PHOTOS BY DAVID PUCHKOFF & EILEEN STUKANE
TRAVELOGUE BY EILEEN STUKANE | When the invitation came for a wedding in Cape Town, South Africa, it seemed at first an outlandish idea to travel from Downtown Manhattan to the bottom of Africa, even for good friends. Slowly, however, the idea gained reality as my husband and I considered the opportunity of not only sharing a special day, but visiting the continent that scientists consider the place we all came from — the site of the Origin of Man.
Sometimes I feel as if I am in the center of the universe because I live in New York City. When you travel to Africa, you very quickly sense that the center of the universe is there. You are at the beginning. Cape Town may be as close to a European city as one can see in Africa, but even it sits at the base of the 500-million-year-old rock of Table Mountain. South of Cape Town is that treacherous villain of ancient maritime tales, Cape of Good Hope. More and more, traveling through South Africa, and later in Zimbabwe and Botswana, we realized our smallness in the grandness of the land.
BOULDERS BEACH
Endangered tiny African penguins, about 2 feet tall and 7 pounds, are only found on the southwest coast of Africa (seen here at Boulders Beach). NYC’s summer is South Africa’s winter — penguin breeding season. Those not hanging out on the beach were in burrows, under bushes and boulders, or in manmade fiberglass igloos designed to encourage coupling, since penguins are monogamous.
MAMA AFRICA
On Cape Town’s Long Street, Mama Africa has been offering traditional African cuisine and music since 1995. The grill of ostrich, crocodile, kudu, and venison wasn’t for me, but the marimba band with brass section was get-up-from-your-chair-and-dance terrific.
GOOD HOPE
As the 17th century tale of The Flying Dutchman goes, when the captain realized that his ship would be wrecked he shouted, “I will round this Cape even if I have to sail until doomsday!” And so the legend and the sightings of that ghost ship live on. It was eerie to stand at a treacherous shoreline where hundreds of ships and their crews were below the waves.
CANGO CAVES
In the foothills of the Swartberg Mountains, the Cango Cave system is an approximately three-mile network of underground calcite dripstone caves that date back to the Precambrian age (4.6 billion years ago) and sheltered Stone Age man. We almost crossed it off as “too touristy” but are so glad we didn’t. Here, standing under an acoustical chamber of stalactites the size of a football field, channeling Aretha Franklin, our guide sang an unforgettable “Amazing Grace” (far left in photo, the “Cleopatra’s Needle” formation, approximately 33 feet high).
OUDTSHOORN
The picturesque farmland in the region called Little Karoo near Oudtshoorn shows the Dutch agricultural and architectural influences on the countryside of South Africa.
CONEY GLEN BEACH
It was a matter of focus to drive on the left side of the road along the Garden Route of South Africa’s southeast coast, but well worth the discoveries, such as Coney Glen Beach on the outskirts of Knysna. This was a hidden surprise, not so much a beach as a shoreline of bright red and orange Precambrian sandstone boulders that made us feel as if we had landed on Mars.
KNYSNA HEADS
The Heads are the rocky promontories that lead from the lagoon, which is the heart of the town of Knysna, to the open sea. Breathtaking! In the background are the Outeniqua Mountains we drove through with their dense pines.
