Cape Town’s Big Six: Kirstenbosch Gardens (6/6)
As a city, Cape Town’s known for its “Big Six” attractions – meet them all through SA Logue’s Cape Town Big Six tag!
Kirstenbosch Gardens
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Tourists seeking out Cape Town’s botanical gardens have two choices, essentially: the free walk through the Company’s Gardens in the CBD, or the trek out to the National Botanical Institute’s Kirstenbosch Gardens in upper Newlands (entrance on Rhodes Drive – map).
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You can probably tell which option Your Correspondent prefers. Don’t get me wrong, Kirstenbosch is a glorious celebration of all things botanical in South Africa, and is decidedly the most informative experience a plant-lover can have here. But it’s also the more snooty of the two gardens, by quite a ways. The upside of the snootiness is that you don’t get approached for a contribution to a homeless person’s lunch; the downside is that, for all its botanical color, the place comes off as rather chilly and bloodless.
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Entrance to Kirstenbosch is R25 per adult, and there’s plenty to see and do: take a guided tour, or a self-guided one with the garden’s audio system; rent a golf cart and scoot around; spot birds and mammals – including the gorgeous sugar bird and the grey mongoose; take a gentle stroll, then spread out a blanket and have a picnic; make Kirstenbosch your starting point for a challenging hike up Table Mountain, via Skeleton Gorge or the Nursery Ravine; buy plants and seeds at the impressive nursery; go to an outdoor concert; or spend the morning drifting through the Kirstenbosch stone sculpture garden and conclude with a lunch in its cafe.
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The cafe, though, is another bone that needs picking. Your chances of decent food and service are 50-50 on both counts. Safest order is probably scones and tea.
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It’s possible that my bias is of the not-sufficiently-well-informed kind (except on the food & service fronts), in which case I grant that I may one day step into enlightenment with regard to Kirstenbosch. But for now I still prefer the sounds and human color of the Company’s Gardens over the pious hush of this exclusive preserve.
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Kirstenbosch links:
- SA National Botanical Institute (homepage)
- Cape Town Big Six (official “Big Six” site)
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