Cape Town’s Table Bay Hotel affords spectacular views of the waterfront as well as the Table Mountain

I must admit that helicopter tours don’t happen to me every day. It was a clear and sunny morning. The adrenaline was pumping in my veins. There I was in a helicopter flying at slightly over 3,000ft with a bird’s eye view of scenic Cape Town — the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Lion’s Head mountain range, Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, Table Mountain and the Newlands (cricket) stadium.

A 20-minute helicopter ride offered stunning views of the Lion’s Head mountain in Cape Town

I was a guest of the Sun International group and the first stop of our three-day visit was Cape Town. We reached Cape Town via Johannesburg on Easter Monday where the weather was chillier than we had expected (this is the southern hemisphere after all). Nobody seemed to be in a hurry in this laidback city. A good 20 minutes’ drive took us to The Table Bay Hotel on the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (South Africa’s oldest working harbour). The hotel’s fascinating history aside (it was inaugurated in 1997 by Nelson Mandela) it lives up to its reputation with stunning views of the waterfront and the Table Mountain. The hotel has been the preferred place for many eminent personalities like Barack and Michelle Obama.

It had been a tiring journey and our itineraries for the next few days were packed.

The Palace of the Lost City Hotel is ideal for golf enthusiasts

Cape Town has had an intriguing past ever since the Dutch East India Company set foot here en route to the East Indies. In 1910, Cape Town finally became the legislative capital of the Republic of South Africa. But the ascendance of the white ruling classes brought about apartheid in 1948. There’s plenty to feast your eyes on while walking on the streets here. If you are a history lover, you can visit its art galleries, museums, gardens and curio shops selling African artwork. But if you have only two days to spend, as we did, you should probably just try and get a quick feel for this pulsating city. Our guide Hanny took us next to Bo-Kaap (the Cape’s Malay Quarter), in central Cape Town with its brightly coloured houses.

Our next pit stop was Kloof Street dotted with street-side cafes, pubs and restaurants where we even watched the IPL cricket match on the big screen at Mixa’s restaurant.

Cape Town (with its population of 3.3 million) has many more charms. So, the next morning we started off early to the Cape of Good Hope. It was a spectacular drive along the Atlantic Ocean coast with lots of beaches like the trendy Camps Bay, the panoramic Maiden’s Cove and the affluent Bantry Bay. At the Hout Bay we took a scenic boat cruise to Seal Island to spot the Cape Fur Seals.

Next on the list was some penguin spotting. So, after having a hearty lunch of ostrich-kebabs and a traditional-style Malva pudding we headed straight to Boulders Beach located south of the historic Simon’s Town (a naval village.)

Pilanesberg Game Reserve’s tours in open-safari vehicles promise close encounters with Africa’s wildlife; (above) from art galleries to museums and cafes, Cape Town has plenty to offer tourists

The Cape of Good Hope makes for an interesting visit because its treacherous shore is littered with history of several shipwrecks (Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to travel around the Cape in 1486 followed by Vasco da Gama on his way to India). However, the Cape of Good Hope is not the southernmost tip of Africa as is believed. In fact, Cape Agulhas is where the warm water on the east coast meets the cold current on the west coast.

A 10 minutes’ drive from the entrance of the Table Mountain National Park took us to the Cape Point where we trekked up to the lighthouse that offers a jaw-dropping view of the ocean. More delights awaited us as we stopped at a nearby ostrich farm. The evening drew to a close with a lavish dinner at the hotel’s Atlantic Grill.

Next morning we headed north-west to Sun City, a two-hour drive from Johannesburg. The luxurious casino retreat Sun City consists of four hotels — the Sun City hotel, The Cascades hotel, The Cabanas and The Palace of the Lost City.

At The Palace of the Lost City we were given a grand welcome by a group of African drummers. Here I gawked at the frescoed-ceilings, murals, faux- zebra skin upholstered chairs at the lobby and a life-size bronze sculpture of the mighty elephant Shawu.

For golf enthusiasts there’s the 18-hole Lost City Golf Course while the Superbowl plays host to various events like the Miss World pageant and the International Indian Film Academy awards. For beach lovers, there’s also the man-made Valley of Waves. And if you love to gamble, there’s the casino.

But we headed for an afternoon game drive around the nearby Pilanesberg Game Reserve (it’s about 55,000 hectares), home to Africa’s Big Five (lions, leopards, buffaloes, rhinos and elephants). Almost immediately we spotted rhinos, hippos, zebras, deer and giraffes aplenty. The highpoint was a herd of elephants getting in for a bath in a muddy pool.

More drama was in store for us though. We were about to turn back, a tad disappointed at not spotting lions, when our guide stopped the vehicle suddenly. A pair of elephants ventured scarily close to the vehicle and began to lock tusks — just the photo op we’d dreamt of.

We ended our South African trip with a sumptuous sit-down dinner at the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant Villa del Palazzo. But the fitting finale came the next morning when we once again took a helicopter ride across the arid lands to reach the . R. Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg. Splendid trip over, it was time to head home.

TRAVEL TALK

• Getting there: South African Airways operates four flights a week from Mumbai to Johannesburg. There are daily Johannesburg-Cape Town flights.

• Best time: South Africa’s cooler months (May-August) are best for game viewing. Mid-October to February is ideal for beach-lovers.

• Currency converter: 1 ZAR (South African Rand) = 6.6 INR