Capetown Clicked

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Like the ears of a horse, a true traveller is always alert to new places to visit. My South African colleague excitedly spoke of Capetown and even suggested the fantastic business class experience of Eithiopian Airways with a welcome drink of Champagne. I was sold on the spot.

Nearer to my date of departure, Eskom, the sole electricity provider of Capetown went bust and needed to be rescued through government funding. Capetown was also facing long term water shortage from relatively dry summers. There had been massive fires and biomes had been destroyed. ( The wind direction was funny as some houses got fully burnt while the others next to it stood as good as new). The omens were not entirely good but can anything stop a determined traveler?

I booked a 4 star hotel only an evening earlier for an exceptional price thanks to some fantastic recommendations from a senior colleague. Flight was awesome and business class comfortable with flat beds. I watched movies and ate the delicious Ethiopian chicken curry with breads made of millet. Tasty. Capetown public transport was rubbish and so in the entire trip my first and last public transport was airport bus to city centre. I walked the short distance to my hotel but there were idle men around. I kept my hand bag tightly to my body. As usual, Google map was hopeless (actually it was my poor sense of direction) and so I took the opportunity to go into a friendly mobile shop with an Asian owner. He was most courteous and happy to talk in Hindi. He asked me to be careful and showed me a couple of men who were potential pick pockets.

They were tall, young men idling in the streets looking for easy targets. They skillfully remove the zips and take out your belongings without any effort. I learnt fast to be on my toes.

The first evening, I chatted with front desk receptionist who became equally excited as I was keen to make the best of my travels. She came up to my room with a list of brochures. I selected the best of Capetown day trip.

The driver picked me up and we were a small group of 6 with an elderly American man who kept insisting he was running out of time. We clicked photos of Capepoint and Cape of good hope ( an extremely rocky beach off the Atlantic ocean). We entered the Capetown nature reserve but did not spot a single animal.

Neverthless, the natural vegetation called Flynbos ( Fine bush) consisting of Erica ( Heath), reeds and Protea ( King Protea is the national flower of South Africa) was a delightful mix of the richest variety of green I have ever seen at one place.

We marvelled at the little African penguins in their natural habitat at Simon’s bay. Some locals were singing click song which has a lot of click sounds. The Muzenberg bay was famous for surfing. The mingling of the warm Agulhas current and the cold Benguela current makes it optimum for natural algae- a feast for fishes. Sharks are occasionally sighted here as fish is so abundant. We had lunch at Stellenbosch, an Oak tree lined village which has its own agricultural university.

I drank blood red orange juice and it was Vitamin C for a lifetime.

At the wine tasting in one of the numerous vineyards of Capetown, I got friendly with my co-traveller, a Taiwanese lady on business visit because Information Technology was a sunrise industry. The guide spoke warmly about his noble mother while growing up in Capetown township. She protected him and he never indulged in drinks or drugs though he grew up in a township Today, he is a family man and earns a respectable living. I salute his brave mother. He rightly pointed to the mindset of people which divides people.

I took instant advantage of sunny weather and took the cable to Table Mountain.

It rotated on its way up and it was a splendid view up the 1,085 odd meters. A small trek, guided tour and eating a fine piece of cheesecake while waiting for the Sunset was a wonderful evening to remember. Lo behold! The glorious Sun set on the Atlantic ocean while the soft white clouds floated over the rocks just as if the giants were laying the table for dinner. We ran away before we ended up being on their plate!

Another fine day and I was get set go for Kirstenbosch, the famous botanical gardens of Capetown.

While I admired the pretty Proteas, richly coloured sunbirds etc, I drifted to the outskirts of the garden and met an horticulturalist who was doing her morning run. We chatted and she said that the skeleton gorge would be a fine sight and had one of the last stretches of unspoilt Flynbos biome in Capetown. Always eager to see greenery, I decided to go for it but Good God, it was a never ending hike......

Skeleton gorgeis so called because a skeleton of some runaway slave perhaps was found in one of the caves. For once, I am glad I got to know of it later. Now the hike. It was countless steps, steep ladders and scrambling over a trinkle of a stream. I let people pass as I took several stops. At one point, I sat down to enjoy my Tuna sandwich and a refreshing bottle of coke.

I am sure my face was a nice deep shade of red tomato

How refreshing was the bottle of water! It was mostly shade but at the places where there was Sun, I took out my blue umbrella and must have been a sight.



Almost at the top ( 200ms below top), I met a set of hikers who helpfully suggested taking the same route back if I did not want to miss my ferry to Robben island. My climb down was a record feat and towards the end my legs were wobbly. The guard at the gardens helpfully found me a taxi and I was at waterfront to catch ferry to Robben Island.

Afrikaans is a very old and simple form of Dutch brought my sailors to South Africa

Robben island (meaning "seal" island in Afrikaans) is about 20 miles from mainland. The famous critique, Robert Sabukewe was imprisoned here for fighting for rights of the Black, coloured and Asian people. The government was afraid. He died after long years of imprisonment. It was much later that Nelson Mandela was locked up.

The tour was by a former prisoner. I barely understood him as he spoke with a very heavy accent.The room of imprisonment was simple and the courtyard where Nelson Mandela was allowed to do a bit of gardening and exercise was accessible to the public. Indeed, the political prisoners were asked to work in lime quarry for physical exercise. It turned out to be an excellent opportunity to exchange political ideas. Having read, ‘The long walk to freedom’, it was interesting to observe the prison in person. The ferrymen joked that if we missed the last ferry, it would be the long walk to Capetown 😊

A bunch of holidaying seals were happily sunbathing when we reached the ferry station at Capetown.

After Capetown, I took a 4 day 'Garden route'tour to see the beautiful countryside. It was a 400 kms drive to Oudshoorn which is famous for Ostrich farms.

Ostricts are silly looking birds with a small head, big body and tall legs. You grow to like them.

They walk on their toes ( their feet is actually the 'toes' and the knee is actually the ankle). Hence, they walk a bit like ballerinas. I tasted Ostrich meat which was red meat and not at all like poultry. Earlier, ostrichs were reared for the white feather of the males and now they are reared more for meat and leather. Oudshoorn is also famous for the annual music festival of the Afrikaaners (People of dutch origin who have settled in South Africa mainly farmers called Boers)

We visited the Cango caves of the little Karo region- one of the largest limestone caves of the world. A Dutch farmer discovered it in 1780. He took a little lamp as he came looking for his cattle into the deep caves. Imagine genie with a lamp. The Khoisan who were the original inhabitants of Capetown (earlier called the Bush people) believed that the spirits of their ancestors lived in these caves.

That night, was stayed overnight in a round hut with all the modern facilities called ' Shally'.

I ate a hearty dinner of butternut squash soup, fish and chips and ice cream with fruit salad.

The next morning, we drove down to the Knyser estuary, famous for sea-horses (but I did not see a single one) and visited the Featherbed nature reserve. It was a long scenic drive through mountains and valleys, crossing little streams with rich tea coloured water because of tannins of the trees which bleach into the waters. The large semi desert stretches of Little Karo to the coastal town of Knyser, George etc along the coast of Indian Ocean was a delightful drive. The Featherbed nature reserve so called because of the calm waters of the estuary. It was a resting place of ships from India to Portugal.

There are many rivers like Knyser which are more like streams which flow into the Indian ocean forming a unique eco-system called estuaries.

The easy trek at the reserve ended in fantastic blues of the ocean and rewarded with a sumptuous lunch. While we were eating, we saw many animals ran helter skelter under the tables. They were wild mongoose!

The locals and tourists watched and cheered the school girls as they played inter- school water polo in the estuary. The sunset was glorious. That night we stayed at a golf resort. I barely managed a quick swim in the heated pool overlooking the mountains to start off for the Botlierskop game reserve. It was a pampered tour with a warm blanket to keep us warm when we drove through the countryside in the misty rain and cool wind. We learnt to identity different types of antlers, Bontebok with their beautiful body, white body marks. The Springbok is an antler which jumps on all its fours and must be a beauty. None of them ran when we approached them. The Impala has a white mark like a trishul on their back. The wild water buffalo are dangerous animals. While resting, they sit in a circle facing out so that they can keep an eye on dangers in all directions. The single horned rhinoceroses were massive and calm. A giant African male elephant blocked our way mischievously. We waited for it to move but it simply would not budge. We missed seeing the lions in that sector as there was just no place for the jeep to move with the beast standing on our way.

We saw another animal ranch with leopards, Bengal white tiger, lions, cheetahs, turtles, flamingoes, bats and others. The guide was good and the animals well taken care of. I wanted to take a photo with a crocodile. It opened its mouth. Not sure if it was to smile or show off its sharp set of teeth.

The British in South Africa have their annual musical festival in the town of George. We drove along the rolling coast while the guide explained from botany to history- everything I asked. Girl guiding and scouting started here during the Boers war. I tried to ask the meaning of ’Gin gan guli guli guli waccha‘song but he did know the song but not the language.

We stayed at Mossul bay which has a 500 year old Milkwood tree under which Portuguese sailors used to leave letters for their loved ones.

It had an interesting sea shells museum and ship like the one Bartholomeu Diaz used to sail to Africa. It is scientific wonder to me to have surived at sea at all.

This tour group was an elderly couple and two friends who were all British.

I felt at home and enjoyed the sprinkles of British humour along with plenty of South Arican sunshine.

The guide said he really enjoyed my company. Indeed, I was firing him with questions as I did not know if I would ever come back to Capetown. There is a fine line being inquisitive and a pain in the neck.

After a nice sleep and the hotel forgetting to book my taxi to airport, I changed 3 flights to reach Kuwait. I almost felt like changing buses on my way to office in Bangalore. After all the wines, I could not much enjoy the hospitality of Ethiopian airways as I simply slept off. I reached Kuwait, got my visa, currency exchange and 'flight' home in the wee hours of the morning.

South Africa is rich in natural resources. It had skilled labour which emigrated once 'reservations' came into place with the end of Apartheid. Corruption is rampant. Drug lords rule. From the taxi driver, mobile shop owner to hotel receptionist; everyone warned me of street crime and mugging. It showed that common people cared for foreigners but were helpless against the high rate of unemployment which was driving people to crime.

The country lacked political will.

The people were cheerful and openly expressed their emotions. Even the South African guide of British origin was 'warm' and being blunt was considered not rude at all. There were similarities with South American culture in their spirit of friendliness, bohemian and openness.

The country has 11 official languages and 12^th is the sign language. English is widely spoken in Capetown. People were hopeful towards a bright future. It is a diverse society and striving to come to terms with the world. Most importantly, 25 years back, I would have never been allowed to fly business class. I salute the unprecendented progress made by South Africa. Capetown clicked.

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Photos

Devil or Lion's Head
View from Table Mountain top

King Proteas
National Flower of South Africa

Ostrich eggs
You can stand on them. The Ostrich itself has to sit on the eggs and so that egg shells are indeed, very strong.