TRIO OF CAPES…
Town, Point, & Good Hope
CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
GETTING THERE
Reaching South Africa’s Cape requires a connection through Johannesburg with a challenging super short 2 hour window to process thru Customs & recheck luggage before finding the Cape Town gate. It was a mad dash to say the least. We managed but I admit the 15 hour overnight flight brain fog made it a bit stressful & numbingly wild. All was well in the end, but my typical “keep calm & go with the flow” mojo was definitely put to the test.
Once we arrived in the breathtakingly beautiful coastal Cape Town, I hate to admit, truth was, we were beyond exhausted & the last 20 hours had kicked my butt. Yet, nothing short of a cancelation would stop us. How could we let the gift of an open arrival afternoon in South Africa go to waste, right?!!
SO…with just enough time to drop our luggage in the hotel room, we were in a cab for the 5 minute ride to the beautiful iconic VA Waterfront.
Reporting to Cape Town HELIPAD for the 4 p.m. flight
Oh, have I mentioned I love to fly? (haha)… So to say I was excited about viewing the iconic scenes of Cape Town via a BUCKET LIST BUSTING, sky swooping chopper is an understatement!
Jet lag denied, I practically ran to climb aboard, place the super cool aviation headset on AND…
SAY “HI” TO OUR PILOT, WAYNE!
Within seconds of the cabin door shutting, we had lift off. Such a strange sensation, to fly straight up, ever so urgent & quick, with tail raised, followed by the odd stationary hover just before whisking forwards.
It seemed as though we should simply obey gravity & fall right back down to Earth, yet, with a speeding thrust we were off over the Atlantic!!
over the atlantic to the WEST
I was so taken by the thrill, I nearly forgot to snap any pictures (Dave was shocked LOL). The nearly 360 degree view of the ocean expanse, beyond breathtaking. Moments later we were buzzing some sailboats & skirting the famous flat non-descript isolated Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner for 18 years. Eerie.
Surprisingly the headsets made chatting easy. It was amazing how the copter could maneuver full circle giving us vast views of the ocean, then spin us quickly, easily to see the vertical cliffs & flat topped summit of Table Mountain. This famous moon-scaped landmark on the east along with the western swoop of Signal Hill the backdrop for Cape Town’s “City Bowl”. Wayne pointed out the formations of Lions Head & the 12 Apostles, but what truly captivates beyond compare is the gorgeous colorful coastal sandy high end resort beaches of Camps Bay with its polka dots of random rock formations.
Further south, the tan sand seamlessly transitions to dramatic cliffs, a dangerous rocky coastline that sports a sliver hairpin road (“Chappies“) high above the blue sea at horseshoe shaped Hout Bay.
cutting east across the cape spine
Wayne then cut sharply east across the Cape Peninsula’s mountains, bringing us just short of reaching that iconic point, the Cape of Good Hope, and we could see its far-reaching spine continue southward to the end of the African continent. EXCITING! This swath of land held several tidy small communities & green valleys which eventually gave way to the opposite shore, our first sighting of the Indian Ocean & the surfer town of Muizenberg.
On the eastern inlet of the Cape, massive False Bay has a long flat sandy beach that seems to go on forever. We spotted several horses running the endless shore & the winds lapped white lines of layered waves for miles. Big sigh, gorgeous! (Pinch me… did I really just see horses running on the beach my first few hours in South Africa?)
looping back north across the marsh
Our route then circled back north over the barren lowland marshy Cape Flats, then swept up along the backside of the City Bowl range, revealing the expansive lush green foothills of the Tokai Forest. This Constantia Valley is where some of South Africa’s richest wine country flourishes & harbors the stunning abundant beauty of Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden’s rich towering green trees. The final thrill was soaring close along the eastern slopes of flat moonscape topped iconic Table Mountain to finally circle west out to the Atlantic Ocean again, completing the loop. 
Final descent & return to va harbour
Wayne’s eager yet gentle approach back to the helipad at VA Harbour gave me a chance to snap some exciting still photos I missed on the initial ascent. The flight of a helicopter was so unique, it completely blew me away… the speed, agility and precision of the landing was true Poetry in Motion!
After returning to the marina’s asphalt landing pad, one final delight was watching the refueling process for the chopper. A fascinating portable 30 gallon gas caddy with a rotary hand pump was used… Wowzers! We totally need to get one of those cool gas tank caddy gizmos for the boat dock back home! Sweet set up!
Isn’t flying ever so magical?! … We covered SO much ground with an amazing overview of the landscape in 45 minutes that in the coming days would take hours/days to reach & tour… add to that the ease of seeing all these sights from pretty much every angle… Heaven, pure heaven! Arriving by commercial airline to any new destination is always a treat, but it’s always a battle with heads & wings blocking the view plus those first looks are limited to just one side of the plane.
A helicopter?? Now it’s got moves, it has no limits & can spin my looksie to all kinds of which ways…. Oh Dave, totally gonna want to do this again!
Making the loop from Cape Town to False Bay gave an amazing experience to encompass the entire Cape Peninsula from a bird eye view… a once in a lifetime opportunity to understand the geography & the topography of this unique southern tip of the African continent.
Since Cape Town Helicopters is located in the heart of VA Waterfront (the gorgeous trendy shopping & restaurant harbor area named for Queen Victoria & son Albert) it conveniently made for a lovely end of our day dining on the deck of the harbor while the ship traffic chugged by & the sea gulls begged for a bite. Day One in South Africa & I’m already blown away (and very ready for my pillow!)
POSTSCRIPT 2020…
Premonitions of Covid… Definitely a Wild Ride!
getting to south africa – PREMONITION?
Considering our journey to South Africa occurred just before Covid shut down travel for the world, there’s an uncanny irony that in addition to the PLANNED adrenalin rides on our itinerary, we had some significant inconvenient travel snafus that made getting to & from our final destination a challenge. At the time we took these hiccups in stride, but looking back now, it seems the cosmos was giving us a subtle premonition of things to come, a foreshadow of storm clouds on the horizon. We most certainly were given practice in rolling with the punches, squeezing sour lemons into lemonade and finding humor amid some foggy exhaustion.
We knew the process to get to Cape Town from our little Nebraska village would be a tad daunting…it WAS THE longest duration of getting from Point A to Point B we have yet to experience. Yet, we don’t scare easy & the running Richardson joke is “We can sleep when were dead!” All our international trips require several connecting flights just to get to a major US airport before we even begin the trek overseas. We truly don’t mind, it’s all part of the process but… this particular trip … Holy Moly!
In travel, sometimes the best laid plans go totally awry. Given that the flights alone to Cape Town from New York’s JFK spanned 19.5 hours (not to mention the 4 additional hours of the Johannesburg leg), we booked early afternoon flights day prior from Omaha to NYC & scheduled a Valentines overnight stay at a not so romantic bare bones convenient airport hotel with shuttle service. Perfect game plan, right? Well…February east coast weather threw havoc at our 1 p.m. departure inflicting delay, after delay, after delay. At one point, it looked like we might not make it at all~ But, Dave came to the rescue, and long story short, he got us the last 2 seats out of Charlotte, NC at midnight (what a way to spend Valentines Day) on the last flight to LaGuardia (WRONG AIRPORT, but at least the RIGHT CITY)… and after a pricey 30 minute cab ride to that not so convenient anymore hotel, we could at last take a “nap” before catching the shuttle to JFK early the next morning! Whew!
Yup… getting there WAS a doozy!
This by far was the closest we have come to not making a connection, ever. Travel can be messy at times & I typically just go with the flow, keep calm, figure things happen out of your control, try to stay relaxed (perhaps to a fault, haha)… yet, without Dave’s tenacity, perseverance & sense of urgency we would have never made it out of Charlotte. Thank heavens I have a great partner! YAY for Dave!
Even CRAZIER getting back!
The flights home were absolutely THE most painful, ever. (That being said, totally worth each AND every 2,160 minutes to experience all that is South Africa, no regrets whatsoever).
Adrenalin always makes the flights TO a new destination exciting & surprisingly tolerable. Coming home, however, everything loses luster & the tough tolerance factor definitely wanes. This particular trip delivered our worst yet… Flight after flight, layover after layover … we thought we’d NEVER get home or get to our bed! Lesson learned, NEVER book a rewards flight to Omaha after a long overseas one. 36 hours from first flight to last landing hurt like none other… it WAS a ride, a nasty ugly f-o-u-r l-e-t-t-e-r word ride!!
After that epic frickin’ ride was history… it was remarkable how the world would soon change.
As we passed from airport to airport on our journey home February 22nd 2020, we heard a new rumble. A smattering of info about an infection in China… something about a bat. By the time we came home, the smatterings turned to more serious concerns. Just 2 weeks after our journey to thrilling South Africa, SA was shut down entirely. The Lufthansa pilot & flight attendant friends we had just met on Table Rock in Cape Town shared they were in the midst of grueling days & nights selflessly flying stranded passengers all over the world to their various homes only to have any future flights (and their livelihood) canceled for months to come. In less than a month, most airlines & travel in general had abruptly ended.
In retrospect, truly Dave & I were blessed & fortunate to have traveled to South Africa (and returned from) just as COVID commenced. 2020 put a horrid stop to many WILD RIDES… and sadly travel screeched to a painful halt.
Since then, it has been a year, hasn’t it? Traumatic & tragic for many, yet somehow I find myself & those I love okay, blessed. I am sad & hurt for those who have not been so fortunate. If your year was painful & difficult, I am indeed so very, very sorry. I do feel hopeful now, for travel, for our future, although it may look differently going forward. Life is one big wild ride & I intend to continue on, rolling with whatever adjustments come what may to ensure respect to others & the process of travel to keep it as open as possible for us all. I plan to keep on sharing my stories… tales of my journeys & those I meet along the way. I thank you for joining me on trippinwithnatalie!
TRIPPIN WITH NATALIE 
Fun fun fun to again read of your travels! Hopefully we’ve all turned a corner and can resume living life!
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