A Guest Blog from Cape Town, South Africa
There's no better way to start a lifetime together than with a memorable honeymoon journey.
Earlier this week, my personal executive assistant, Shqipe Berisha and her husband, Zenel Lulanaj, returned from a glorious two-week stay in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town is a port city on South Africa’s southwest coast, on a peninsula beneath the majestic Table Mountain. The city is famous for its harbor, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region and for its spectacular landmarks and animals.
Here are some photos from the couple’s special trip - enjoy.
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- Shqipe sent me this photo on one of her first days in Cape Town – it’s on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48. She is at the World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary & Monkey Park. The guide had just put a few seeds on top of Shqipe’s head to lure the squirrel monkey to her.
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- Here is Zenel with a squirrel monkey. This monkey was actually more interested in Shqipe and quickly jumped on her after this photo was taken.
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- These are emus, Dromaius novaehollandiae – the second largest living bird by height, after the ostrich. This emu flared its feathers to look bigger, a natural defense when feeling uncomfortable or threatened.
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- Here are the newlyweds, Shqipe and Zenel.
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- This is called a secretary bird – one of Shqipe’s favorites at the sanctuary because of its graceful gait and colorful head. The secretary bird is a very large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savannah of the sub-Saharan region.
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- This horned owl was perched right above a doorway when Shqipe and Zenel entered its enclosure. It seems they interrupted its nap. The horned owl is in the genus Bubo, which is Latin for the Eurasian eagle-owl – such a beautiful creature.
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- Shqipe and Zenel also liked this gorgeous bird, a golden pheasant. The golden pheasant or Chinese pheasant is a game bird. It is native to forests in mountainous areas of western China. An adult male is 35 to 41 inches in length, with its tail accounting for two-thirds of the total length.
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- After leaving the sanctuary, they came across one of the many markets on the road. These markets are often filled with handmade items, such as spoons and bowls.
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- Shqipe and Zenel also visited an aquarium, where they saw lots of ocean life up close. Here, Shqipe is in an enclosed glass platform under a school of clown fish.
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- And here are Shqipe and Zenel in front of the ragged tooth shark tank. Ragged-tooth sharks, also known as grey nurse sharks in Australia and as sand tiger sharks in the USA, occur in temperate to tropical coastal waters of the Atlantic, Indian and western Pacific oceans. In South Africa they are common along the eastern and southern coasts, occurring as far west as False Bay.
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- Here they are at the Aquila Game Reserve, an 11-thousand acre private nature reserve nestled in the Karoo mountains.
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- While visiting the reserve, they saw these blue wildebeests. The wildebeests, also called gnus, are a genus of antelopes, scientific name Connochaetes. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep and other even-toed horned ungulates.
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- You may remember this animal from the pictures I shared during my African safari last year. It is an oryx – with its pale fur and contrasting dark markings in the face and on the legs, and their long, almost straight, horns.
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- Giraffes like to roam where they can blend in with nature. It was almost hard to see this amazing animal from afar.
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- Here is a female rhino and its calf. Do you know… a group of rhinoceros is called a “crash”.
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- Here is Shqipe all suited up for her shark adventure.
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- Shqipe and Zenel joined a group managed by White Shark Ventures. The boat goes out into the Atlantic just off the coast of Kleinbaai, following strict blue flag regulations, meaning they don’t use any unethical tactics to lure the sharks for viewing.
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- On this day, they were lucky – two sharks surfaced. The waters were rough, but the group saw two 12-foot juvenile females.
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- Zenel was excited to go down into the shark cage – it was one of his favorite adventures on the trip.
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- At another market, the couple saw these tribal masks for sale – each has a different meaning. Some were meant to ward off evil, while others were made to invite good fortune for the one wearing it.
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- The couple climbed up Cape Point, a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula. From there, they saw the Cape of Good Hope, this rocky headland on the Atlantic coast.
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- Shqipe and Zenel also hiked up Table Mountain, which took about two hours to reach the summit. Here is Zenel taking some photos of the city of Cape Town in the distance.
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- Here is another view from the top of Table Mountain. Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking Cape Town and is a popular tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top.
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- Here’s Shqipe taking a brief rest during the hike back down the mountain.
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- Next, they took a wine tasting tour through Stellenbosch, a university town in South Africa’s Western Cape province. It’s surrounded by the vineyards of the Cape Winelands and the mountainous nature reserves of Jonkershoek and Simonsberg.
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- Some of the vineyards had animals. Here are two zebras – one male and one female. Apparently, they haven’t had any offspring in several years, but everyone continues to hope they will have a baby soon.
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- They also tasted brandy distilled from wine grapes – they thought it was a bit strong.
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- One of their many dinners was at the Gold Restaurant in Cape Town, where they served a 14-course Cape Malay and African tasting menu.
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- And this is the Kierstanbosch National Botanical Garden, a 1300-acre garden operated by South Africa’s national biodiversity institute, SANBI. Shqipe loved these camphor trees. Cinnamomum camphora is a large evergreen tree that grows up to 100-feet tall. The leaves have a glossy, waxy appearance and smell of camphor when crushed. In spring, it produces bright green foliage with masses of small white flowers.
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- This is a wild almond tree, Brabejum stellatifolium. This stree is also commonly called bitter almond or ghoeboontjie. It is restricted in the wild to South Africa’s Western Cape Province, where it grows in thickets along the banks of streams.
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- The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway was built in 2013 to celebrate the centenary of Kirstenbosch. It opened to the public in May of the following year. The Walkway is made of curved steel and wood, and winds and dips its way through and over the trees of the arboretum.
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- Inspired by a snake skeleton, and informally called “The Boomslang” meaning tree snake, it is a low-maintenance, low-impact sculptural raised walkway.
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- And here they are on Penguin Beach, or Boulders Beach – but where are the penguins? Unfortunately, they were sleeping in another area at the time, but Shqipe and Zenel did get to see a few of them. This beach is a popular tourist stop because of the colony of African penguins which settled there in 1982. It was a great trip for our newlyweds – congratulations, Shqipe and Zenel.
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