The shortest journey begins with a single step...

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However, mine began with a half hour wait at immigration before I had even left Australia. I should have treated it as a foreshadowing for what would happen when, 30 hours of travelling later, I arrived at Cape Town International Airport to be told that, I had to prove I was going to leave the entire African continent, not just South Africa. Which, having not bought a ticket home yet, I couldn't do. So I got to hear the magic words, "will you just take a seat so I can check with my supervisor..."

Obviously, given I'm writing this about my first day in Cape Town, the supervisor rolled his eyes and waved me through. So I arrived at my hostel (with the zebra patterned front door), showered, watched some Afrikaans TV and fell fast asleep.

Waking up this morning was easier than I thought it would be. Trying to inject some familiarity into my day, I had $4 worth of muesli and tea for breakfast, then decided to walk down to the V and A waterfront. Actually named after Queen Victoria and her son Alfred (who "helped" build the first part by throwing some stones in the water), it is apparently the most popular tourist site in South Africa. And if the crowds experienced today are typical, I don't find it hard to believe at all. After girlishly going and playing with farm animals in a petting zoo, I went to the aquarium. It was actually a wonderful place, informative but still interesting, and with incredibly beautiful exhibits. The only note for improvement I could give is, if you really must let so many children in, give a few more of them a valium before hand. This would hopefully reduce the noise level to tolerable.

After a boerwors (hotdog), I jumped on one of those cheesy double decker tour buses, that proved to be far more interesting than I thought it would be. It went through the city, over the mountain, and down the other side, to what I could swear was the mediterranean riviera. It ran along the beach front then back into the city, past really pretty buildings and beautiful ocean. So despite the wind here, I'm pretty keen to get into some water soon. But that will be a story for another day!

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Comments

[Beverley Iles]

African journey
Thats more like it, news wise. I have heard the harbour is a lot like Sydney Harbour. Apparently Shahanz and Aunty Karen had an argument about which is more beautiful. so it must be close. Petting zoo and aquarium sounds good. Can never close properly on the txts so it is "stay safe, enjoy yourself, with lots of love Mum xx"

[whereintheworldis]

I did hear it was modelled after the theory of Sydney and San Francisco harbour. I didn't think it was particularly pretty; slightly too practically focused and not in an "industrial chic" kind of way. Just in a "this is a working port" kind of way. But it was still nice. Kind of had an E shed markets vibe to it, with fairy floss and sausage sizzles. There also, oddly, wasn't much water visible, which was probably the biggest let down. But the aquarium was awesome! Slightly overbearing on the message of "humans are destroying the planet, don't we suck", but the penguins were adorable.

[Alan Fealy]

Capetown Aquarium
Don't they have lots of white pointers at the Cape of Good Hope - noisy kids / aquarium, is there a solution?

[Karen Grant]

from your cousin Karen...
Hi Kate. Great to hear about your trip. Especially since exactly 30 years ago, I also left Australia on my own to travel and spent Jan '83 in the Cape. I suspect everything (and nothing) has changed. Safari salama. Karen x