Trip date – End of October 2023
We had planned to visit the City Centre or CBD (or as locals call it ‘City Bowl’) of Cape Town on the last day of our Cape Town stay as that’s where we were to pick up our rented car from Avis for our upcoming road trip. City center is at the heart of Cape Town, a business district with lot of attractions and activities, shops, restaurants, cafes and bars – all with majestic Table Mountain and Signal hill as backdrop.
Our itinerary for the day was –
- Indulge in some urban birding early in the morning at Company Gardens.
- Have a relaxed breakfast at Company Garden Restaurant .
- Visit the Iziko South African Museum to understand the history of humanity as witnessed by the earliest civilizations of Africa.
- Go on a free walking tour of the area and listen to the dreadful episodes of the South African freedom struggle and the ugly Apartheid – walking through the now revamped buildings that hold the utmost importance in the history of South Africa.
- Walk the iconic Longstreet and after some window shopping and listening to some street performers – hop-in in one of the hep eateries for lunch.
- Just before 5pm, pick up our rental car and drive to Signal Hill to watch the sunset.
As luck would have it, on the said day we lost track of time. The exhaustion of the vacation excitement had caught on with us and we got up late that morning. We also realized that the next day was going to be the beginning of our Western Cape road-trip and maybe we should take it slow. By the time we finished our breakfast, and hailed an UBER, it was late morning – so, the plan for the day was chucked out of the window and we decided to go with the flow starting with heading to Company Garden and enjoy our last day in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Well… isn’t that how it’s supposed to be done after all ? 😀
**DISCLAIMER – Due to power cut in Green Point and eventually a chaotic evening, we did loose some digital content from this day. Sorry for very limited photos 🙂
Company Garden, Cape town.
Sun was overhead and temperature was soaring so off course birding was out of question. We just took a stroll around the garden to see various points of interest. Along with human locals, Egyptian Geese, Cape Glossy Starlings, Hadeda Ibis and the famous Grey squirrels (imported by Europeans settlers) were enjoying the shaded trees and water features of the garden.
Company Garden is a mid-size green oasis in the heart of Cape Town at the edge of City center area. A whole day can easily be spent in the garden as it interconnects lots of museums and government buildings with pathways crisscrossing through the garden and has different kinds of gardens within it too like Japanese, indigenous and Indian etc… basically from wherever Dutch had a hold. It gives much-needed shade and water to locals/tourists/birds and small animals and is a perfect place to do birdwatching or people-watching.
Entry into Company Garden is free of cost and can be accessed throughout the day. It houses 2-3 café and restaurants within its premises which have a very calm, cool vibe among the trees even though the garden itself is in the busiest area of Cape Town. We found Company Garden Restaurant to have the best-chilled ambiance, food, and price – we paused here for lunch.
‘Company Garden’ is called so as it was established by the Dutch for the Dutch East India ‘Company’ or VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) around 1650s in the backyard of Fort of Good Hope, also commissioned by the Dutch. Instead of a public garden like today – it was a huge vegetable and fruit garden irrigated by the Molteno dam constructed close by on a stream from Table Mountain. The purpose was to provide ration to the Dutch settlers in the fort (not local tribes, they were only used as construction/farm labor along with other Asians) and for Dutch ships passing around Cape of Good Hope for east-west trade between Europe and Asia.
There are walking tours conducted in the garden which would be fun to be part of too if there is time. Maybe next time !
Iziko South African Museum, Cape town.
Of all the museums surrounding the Company Garden, The Iziko South African Museum caught our interest and certainly, we did not regret it. If there is one thing you do in the Company Garden – it should be this… and maybe a coffee in the Company Garden Restaurant.
Iziko South African Museum is one of the best places to be if you are even slightly interested in the history of Southern Africa. Let it be natural, zoological, cultural, events, etc.. The building itself showed off the grandeur of colonial times but as soon as we entered, we were hit by the humble present state of the country.
Tickets can be bought off the counter as we did or can be bought online. There is no map or guidance available, just follow the arrows and unfold the mysteries of the past that this building proudly exhibits.
Starting from Big Bang and the study of evolution to rock carvings and dinosaurs the exhibits are elaborate and very sophisticatedly displayed. There are proper info cards alongside each exhibit giving explanations about the exhibits. We particularly liked the sections showing the daily life of the original South African tribes Khoikhoi & San and the skeletons and taxidermies of the animal kingdom from the present and past.
These exhibits intrigued us and led us to be more informed yet curious about the stereotypes we hear about African ancestry. It kept us glued from one section to another – floor after floor. The scale of this museum is huge!
Safety radar – The Company Garden is an open-to-all public garden where local as well as foreign tourists come to have a relaxed time. We did not see any policemen but we saw some guards strolling around. A general awareness of your surroundings and walking around with the usual common sense should be fine. Avoid areas that are too empty or visiting the Garden post-sunset. Signal Hill is notoriously famous for carjacking and theft closer to/post-sunset time – one of the reasons why we didn’t risk it eventually with our rental car- better to take an UBER there. We would not recommend carrying around expensive photo/video equipment and gadgets in either of the places.
Enjoy our little vlog of the trip here –
We loved reading this detailed blog on Company Garden before visiting it. We are sure you will enjoy it too.
Hope this blog has inspired you to plan your trip to Company Garden, Cape Town, South Africa when (you are) on a break!.
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When on a Break! 