I just finished exploring a week in Cape Town, South Africa and it was the busiest and most thrilling week of the trip thus far!!
My roommates and I took an overnight trip to Mossel Bay to go skydiving, shark cage diving, bungy jumping and on a safari! Skydiving was such a thrill. We flipped backwards out of the plane and spun our way down to the earth from 11,000 feet! Shark cage diving was so surreal! Getting up close and personal with two great whites had my adrenaline rushing and my mind racing as I took in the beauty of one of the ocean’s most unique creatures. The safari was so crazy! I was face-to-face with the big five of Africa! We saw elephants, lions, leopards, white rhino and buffalo! We also got the special opportunity to see a few giraffes, including their newest baby on the reserve! It was my first time bungy jumping and I thought it would be the best idea to first try bungy jumping off the World’s highest bungy bridge! The initial fall off the bridge had my stomach dropping to my knees and then hanging from my ankles for three minutes staring down into the valley had the blood rushing to my head and fascination and happiness radiating from me. I did all of these thrill-seeking, adrenaline rushing activities in just 24 hours!!
After I returned to Cape Town I spent a day hiking Table Mountain which is one of the Natural Wonders of the World! The fog was so thick during the early morning hours that I felt as if I was floating among the clouds atop the plateau. Once the fog cleared after My friends and I enjoyed lunch on the mountain top, we could clearly see the expansive town of Cape Town hidden at the bottom of looming Table Mountain! The cable car ride up and down the mountain side was just as exciting as the view from the top; we got a 360 degree view along the way because the cable car floor rotated as it scaled the mountain. On our way back to the boat, we stopped and walked down Bo-Kaap street which was once the slave housing during the Colonization era of South Africa until unity and freedom among all people was granted. The houses were originally all white as they were initially a white-settlers street until slaves were granted freedom and could purchase land. After the freed slaves had purchased the properties they were all painted distinctly different and bright colors! They have remained the same colors since they were first painted and are protected by the government.
As we made our way down Bo-Kaap street, we stopped into a newly opened Art Museum called The Cape Malay Art Exhibition. Our tour guide, Eshaam, gave us a well-detailed history lesson of the colonization and slavery periods of Cape Town.
If you ever find yourself in Cape Town, please check out The Cape Malay Art Exhibition Museum on Bo-Kaap street! It is a must see experience!
My friends Auna and Kelsey and I got the opportunity to meet up with some local surfers and shred the gnar on Dolphin Beach for a few hours with and their dogs! The dogs actually could surf on their own and they LOVED it, it was a challenge trying to keep them off the boards so we could surf ourselves!
I also spent my last two days exploring the shops and restaurants of the V & A Waterfront! It reminded me so much of Del Mar Street back home in San Clemente, California! The Harbor was so serene at all hours of the day and was always buzzing with livelihood. There were several street performers that were scattered around by the waterfront that added to the hustle-and-bustle of shoppers and the different Table Mountain viewing points left me breathless at each glance up to the towering plateau every time!
I also went on a field class with my Documenting Globalism class. We went to The Company Gardens in the city center and to visit the Zeits MOCAA; where we got to check out the art exhibits and have a lovely chat with an Art Professor from University of Cape Town about the history of art within Cape Town post-apartheid until current date.
Cape Town will for sure be on my future vacation bucket-list again, and I highly recommend it to my friends and family as well!!
Check out a few pictures I took while visiting South Africa below!!
Jaiden Lynn 🙂
Journeys with Jaiden 