Tuesday 23 June 2015

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens and World of Birds. Cape Town.


I travelled to Cape Town in August 2014 with my teenage son. He moved back to boarding school in the UK the year before and we'd never got round to taking him to CT when he lived here. Having made a 27 hour journey by train, the last thing he wanted to do was get on a bus and tour the City. He did come out with me on the 2nd day and the 3rd day we hired a car and drove to Hermanus to whale watch and see the penguins at Betty's Bay on route.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are located at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town and is one of nine National gardens with five of the six different biomes in South Africa. Founded in 1913 to preserve the unique flora.

I visited on a very wet and windy day. I bought a two day pass with City Sightseeing on the Hop on Hop Off bus. Kirstenbosch was my first stop so I took a photo of the time table at each stop. Unfortunately I confused the photos and ended up waiting an hour at World of Birds.










The newly opened Centenary Tree canopy Walkway or Boomslang, meaning tree snake, is 130 m long and 12 m above the ground, and has wheel chair access is a fab way to view the scenery.







Kirstenbosch contains many plants, including my favourites the Protea, the national flower of South Africa and the Strelitizia regainae 'Mandela's Gold' or more commonly known as the Yellow Bird of Paradise. It symbolises liberty, magnificence and good perspective.  


Returning to the entrance, I'd just missed a bus, so I opted for a walk round the gift shop and a coffee.

Hopping back on the bus, my next stop was World of Birds, it was still raining and the attraction did have some shelter from the rain with the trees. I was overwhelmed by the smell and wasn't too impressed with the hygiene and the layout. Also there were peculiar combinations of birds in the enclosures and chickens seemed to feature in large numbers. 



There was also a monkey enclosure and other animals. However I didn't want to go in there, again due to the smell. There was a large school group in at the same time and the air was filled with teachers yelling at the kids and blowing whistles. 











I walked round to reach the exit to discover I'd misread the timetable for the bus and waited for 30 minutes in the bus shelter, it's not somewhere I'd be visiting again in a hurry.

22 comments:

  1. I've visited the gardens and loved it. Hubby not so much. I can't even imagine the hygiene of the bird place, but your description is enough to have my body crawling. I can deal with mess but smelly - NO

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    1. Funso, it was disgusting at World of Birds, I did complain, but this is SA and the woman at the desk just shrugged

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  2. Oh dear. Such a shame its not maintained very well. Really like the look of those penguins though.

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    1. don't get me started on penguin stench, geez they really are the worse

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  3. What a shame, World of Birds doesn't look very appealing. The gardens do look beautiful though, I love the look of the tree canopy walkway.

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    1. i loved the gardens, just a shame it was raining

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  4. "Yellow Bird of Paradise. It symbolises liberty, magnificence and good perspective." What a lovely national flower to have.

    Shame about the smell in the World of the Birds and all the misunderstanding of the bus timetable. I hope the keepers sort out the hygiene and smell; very off-putting for visitors. #AnimalTales

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    1. I'm just glad i never visited the monkey enclosures, that would've been worse i suspect

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  5. It looks lovely there and how wonderful to do the trip with your teen, I love to spend some time with mine when they are out of geek mode!

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    1. when the teen and adult kids visit, the world of internet seems to stop, they're much more content to do family stuff now they are no longer living at home

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  6. That tree canopy walkway looks amazing and definitely worth a bus trip. Despite the smelly bird enclosures, it must have been a lovely visit to do with your son.

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  7. At least the gardens were gorgeous! I love South Africa's national flower and all that it stands for... so beautiful x

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    1. it was a shame it was raining, i only had half hour where it didn't rain all day

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  8. Lucas says - I think it's really sad that it looks like these birds don't have a very nice home to live in. I got the Mother to read this to me. #animaltales

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  9. That looks great - I particularly like the walkway in the botanical gardens. It's many years since I've been to Cape Town and it'd be great to go back and visit someday. #timetraveller

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    1. I will be back in SA in oct/nov but sadly won't be able to get to CT

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  10. How sad that the birds were not better looked after as it gives so many of the wrong messages to people about caring for animals for our fellow animals. It may also be a Catch 22 situation in that the fewer people who go the less money they have to look after the birds.

    Many thanks for adding this less than happy tale to #AnimalTales and apologies for commenting so late - life rather got in the way of blogging this week!

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    1. i think it was a catch 22 situation for sure.

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  11. What a shame it wasn't as good as you thought it might be and sad about the hygiene. I'm not a fan of animals or birds in captivity, it makes my skin crawl, they are better off free in my book.
    I do love those yellow Birds of Paradise though, such stunning flowers.
    Thanks for linking up to Time Traveller.

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    1. It is strange to visit a zoo or sanctuary when living in South Africa, most of the birds we had seen in our garden which backed onto a river on a golf course so cater for most species

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