48 hours in Cape Town

Two days before Christmas is a good time to visit Cape Town. There&rsquos a festive air and a laid-back and balmy atmosphere. But just 48 hours We decided to give it a try.

Given a choice, it&rsquos best to stay in or around the V&ampA waterfront &mdash that&rsquos really where the action is. We chose the imposing Table Bay Hotel (from $350 021/406-5000, www.suninternational.com), which exudes a quiet colonial charm. Our guide Badresh was waiting as we checked in, tired and dirty after a 13-hour journey. &ldquoNow&rdquo we asked. &ldquoYes,&rdquo he said firmly, and we knew the clock was ticking.

Cape of many colours

From the hotel, we drove past the Waterfront into the town. Past colonial buildings reminiscent of Mumbai and Kolkata, we entered a street that had houses painted in garish colours, each outdoing the other for total lack of harmony. This is the Malay quarter, he said.

Malay Yes, the city is an amalgamation of many cultures, races and influences. Badresh &mdash of Indian descent but quite proudly South African &mdash is a trade unionist and a lawyer. Like most other &lsquoIndians&rsquo here, back home is certainly not India. He spoke of Africa&rsquos freedom struggle, of politics, of economics while introducing us to the sights and sounds of the city. Badresh also informed us that the original inhabitants were the Khoisan, who later mixed with the Bantu tribes from up north. By the mid ta century, the Portuguese came &mdash Bartholomew Dias landed in 1488 and Vasco da Gama 11 years later. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck established a supply station at Table Bay where sailors could get fresh produce and water. Then came the British, the French and the Germans. Slaves and rebel leaders were brought from the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), from Mozambique, from Madagascar and from Java, Ceylon and India.

The Table

You can&rsquot miss the Table Mountain. It&rsquos flat, table-like, aptly named. When there&rsquos a cloud cover, they tell you the tablecloth is on. Fortunately, it was off but as we entered the cable car to get to the top, it started getting windy. Cable car trips to the top run daily, weather permitting (8am-6pm or later $9-13 for return ticket). The rotating cars carry 65 people and provide a spectacular 360-degree view. It&rsquos also possible to hike up (2.5 hours). Carry a pair of binoculars and a jacket too, no matter how hot it is below, because the weather can change rapidly. The view from the top is, predictably, stunning.

An evening out

The evening brought on the lights of the V&ampA Waterfront. For shopping, dining and entertainment, the V&ampA Waterfront is a hotspot with over 250 shops &mdash from designer boutiques to craft stalls &mdash a host of restaurants and coffee shops. There were so many places to choose from. We went into a jazz bar that was started with the express purpose of keeping jazz alive in the Cape. Then on to another pub and finally to the highly recommended Baia Seafood Restaurant (421-0935/36/37), which served the best and the most succulent lobster thermidor. We contemplated taking one of the sundowner cruises that depart from the Waterfront, but 13 hours in an aeroplane had numbed our enthusiasm, and we headed back to the hotel.

Animal wonders

Eight-thirty in the morning the next day seemed like the crack of dawn but we were told that unless we started early, we&rsquod miss the boat to Seal Island. The boat sailed through a choppy sea, and finally parked in front of an island loaded with seals. Big, small, mothers with children, grandfathers. Lying in the sun, moving around in a flat ungainly manner and then slipping with amazing grace into the sea.

From there onto the flat scrubland of the Table Mountain National Park. Some 8,550 plant species can be found in the Western Cape, which represents 0.04 per cent of the earth&rsquos surface. And this Park is one of the best places to see an astonishing density of plant life. Fynbos (delicate bush) is unique to this area, and nearly 6,000 species are found only in the South Western Cape.

South point

We finally reached the southernmost tip, the Cape of Good Hope, and then went up to Cape Point. One can take a trip to the old lighthouse or to an e-mail kiosk where an electronic postcard can be sent from this southernmost tip of Africa. The Two Oceans restaurant, where we had lunch, has sweeping views of False Bay and a curio shop.

At the Cape Point Ostrich Farm, we watched these awkward, sorry-looking birds and learnt a bit about how to judge their ages. Next, we drove to Boulders Beach to catch a sight of its remarkably contented penguins. On to Simon&rsquos Town where, in Jubilee Square, stands the life-size statue of Just Nuisance, a street dog immortalized in bronze. Constructed between 1666 and 1679, the Castle of Good Hope (Mon-Sat 9am-4pm $2) is the oldest building in South Africa, and is exceptionally well preserved. Inside the walls of the pentagonal castle is a combination of cultural and military history dating back to the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. Guided tours take you to the dungeons, the dolphin pool and the blacksmith.

Cape wine

Cape Town is surrounded by vineyards, the better known ones&nbspare located in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. We chose one close by &mdash Groot Constantia (9am-6pm in summer $3 for wine-tasting and cellar tour). In 1679, the new South African governor, Simon van der Stel, landed in Cape of Good Hope and grew to be both popular and successful. He requested for land on which to farm and, in 1685, was given an estate behind Table Mountain, which he named Constantia. Today, this is touted as the oldest wine estate in the region. The main building, the Manor House, with its elegant gables, has a cultural history museum, which gives a glimpse of the early years at Groot Constantia and has a superb collection of Cape furniture, porcelain and maritime art.

Blue diamond

In every magazine I flipped through, I saw advertisements for a blue stone called tanzanite. It&rsquos supposedly 11 times rarer than white diamonds &nbspas it&rsquos found in just one mine in Tanzania and the prices reflected this We got an appointment to visit Shimansky (www.shimansky.co.za) for the evening. Forget about just dropping in &mdash we turned up at a shop that looked more like a fort. We could hear music - Mozart brandy snifters were placed discreetly. But our hostess was all graciousness. The stone is deep cobalt aquamarine, with a choice of blue or mauve tints. I&rsquod never seen anything like it. And yes, I&rsquom a lucky woman.

Parting shot

For the last few hours, we decided on the Two Oceans Aquarium (9.30am-6pm entry $6.50). We chose well it&rsquos a fascinating place, with display tanks containing more than 3,000 species of sea life. Then there was just enough time for one last coffee at the waterfront. &ldquoBoat trip, boat trip&rdquo invited an old white sailor. But we had another journey to embark upon.

A visit to Robben Island, about 11km from Cape Town, can be a deeply emotional experience. Soon after he established a base, van Riebeeck used the island as a place of banishment, sending exiles and slaves to the stone quarries. From then on, governors of the Cape used it to get rid of anyone they didn&rsquot want around. In 1846, the prison was converted to a hospital, then used as a leper colony and a lunatic asylum. In 1959, it became a maximum-security prison, the most famous prisoner being Nelson Mandela. The island is a national monument and now also a World Heritage Site, with a museum. Visitor numbers are carefully controlled to visit, take the ferry, which runs, between 8.30am and 3pm from Quay 5 ($10).