Cape Town and farewell to South Africa

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Apologies - no pics for now as the connection speed here in Uganda is pretty slow! Coming soon...

We spent the last three days of my South African trip in Cape Town, soaking up the atmosphere of the harbour with its glamorous shops and restaurants, visiting the museums and driving up the stunning coastline to Pringle Bay, past the vineyards, the mountains and the golden beaches with their communities of pastel-coloured holiday homes.

The Cape - green, rainy and much more familiar to my northern European eyes, felt much more relaxed and also a little more racially integrated than Joburg. We walked, even after dark, and although the car doors were still kept locked, it was to keep out the baboons, rather than to prevent robbery!

I continued my cultural education at the Slave Lodge, the dwelling place of slaves brought by the Dutch settlers from the seventeenth century and now converted into an excellent museum commemorating their lives and suffering. The Dutch brought slaves from Indonesia, India, China and Malaysia as well as from the West African coast, and this rich heritage is visible in the faces and culture of South Africa today. Add the European settlers - British, Portuguese, Jewish, Greek, French, Spanish, Eastern European and more - to the indigenous Khoi-San, and the later Zulu, Xhosa and other African communities, and you have a city easily as diverse and varied as London.

The National Gallery’s collections reflect this mix too: from classic English pastoral scenes, to photographs of life in the Cape Town bars of the 1960s, to modern sculpture and video art; and a memorable exhibition of art from tropical regions around the world.

The drive along the coast is was a great experience too. Reminiscent of North Wales or the Highlands of Scotland, the craggy black mountains shrouded in swirling clouds, vivid greens of the low bush and tiny sheltered coves in the Indian Ocean are truly beautiful. The fact that you can encounter baboons sauntering up the road, eyeing you balefully, is the only thing to remind you that this is Africa!

So what are my impressions of South Africa as I leave? Some things - the disparity of wealth and opportunity in particular - are difficult to see, regardless of the fact that I expected them. The level of segregation that still exists is greater than I expected, and my impression is that this is increasing. White South Africans seem now to have an ambivalent, love/hate relationship with their country and some feel increasingly pushed out, particularly from the job market, despite the skills they have to offer the country. But equally, while some are doing well, opportunities don’t seem to be there for millions of impoverished black people either.

But equally I will take away a lasting picture of incredible variety and beauty, gorgeous food and wine, the peaceful leafy suburbs of Joburg, the wealthy urban metropolises and the wild open countryside. It’s a country rich in mineral and human resources, fertile and, as the billboards reminded me on the way to the airport, ‘Alive with Possibility’. I couldn’t have been better looked-after by Sandy and Colin, or more warmly welcomed by all the South Africans I met, and it’s been a fantastic introduction to Africa. Now on to Uganda, another world altogether!

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