guide who first discovered the newborn.

On one of our excursions outside the reserve (to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve), two of us saw elephants, baboons and hyenas feasting on giraffe bones.  On our excursion to Phinda Private Game Reserve, we encountered a group of lions (mama, grandma, auntie, and three cubs) who conveniently crossed right behind our truck to a location where we could take better pictures of them, and several elephants, one of which caused us to hurriedly back down the road because the elephant wanted to go where we were parked!    

Hyena with giraffe leg

Elephant at Phinda

Twice we were treated to happy hour South African style.  Our driver found us a beautiful spot and soon a chilled bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc, wine glasses, soft drinks and appetizers materialized out of the back of the truck, and we toasted our good fortune and new friends as the sun set over the bush.

Lion at Phinda

At Zulu Nyala we met folks from all over the world.  Two great gals from New England were on our animal drives with us, and we shared several meals and lots of laughs with two women from Tacoma.  After Zulu Nyala, two of us went on to St. Lucia on the Indian Ocean for a few days, while the other two flew to Jo'burg and then home.

We had a great couple of weeks on our trip and are now busy putting together a new destination for BookLover's Travel: South Africa.