Holy hippopotamus, we’re in Africa! After nearly 8 months of world travel, we’re finally on the home stretch, and both visiting the African continent for the first time. Our plans over the 3 weeks we’re here include some time in Cape Town, a self-drive safari in Namibia to Etosha, a few days in Joburg, a 1-week private safari in the Kruger, followed (finally) by our flight home to Seattle via Dubai!

We decided to stay in Cape Town at the Hippo Boutique Hotel in Gardens due to the neighborhood’s relative safety and proximity to restaurants and hikes. It also must be noted that Amanda loves hippos, which may have played into our choice ever so slight. We loved how spacious our room was, and how the supply of rooibos tea and dunkers was always kept full. Anyhow, we quickly got our priorities in order and purchased some biltong, and also paid a visit to the Nando’s across the street from us.

The next day, we went on a full day Cape Point tour with our guide Rob from Cape Convoy. I don’t think Rob would be offended in the least when I say that this guy will not shut up. By the end of the day, all 4 of Shamanda’s ears were talked off, our heads were spinning, our senses were overloaded, our batteries were on empty (you get the idea). That said, we checked off a bunch of sights we wanted to see, including Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, and Hout Bay. And we got some lovely pictures, including the rare shot of both of us (that isn’t a selfie).

Our other main priority in Cape Town was exploring the mountains on foot. Instead of hiking Table Mountain we opted for Lion’s Head, which is a more straightforward route, and has huge payoff view-wise. We spent a couple hours doing the 5-km trip, including snack time at the top (biltong, of course). The hike is fairly easy with 500-m of climbing, but does include two ladders and some scrambling near the top. We encountered a bunch of hyrax at the top who wanted our snacks (one of whom bared its teeth at Amanda). Interestingly, hyrax are more closely related to elephants than to the rodents they resemble.

We had our last dinner in Cape Town at Chalk & Cork, which we totally enjoyed and recommend. We were sad to have only discovered Devil’s Peak beer at the end of our time here, or else we would have visited the brewery.

Early the next morning we were off to the airport for our flight to Windhoek, Namibia. More about our self-drive safari soon.