Cape on Fire

When we arrived in Cape Town on Monday March 2, it was early evening and the sky was bright pink. I thought it was just a beautiful sunset but my sister who's lived in Colorado for more than 20 years knew differently. "That's a forest fire," she said.

We had been in the bush and out of touch for five days and did not know that a fire had started in Muizenburg sometime over the weekend. By day three, the fire had spread westward across the top of the peninsula all the way to Hout Bay and Chapman's Peak!

The next morning on Tuesday, we headed up to Table Mountain and we could see the fire and smoke across Table Mountain National Park from the top.

a dassie seemingly oblivious to the devastation going on below

That same afternoon, we headed over to Groot Constantia for a wine tasting. We found the fire was literally at their doorstep. The managers had ordered the thatched roof of the manor house to be wet down to help hold off the fire and plans were being formulated to move the priceless antique furniture out of the manor house. It was pretty scary.

Groot Constantia estimated that the fire was only five meters away from the vines.

a helicopter water bombs the fires behind Groot Constantia

view from De Grendel

The next day on Wednesday, we headed out to Stellenbosch and Franschhoek east of Cape Town for more wine tasting. We finished the day northeast of the Cape at De Grendel wine estate for sundowners and dinner. The view from De Grendel usually includes Table Mountain, Lion's Head and Table Bay. But the heavy smoke and ash completely obscured their iconic view.

the hills behind Muizenberg

We had planned to drive down to Good Hope, the most southwestern point in Africa on Thursday, day six of the fire. But many of the roads down the peninsula - including Chapmans Peak Drive - were closed as a result of the fire and access to Cape Point was severely limited.

And to top it off, additional fires had broken out at Cape Point on Wednesday - probably due to lightning - forcing the authorities to abruptly close the park. We didn't want to chance it so we decided instead to head over to the most southern point in Africa, Cape Agulhas.

On our way back to Cape Town, we passed through Muizenberg. The hills above Muizenberg were still smoking and the ocean waves were covered in a blanket of ash. But the good news was that the fire was now 80% contained.

Cape Town's bravest

The fire is now completely out. In its wake, roads have been destroyed, homes and businesses evacuated and burned, a luxury hotel is now in ruins, thousands of animals displaced, and several lives lost, including one of the helicopter pilots who crashed while fighting the fire. (And Groot Constantia did lose a few rows of vines to fire as well. Luckily they were vines that had already been harvested.)

It is a heart-breaking tragedy.