Blood And Pickpockets

Day 44 - Cape Town - 11/9/09

I was really excited as Duncan, Cat, Pascal and Danielle were in Cape Town today. I wondered down to the Waterfront, relatively early just to enquire if the ferry to Robben Island was running today. It was and tickets were already sold out up until to the 1500 ferry, so I snapped up a ticket. Walked up the length of Long Street, up Kloof Street to the Ashanti Lodge; which is where the guys were staying, they arrived at midday. Midday rolled around and I quite literally bumped into Duncan, it was really good to see them. I feel like I would really like to stay in touch with them in the future. Duncan asked if I wanted to join them for high tea but having booked Robben Island tickets I had to decline. Half past 2 arrived really quickly so I made my way to Nelson Mandela Gateway, passed though security and boarded the ferry. It was beautiful, I love being at sea, and for half an hour I stood above deck taking in the sea breeze.

Having disembarked the ferry I climbed onto a tour bus and grabbed the window seat. We were, when full, greeted by an Asian looking gentleman who was our guide round the island. He started by asking everybody where they were from and had a story about how that particular nationality helped build or were incarcerated on Robben Island, except for the Croatian gentlemen who was onboard. The bus started to move and stopped off at various locations with a story to tell. My favourite one was when he stopped at the Lime Quay, where Mandela used to work; he used to teach the guards here and freed their minds at the same time. We stopped outside the prison, where we left the bus and entered the prison. We left by giving the guide a round of applause and tipping him; I would imagine a lot of people, me included, come mainly to see Mandela's prison cell not for a history lesson of the actual island but this guide delivered the material in a humorous way.

We stepped into the prison to be greeted by our new guide; he introduced himself and told us that he was a guest of the establishment, spending time as a political prisoner here on Robben Island. He started his tour of the prison by telling us how the guards would censor their letters, how the number of letters would depend on what class of prisoner they were. He guided as around and one of the highlight was when he took us inside one of the cells that he stayed in when he was on the island. He told us stories about what it was like to live here and showed us a comparison in daily diet between the B class and the C class prisoners would eat. Next we were taken outside into the courtyard and shown Mandela's vegetable patch, where he hid all the books that he managed to get into prison, finally, as promised we were taken to see Mandela's cell, everybody crammed in trying to get a picture. I waited until everybody had finished and tried to take my photo, annoyingly all my pictures came out dark despite trying lots of different settings. Again the guide was awesome, he made the tour come to life; made you feel like you were there and you could feel all of his emotions.

When I got back, off the ferry, I went to meet up with Duncan and everybody, it was officially the tour's last night as a group so they were all having dinner together. Seeing that my tour had ended in Victoria Falls I decided that I wasn’t going to have dinner with them, just going to have drinks with them afterwards; anyway I had found an interesting looking Ethiopian restaurant which I was going to have dinner in. Eventually, they arrived and I explained that I wasn't eating with them and was going to this Ethiopian restaurant and Danielle told me that she loves Ethiopian food so I decide that actually I would have dinner with them and save the Ethiopian for another day. Anyway, we ate lots of game food and drank lots of wine before we left; we walked down Long Street with full bellies looking for somewhere good looking to drink.

I remember seeing this charming looking bar called Cape to Cuba; we went in with a couple of the other people from the truck, after a couple of Cuban beers I found myself running low on money so I made my way back to the hostel. I went to cross the road, putting my foot into a pothole on the side of the road and then proceeded to stub my toe on the road. It was so painful; half the skin round my big toe was hanging off and my flip flop, well, it was covered in blood. I was bent over, in considerable pain looking at the blood pour out of my big toe when this random guy got very close; his shoulder was touching mine and said in my ear “Dude, you ok?” My thought process at this moment of time was as follows; I’m fine, this guys really close, check my pocket. It was good that I did check my pocket as I put my hand into my pocket and pulled his out; I pushed him away and proceeded to hobble down to road to my hostel, I looked back to see this guy following me down the road. I was so lucky I checked my pocket when I did as 5 seconds later, the guy would have got my camera out of my pocket. I hobbled out of the lift, leaving a trail of blood on the carpet in the hostels reception; not quite the extent where it looked like somebody had been shot but still a considerable amount of blood. The hostel staff sat me down and cleaned and dressed the wound. I eventually got back into the pub and drank the night away with no further mishaps.

Day 45 - Cape Town - 12/9/09

This morning I was meant to be climbing Table Mountain with Duncan but due to the wound on my toe I decided to give it a miss, to say I was disappointed would have been a big understatement even though I've already climbed it on a previous trip here. Whilst Duncan disappeared off to climb Table Mountain; me, Cat, Pascal and Danielle went to the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock for the weekly food market. At first I was quite worried as it was packed and I was scared for the safety of my toe. I mean Oh My God! It was awesome! So much nice food first thing in the morning, I actuall forgot about my blooded toe. I had a steak sandwich, a cheese and ham sandwich, various pastries and so much other stuff; actually it was difficult to remember exactly what I ate! Saying that I do remember that at 10 o'clock in the morning the first thing I had at the food market was a pint of beer! It had to be done.

After a couple of hours; eating, drinking and being merry everybody went their separate ways with a full belly, Pascal and Danielle went to climb Table Mountain and I went with Cat to do some shopping. We went to an out of town shopping centre, which, happened to be the biggest in Africa. Cat wanted to buy a new pair of shoes (not surprising really!) and a pair of hiking boots, which it would turn out to be the bain of my life! Several hours later the pair of heel were taken care off but the hiking boots were proving to be a little bit of a problem; Cat had her heart set on a pair she had seen earlier on in the day but they were in the wrong size. We actually went to some shops twice, eventually she found a pair and purchased them, don’t worry Cat they will actually do!

Later on that evening we all arranged to meet at Cape to Cuba for a few drinks before heading onto the Ethiopian restaurant to have something to eat. We left after a couple of Mojoitos's (ok 4 or 5!) as they were buy one get one free. We entered the restaurant and were sat at a table that was at the height of our knees; this was going to be a unique eating experience one sensed. The waiter brought over a little bowl of warm
water, which we used to wash our hands, it was apparent at this time that the knives and forks were going to be our fingers.

Our starter consisted of a kind of light crispy bread which we ripped apart with our left hands only as the right hand in Ethiopia is used to take care of business, if you know what I mean. Eating with one hand is something that I actually was finding particularly difficult. As a group we decided to go for the meat platter for a main, when it was served it came on kind of sour bread with pot containing different things; the waiter went through them all with us, we had Chicken, Beef, Prawns, Spinach, Chick Peas and a few other foodstuffs. They were all emptied onto the bread and on a stool next to me was placed a bowl of Injera bread; which I thought actually tasted of nothingness, which is used to scoop up the fillings. It was a really nice meal.

We paid and left; making our way to our various hotels and hostels, we arranged to meet at the waterfront, underneath the clock tower at 1300 so we could arrange plans for the vineyards.

Day 46 - Cape Town - 13/9/09

It was raining in the morning; not heavily but that fine rain which seems to soak you to the bone, it reminds me too much of what awaits me back at home. Anyways I really wasn't overly happy, I was wondering down Long Street when I bumped into the guy who we met a couple of nights ago; he was drinking by himself and he came over and asked if he could join us and we said yes. I couldn't remember his name so I decided to call him Mr. Manchester, just not to his face. With him was one of the guys from my shark dive, we walked down to the waterfront and had a cup of coffee in the mall there. I couldn’t remember what time I was meeting everybody so I walked over to the clock tower at 1200 and waited; after 15 minutes it was apparent that we weren’t meeting at midday, I wondered around pretty aimlessly for an hour; until 1300 when the guys showed up. We went for lunch and after much deciding, picked somewhere to eat. It was a lovely little lunch with a great bunch of people.

After a couple of hours wondering around the shops with Duncan and Cat I decided to go back to my hostel. When I got back to the hostel I was making hot chocolate in the kitchen when I got talking to an American girl called Anna, she was Portland and was going home tomorrow, she was determined to do something this evening and eventually I gave into her persistent nagging and agreed to come out with her to a Mexican restaurant. In the end we had a group of 5, we all walked down to a little Mexican restaurant which was about 5 minutes away, it seemed that there was only one guy working; taking orders and serving at the bar. It was OK, nothing special, average food and the desert was a shot of Tequila. Three of us ended up in Mr. Pickwick's and all I remember was drinking milkshakes and a few absinthes or was that milkshakes with absinthe? All I know is that I defiantly drunk milkshakes and absinthes; why didn’t I find out about this place before!?!? Would have been an
awesome night out.

Apparently, a little poker was played and a late night was had.

---

Part of trip: African Adventures Of A Nobody

---