Designer Flowstar Stephanie Mazingi recently visited Cape Town – home to several of Flow’s favourite clients – for the first time. Here, she shares her experience with us…
Amazing! That’s what Cape Town is.
Driving through Cape Town is like driving through multiple countries, and I don’t just say that because of all the different people and languages you hear. Constantia feels like you’re in an English suburb of country clubs and elegant houses, Bergvliet reminded me of Eastlea, a suburb in Harare, and Rondebosch feels like driving through the streets of Chile, with its narrow roads lined with trees that seem to be inviting you to take a relaxed jog.
We arrived at the Aquarium only to stop and stare for quite a while at the huge ships just outside it which only make you want to explore even more. Once inside the Aquarium the friendliest staff welcomed us, told us that we were just in time to catch the feeding of the penguins and showed us where to go.
After racing to that and watching those rather delightful creatures chow down, as well as learning more about what we can do to save them from extinction, we went to watch the feeding of the stingrays. The stingrays are kept in the biggest water tank in the Aquarium, along with the turtles, sharks and many other enormous, interesting-looking fish. I couldn’t get enough of the beautiful colours of the turtles and the apparently docile sharks, but eventually moved on to look at the other tanks.
After exploring the Aquarium, we drove up a winding road that reminded me of Kariba in the Zambezi Valley, and reached the Table Mountain Cableway. Taking the Cableway to the top was the start of an immensely beautiful journey.
The ride up has a twist, literally, because the cable car turns around to give everyone the best views.
We timed it perfectly: first a quick meal at the Table Mountain Café, then watching the sun set over the mountains and what looked like an endless ocean.
Walking on top of the mountain was like being on top of the world…nothing but beauty!
The rocks have formed in all kinds of shapes, from those resembling eagles to those looking like skulls – the perfect place for me to get inspiration for my next set of paintings.
We walked a bit further and spent almost an hour looking at the view of Robben Island and the rest of the city ... it is truly incredible up there.
I felt like such a tourist and was pleasantly surprised by how friendly everyone was up there … it must be the mountain.
Some photos of my trip:
