22 February,2026 09:38 AM IST | Mumbai | Phorum Pandya
The beaches of Cape Town
Every travel story has a beginning, middle, and end. For the sake of narrative, this one begins in the middle of a thick cloud of fume floating in a cannabis club on Kloof Street in Cape Town, South Africa.
Afro beats ease the visitor, as a heavily tattooed server welcomes the noob with a big smile and a prompt briefing of "how things work around here". "The coffee comes free," he says, stressing the safe space is built for responsible consumption.
The next hour passes in a haze of contemplation. The thought of turning 40 meets the uplifting energy of the Mother City. The joy of solo travel, after having bid farewell to our fellow travellers, sets in.
When we first arrived, our Cape Town discovery began atop the flattened eroded surface of Table Mountain reached by a cable car. After soaking in the dramatic views of the crescent blue coast of the Atlantic Ocean kissing its shores, a thrilling Harley Davidson chauffeured bike ride to Chapman's Peak kick started the adventurous streak of the group itinerary.
KingKlip line fish at the Harbour House Restaurant in Kalk Bay and Malva pudding at Damhuis in Melkbos
We chose a 300-kg steel blue Scrambler with 75-year-old Willy aka Walter Fearchalus as our seasoned rider. Helmets on, eight American cruisers thundered. One can't help but hum the Queen classic: Another One Bites The Dust. Colourful Muizenberg Beach huts and Art Deco buildings stand in attention of the steady backdrop of coast with its blue waters, tidal pools, and lush fynbos, a unique biome found across Western cape.
Barbeque Braai
We were dropped off at Kalk Bay where gulls and seals took up space between the docked vessels. When we showed Walter a tiny ankle burn from the heated exhaust pipes. "You've earned yourself a Harley tattoo," he slaps our back before riding off. We celebrate the ride with the local Kingklip fish, which has a fleshy bite, along with a dry chenin blanc white wine.
The most local indulgence in the region is Braai (to grill meat in Afrikaans). It is an unhurried time to bond with friends and family. Restaurants charcoal grill boerewors (mix meat sausage), beef steak, mutton, chicken, and pork slathered with a sweet and smoky sauce. We get a taste of Capetonian love for rhythm and good food in Khayelitsha - the biggest township in Cape Town built by its people displaced during the Apartheid.
Kwa Ace, a dining and nightlife spot, has what the locals call a kasi (local place) vibe. "South Africans have a deep sense of community and they express by coming together for Braai. Even sports, especially cricket and rugby, and clubbing bring people together. We love gospel music, and during the nightlife, Afro House, Amapiano, deep house and hip-hop rap," a local friend tells us. We dig into the juicy meats with sides of maize porridge or pap, mealie corn breads, butternut squash, and creamy spinach.
The best thing about Cape Town is that it lets you pick the pace, and the curate a personal adventure. After all the adrenaline-inducing activities, we take time to drift. A walk by the promenade while spotting paragliders manoeuvre their landing, picnic at the Green Point Park, a biodiversity garden that leads into fynbos's paths, ponds, and rolling gardens. South Africa leaves this 40-year-old with a feeling that the adventure has just begun.
A short flight from Cape Town, lands into Skukuza in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Its tiny airport resembles a safari lodge that sits in the middle the dense Kruger National.
Elephant walking in Kruger
Velley and Jabulani Manzini, our friendly spotter and guide duo respectively, pick us up and drive us into the luxurious Lion Sands Tinga Lodge on the edge of the Sabie River where camp manager Thembinkosi Maseko, who becomes Mr T for us, greets us with a cheerful dance. "Welcome home!" he says, and we feel that soon enough. We also get used to Nyalas (antelopes) peeping into our room windows, and strutting around the property, with their twitching ears.
We waste no time and report to Jabu for our first game drive. "Remember, the wild does not read your books and doesn't follow a manual. In the wild, every animal has a kill instinct," he tells us, as the safari vehicle turns into the open savanna grasslands.
African wild dogs are critically endangered
During the course of three days, our naked eye scans the woodlands that respond with special encounters. The opening curtains are drawn by a group of impalas with their elegantly arched horns. Our van parks next to two lionesses basking in the grass enjoying a siesta; another morning a lazy female leopard sprawls on a branch with its tail hanging at an arm's distance. At sundown, we pass Douglas, the one-horned rhino grazing around, as heavy-weight hippos float in the Sabie River, their heads bobbing in and out of the muddy water. Even from afar, the 900-kg wild bulls signals danger.
A leopard lazes on a branch
The zebras and giraffes hang around together to protect themselves from their common enemies. Their printed hides form a cross stitch of stripes and patches in the greenish-brown terrain. We discover the elephants and their love for the amarula fruit. That graceful Gajagamini walk in front of our jeep is a delight to watch. On an early morning drive, a pack of endangered wild dogs chasing an impala raises our adrenaline rush.
The binoculars promise a treasure trove of stories in flight. Local and migratory bird light up the field of view. The neck cranes, the body holds stills, the art of birding demands patience, attention to bird calls, and smart spotting.
The glossy green Diederik cuckoo spends the summer here to breed and before it flies to the north for equatorial climate in winter. For those familiar with the slender ribbon-like white tail of the dudhraj or Asian flycatcher in India, the Long tail paradise whydah male flies flagging a similar black tail. The native Green wood hoopoes and greater blue-eared starlings glisten in the light, while lilac breasted rollers don a colourful plumage. Yellow southern hornbill and Red billed hornbill mark attendance too.
The best way to become a birder is to identify birds that sit on the wires. Blue-tailed bee-eaters perch alongside rollers and woodland kingfishers, as the country's biggest Giant Kingfisher swooshes down to catch fish, while lapwings huddle on the muddy sands below. Larks whistle, and the hawks and steppe eagles soar overhead. At sunset, by the Mutlummuvi Bridge, an African fish eagle on a nearby branch and two Saddle-billed stork red beak on the water bed make a beautiful frame.
Kruger sightings over perform for those who look. There comes a moment during your time in the forest, as with turning 40, when you fully surrender. You stop craning your neck or pointing your binoculars for the next best sighting. The land inducts you. You become one with nature. When that moment descends upon us, we stare into the pond and tune into the gentle croaking of the bubbling kassina toads. In a distance, a watchful hyena grunts.
QUAD BIKES: An hour's drive from the city, Atlantis Dune Quad Bikes are a great way to interact with the terrain. Best part, you don't need a licence
SHARK CAGE DIVING: Get into a cage and dunk your head to meet the sharks in their natural element. From the Great White to the Bronzies, a boat ride into the waters off Gansbaai fishing village will be an adventure to remember. We lived to tell the tail (pun intended)!
WINE TRAM: The best way to sip across Franschhoek wine valley, is to hop onto a tram. Don't miss the Pinotage, a South African speciality made with pinot noir and cinsaut grapes
PACK A PICNIC: At Green Point Park in Cape Town, spend the day in the biodiversity garden, which house fynbos paths, ponds and gardens
WHERE TO STAY: Intercontinental Table Bay Cape Town
WEBSITE: www.ihg.com/intercontinental
Lion Sands Tinga Lodge
Kruger Park, Tinga Legends Lodge Wy, Kruger Park
WEBSITE: www.more.co.za/lionsands/tinga-lodge/
Le Quartier Francais
Franschhoek
WEBSITE: www. leeucollection.com
How to reach: Daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Cape Town by Emirates, Kenya Airways, and Qatar Airways
