Cape Town, Safari Withdrawal & Other Tidbits

This is my 5th post on our recent South African adventure last August. I can't believe we were there only 9 weeks ago. It feels like forever and yesterday all at the same time.  

Cape Town was our final destination before heading back to Sydney and we were pretty weary by this stage of our trip, old farts that we are.  It took me a bit of time to adjust to being back in a city after being immersed in Kruger. A bad case of safari withdrawal I suppose. Quite protracted actually as it's still ongoing. Can anyone give me a cure? My workmates have even offered to dress up as animals so I can track them around the office. 

On a serious note though, I'm planning to return to Africa and do some wildlife conservation volunteering in 2015. We were talking about this over dinner with our friends S & C tonight and they want to come along. I'd love to go next year but we have some family events happening that we need to prioritise. So, if anyone reading this blog can make some recommendations for reputable organisations for wildlife conservation volunteering in Africa I would be so grateful. I just want to make sure we go somewhere that's doing the right thing by the animals and the cause.

We had the lovely Julie Clarke from Cape Splendour Tours take us on a private tour of this beautiful city of Cape Town.  Julie was very professional, knowledgeable and juggled the needs of my family skillfully. Julie has been so helpful even after our trip and has given me some leads on conservation volunteering. Thanks Julie!

Cape Town is so picturesque I figured I can let the photos do the talking.

Hotel room view from the V & A Waterfront Hotel

Waterfront, Cape Town

Groot Constantia

Mountain views from Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Hout Bay

Fishing boats at Hout Bay

Still Hout Bay and ridiculously beautiful

What can I say? Just bloody gorgeous.

I tried to get to know some of the locals.

Geese rugby gone wrong. Is that a Springbok move? Habana's off and running!

Pregnant owl at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

My mom loves this shot of me with this squirrel. 

The bloody things were too quick for me.

Ah, gotcha! You want to meet my cats?

This fella here was more my speed.

I also gathered some interesting tidbits about SA:

• That brilliant movie released in 2009 called "District 9" was inspired by actual events in South Africa during the apartheid regime. The backdrop of the movie is about a population of sick and destitute extraterrestrial aliens (derogatorily called "prawns") who are confined to a government camp outside of Johannesburg called District 9 and the government's attempts to relocate them.  The movie title alludes to District 6, the name of a former residential area in Cape Town. It was declared a "whites only" area by the government in 1966 and over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed and relocated.

• The world's first heart transplant was performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town in 1967.

• South Africa ranks 3rd in the world in supplying safe, drinkable tap water.

• South Africa is the only country in the world to voluntarily abandon its nuclear weapons program.

• Soweto in Johannesburg has the only street in the world to house 2 Nobel Peace prize winners - Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

• South Africa has the cheapest electricity in the world and supplies two-thirds of Africa's electricity.

• The South African grasslands have approximately 30 species per square kilometre- that's greater than the biodiversity of rain forests.

Worth visiting, ja?