Around the World in 322 Days

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I've been back in England for almost 3 weeks now (which by the way have gone extremely quickly considering that I have done nothing!) and I had to write another blog to talk about my time in Cape Town and round things off. I arrived in Cape Town with Ellie and we spent our first day exploring the area we were staying in (Long Street, the centre of Cape Town CBD) and we met up with Caz and Karl, 2 lovely people we had travelled part of the Garden Route with. Karl and I went to the castle in Cape Town for a little nosy around, then we all watched the England vs South Africa rugby game at one of the many bars on Long Street! Luckily South Africa won, as Ellie might have caused a riot otherwise! On our last day together we decided to kill ourselves by climbing Table Mountain, a 2 and a half hour hike up lots of rocky steps. It's pretty hard to describe how steep the climb was, and also how hot, but it's equally hard to describe the satisfaction we felt when we reached the top and saw the incredible view across Cape Town, the Cape Peninsular and further afield. We spent some time posing at the top of the mountain for photos and generally being silly before beginning the hike back down, which in some ways was harder than going up! I can't think of a more appropriate way that Ellie and I could have ended our time travelling together as we seem to have developed a fondness for climbing big things wherever we go! On a serious note - I had the most fun travelling with Ellie and I can't thank her enough for all her encouragement ("just DO IT!") when it came to me doing things I never thought I would, e.g. bungy jumping and sky diving! I wouldn't have had as much fun without her and I certainly wouldn't have had as many stories to tell! We are the two ladies who travel, and we will be again!
At the beginning of my last week of travelling, I waved bye bye to Ellie as she vanished round the corner in a taxi and my thoughts of 'hmmm I hope that was a legitimate taxi' were soon overtaken with thoughts of 'phew she's finally gone!' (Alright, I didn't meant that). I spent my day walking along the coast for as far as I could, reaching the olympic sized swimming pool at what I think was Sea Point. This was perhaps not the most sensible of ideas as my legs then decided they didn't want to walk back after the climb up Table Mountain the previous day, so I got a bus most of the way and then relaxed for the evening. On Tuesday I met Karl and we booked tickets to go over to Robben Island, then went to see the noon gun fire from Signal hill. After a bit of clever squeezing through a barbed wire fence (we walked past the path, because we're smart), we stood around and waited for the canon to fire at midday and then looked at all the rather impressive guns on display. We then picked up Caz and the three of us caught the ferry from the waterfront to Robben Island, the site of the now dis-used jail for political prisoners including Nelson Mandela. On the ferry ride we sat on the roof of the boat and we very excited to see a school of dolphins (about 40!) swim past the boat! Our tour of the Island included a bus trip where we saw the village on the island (I didn't realise anyone lived on Robben Island) and the quarry where prisoners were made to work, and a walking tour of the prison to see the different buildings and rooms, including a brief look at Nelson Mandela's fomer cell. The tour was very interesting, however I don't think I'd do it again as I'd prefer more written information - there were so many people in the group we couldn't all hear what the guide was saying! The following few days I went on organised tours, the first of which was a Cape Point tour which took me to see some cape fur seals, some penguins and the most south-western point of Africa with some hiking and biking thrown in for good measure. It was a really fun day and the scenery was amazing. My second tour was a wine tasting tour around the Stellenbosch wine region, which was pretty nice! Luckily you don't get to taste large quantities of wine or I might have been carried back to Cape Town! I spent my last day before flying to Johannesburg wandering around the local markets getting some bargains to take back home. Obviously I only got the highest quality goods as Christmas presents and made sure I spent a small fortune every time. Of course... The markets are great fun and some of the traders will actually chase you to make a sale, as I found out.
I rounded off my year long jolly (as Ellie's mum calls it) with 2 nights in Pretoria and after a large amount of stress due to not being picked up at the airport (again!) and not being booked on my tour despite phoning up a week ago, I was sorted. My tour went ahead, with just me on it, but I had a great day seeing the sights of Johannesburg (which is a really nice looking city despite the violence and all the abandoned broken-into buildings...) and Soweto (a huge sprawling community of the south-western townships, ranging from small courragated iron houses to big red-brick mansions). During the day I went to the Apartheid museum, by far and away the best museum I have been to. It was terribly sad to learn about the oppression that people in South Africa suffered due to the small-minded prejudice of others, but at the same time there were definite feelings of hope and a sense of moving towards a better future. I was driven around Soweto to see the different communities and had a guided walk through one of the streets, then I had a look around another museum, named after a 13-year old boy killed during a student protest against being made to learn in Afrikaans when they didn't speak it - Hector Peterson. My day was brilliant and I think it was great to spend my last day in South Africa immersing myself in it's history.

As I said, I am now back in Pershore after a fairly uneventful but long flight over the rest of Africa which it would have been nice to see! I had the best time travelling; all the time when I was in school and most of university I said I'd go to Australia but the thought of travelling around the world for almost an entire year never entered my head. I still haven't decided what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I've made some decisions on my trip which have given me some confidence in myself. I've certainly done some amazing things I never would have done before - you only live once after all!

Cheesy stuff over! Thanks to everyone who continued to read my ramblings and it's been brilliant to see lots of people again. Looking forward to spending Christmas with the family and New Year with my fab friends soon, and also eagerly awaiting Ellie's return.
Goodbye!

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Comments

[Dad]

Anniversary
Well, Cat, not quite, but almost, a year since you returned home from your trek around the world. Who'd have thought that after visiting all these exotic places you would have ended up in Aylesbury!! Still, as long as you are happy then that is the most important thing. I really enjoyed reading all your blogs and the challenge each time, for me, was to come up with some entertaining comment that hopefully made you laugh? I really wish that when I was your age, I had done what you have, in seeing a lot of the world and visiting relatives - yes, I know that when I was your age, Anne and Niall would not have been in Australia/Tasmania and I had not met your mum so I wouldn't have known Sheila, Deanna and Paul, etc but you know what I mean! I'm really proud of you for making the most of your year and I look forward to reading blogs from your next trip abroad. I am disappointed, however, that there have been no blogs about life in Aylesbury - something for you to consider, perhaps? Love, Dad xx