Our day hopping on and off buses continued after the visit to the Castle of Good Hope. We decided against lunch in the center as we wanted to continue immediately along the Cape Town Blue Mini Peninsula Tour. Instead, we planned to take a lunch break at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden.
Cape Town Hop-On Hop-Off – The Blue Line
The Cape Town Blue Mini Peninsula Tour goes around Table Mountain. Three of the main stops are the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, the World of Birds, and the Imizamo Yethu Township. We had decided to concentrate on the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, as it was the sight that Susann was most interested in. The whole route takes around two hours and twenty minutes to drive.
It started to rain almost at once as the bus left downtown Cape Town. You can rely on the weather being unstable in that city! So instead of sitting on the deck, we moved downstairs to get some cover from the rain. It was a day when the weather kept changing and the cold winds made it nice to actually sit covered.
It wasn’t long before we had left the center behind us and then the first stop thereafter was Kirstenbosch.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden: Lunchtime
It still rained as we entered the gardens. From the parking lot the area didn’t look so big. What was mainly visible were the greenhouses that housed the more specific plants. After a short walk in the greenhouses, we decided to try to find the restaurant Moyo that should be located within the park.
It was once we were trying to find the restaurant that we first got an insight in the size of the gardens. Stretching up on the slopes of Table Mountain the gardens looked impressive. But the exploration had to wait until after lunch, both of us were quite hungry at this time.
As is the case with most restaurants within parks and other attractions the Moyo was quite expensive in comparison with its rivals outside of the area. We decided to get something small to eat and were quite surprised when the so-called light snacks turned out to be big enough for a normal meal. Preventing a food coma turned out to be hard, no matter our good intentions.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden: Exploration
The Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden turned out to be the highlight of the day. Our knowledge of the fauna and flora of the area is too limited to describe properly what we actually saw. What I can say is that the gardens themselves had an extensive diversity combined with an amazing background with the impressive Table Mountain guarding the area.
We walked around calmly for quite some time, switching between the larger paved paths and the smaller paths. This was at least until we noticed a sign warning about the snakes that could be found in the area. There were four major species of snakes, with the most famous being the Cape Cobra. After the sign, Susann decided to firmly stay in the center of the main roads and not go on any adventure in the bushes. Even though seeing a Cape Cobra would have been interesting, it is for sure an animal that we wanted to have a proper distance to.
We can really recommend spending more time here, it was the highlight of the day for us and we didn’t even explore all of the gardens.
Continuing the Tour
Eventually, we had to hurry out to catch one of the buses to continue along the route. This time we sat up on deck and even though it was freezing we wanted to see the areas we were passing by. We admired the impressive slopes of the hill with all the different vegetation as well as some occasional buildings. The bus took us along the route passing by the wine district of the cape, the Imizamo Yethu Township, Mariner’s Wharf, Camps Bay, Sea Point and eventually dropping us off at the Waterfront.
Join Us in Exploring Southern Africa
Here are all the posts belonging to the series about our trip to South Africa and Namibia. Read the parts by clicking on the links below:
- Part I: Doha, Qatar
- Part II: Johannesburg, South Africa
- Part III: Traveling To Namibia
- Part IV: Otjiwarongo, Namibia
- Part V: Cheetah Conservation Fund, Namibia
- Part VI: Etosha National Park, Namibia
- Part VII: Omaruru, Namibia
- Part VIII: Okahandja, Namibia
- Part IX: Windhoek, Namibia
- Part X: Cape Town, South Africa
- Part XI: Castle of Good Hope, South Africa
- Part XII: Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, South Africa
- Part XIII: Two Oceans Aquarium, South Africa
- Part XIV: Mariner’s Wharf, South Africa
- Part XV: Groot Constantia, South Africa
- Part XVI: Boulders Beach, South Africa
- Part XVII: Cape Point, South Africa
- Part XVIII: Chapman’s Peak Drive, South Africa
- Part XIX: Table Mountain, South Africa
- Part XX: Swellendam, South Africa
- Part XXI: Plettenberg Bay, South Africa
- Part XXII: Birds of Eden, South Africa
- Part XXIII: Port Elizabeth, South Africa
- Part XXIV: Good Bye Africa!
- Part XXV: Trip Summary
Join us as we explore Southern Africa
Could there be a more stunning location? 🙂
I’m not sure there could be 🙂 Thanks for your comment!