Botswana & Travels.

By Meagan McAuliffe

This weekend, I had the pleasure of being able to go to Cape Town with seven of the new friends I have made during my time in Botswana. We knew we had a long weekend coming up; so several weeks ago we began planning this trip. Well, not this trip precisely. Initially, we were going to go to Durban, but that plan fell through. Then, the idea was to go to the Okavango Delta but, again, that didn’t end up happening. Finally, after several hours of planning various trips, someone asked about Cape Town. In less than an hour, the trip was planned. Tickets and an Airbnb were purchased shortly after and over the next couple days activities and restaurants were decided upon. And then we were on our way.Our trip to Cape Town was a long day. We got up at 4:30 AM and got to the bus pick up location before 5:30. We were on the bus and on our way by 6:00 AM. After a long bus ride and a rather short plane ride we made it to Cape Town, where we waited over an hour for our host to let us into the Airbnb but, we had a beautiful view to keep us company. It all worked out though, and we made it to our first restaurant, the wonderful Royale Eatery. All in all, it was a successful trip to our home for the weekend.

The next day we went to a cute café called Honeybun. Their coffee was delicious and their French toast with nutella was even better. Afterwards, we went to Bo-Kaap, an area with lots of colorful houses and took pictures. After lunch, we went to the botanical gardens and saw some beautiful views. We ended the night going to nice Italian restaurant and then out to one of the bars on Long Street.

Our Sunday started with coffee at Tribe Coffee, a cute coffee shop/restaurant with steampunk décor. Then we went to a winery and enjoyed a tasting of their red and rose wines. We spent our afternoon along the ocean, though it was far too cold to swim. We had a relaxed night in and an early night sleep.

Our final day in Cape Town, after coffee at Tribe Coffee again, we took the cable car to the top of Table Mountain and experienced some of our coldest weather in Africa, but also some of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. After a rest at our Airbnb, we went to the waterfront to shop and sight see. While there, we road the Ferris wheel and had a beautiful view of the city as the sun got ready to set.

Travelling home was a rough day with a lot of waiting at the airport, then a very long drive, followed by a ridiculously long wait at the border. The memories made this weekend though, are worth all the hassle of getting to and from Cape Town.

I highly recommend that everybody take advantage of their time in Botswana and go see as much of the world as possible. Cape Town was an amazing destination but I don’t think you can go wrong with any travels, as long as you are smart and stay safe. Find someone to travel with. Ask people for suggestion. Search the web. I guarantee you can find somewhere to visit that will steal your heart. Travelling may be difficult to plan and expensive to execute but it is worth it once you are there and coming home to Gaborone is such a pleasure. I still would love to see the Delta and Durban and all of the other places we started planning trips to, but that will have to wait until another time. For now, Cape Town is the place that stole my heart.