Cape Town Tourist Attraction: MOCAA

We went to one of the most amazing museums when we were in South Africa. The brand new Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) is a marvel in architectural repurposing and houses incredible 21st century art. I highly recommend visiting MOCAA in Cape Town.

About MOCAA

Located in the city’s V&A Waterfront neighborhood, the new modern art museum is in a converted grain silo near the harbour. They spent a lot of money redesigning this building! Money well spent. The formerly all concrete tubes now are full of windows and the result is a stunning exterior. At first glance, you think the best thing about MOCAA may be the building, but it’s just as impressive inside.

Interior MOCAA in Cape Town
Inside MOCAA, Cape Town

Mocaa’s art

We were very moved by the art collection, which is all from this century and from all over the African continent. As you can imagine, as a modern art museum representing so many different countries, there is a lot of very diverse art to see on the nine floors.

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Kayaking With Penguins on the Western Cape

One of the most memorable and fun experiences of our South Africa trip was kayaking south of Cape Town. After our time in the city, we needed another opportunity to commune with nature and animals, so we took a guided tour of the beach home to cape fur seals and penguins in Simon’s Town. We loved kayaking with penguins on the Western Cape. You can do it too!

Paddle with Penguins

The two hour tour is called Paddle with the Penguins.  That much time spent on a kayak in the bay allowed us to see penguins and more wildlife. We were really lucky with the weather, which was warm and cloudy, and the sea, which was calm.

Our guide, Terry, a marine conservationist with Shark Warrior Adventure Centre, was a trove of information about the penguins. He also led us near seals and sea birds and told us all about these marine animals and their home in Simon’s Town, all while guiding 8 of us through the very calm but busy waters of False Bay.

kayaking with penguins western cape tour
Getting ready to kayak False Bay
And Seals!

The seals came as a complete surprise to us, and they were beautiful and plentiful! Many seals were lying on the rocks, and some of them swam around our kayaks. They are very playful and fun and got quite close to us!

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Cape Town: A Hike up Table Mountain

Cape Town is a beautiful city, located on the shore of Table Bay, and dominated by Table Mountain, Devil’s Peak and Lion’s Head. Since we arrived in Cape Town, we knew we wanted to climb Table Mountain. It’s a Cape Town landmark, and even has cable cars to bring the more sedentary to the peak and back. Here’s what it was like to hike up Table Mountain.

Best Day to Hike

We stayed in Cape Town for 4 days and based on weather forecasts and our schedule, the best day to hike to the top of Table Mountain was New Year’s Day.

We had a couple days of cloudy skies, and since we wanted views, we waited for a clear day. And New Year’s Day delivered with the weather, so we started the New Year with an early morning walk up Table Mountain.

Table Mountain hike
Brian at the sign marking the start of our hike
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