Cape Town: My Last Blog and Testament

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Hello All,

Here is my last blog and testament. Tomorrow, I will be flying home after an incredible trip from London to Cape Town via Paris, Amsterdam, Northern Tanzania, Zanzibar, Southern Zambia, Johannesburg and the South African Garden Route. Cape Town has definitely been the icing on the cake and I will be coming back for sure one day. It was a long 6 hour drive from Mossel Bay to Cape Town, but it was well worth the view once we came over the last mountain road and saw the outskirts of Cape Town lighting up the night sky. A trail of ruby red and diamond white lined the main road below leading to the city centre - and to my final destination.

As we arrived late on a Saturday night, there wasn't much to do but get some sleep and start exploring the next day. However, we failed to remember that the next day was a Sunday and most places were closed. It seems that I still haven't got used to how serious they take the day of rest here. Despite this, we went exploring nonetheless, with a walk down Long Street where many bars, clubs, and shops are situated in the centre of Cape Town. The place that caught the eye was a bar that sold vodka shots for 1 rand. Hallelujah!

We also went down to the V&A Waterfront, a developed shopping district where everything is kept open on Sundays for the hundreds of people that flock there. Here was also the viewpoint where I could see Table Mountain in its entirety for the first time. It rose up above the city far higher than I had imagined and was picture perfect; especially on this day when it was topped by a thin layer of cloud, some of which was slipping over the edge like a waterfall. Taylor and I knew instantly that we wanted to climb to the top of it, but would have to wait until there was a completely clear day without a cloud in the sky. We spent the rest of the day walking through the food lovers market (a form of torture when you're on a budget), before having a drink on the water edge pub. Life could be worse.

Our first tourist stop was actually Simon's Town, a colonial-styled beach town just along the Cape peninsula. We had to take a 50-minute train ride there from the centre of Cape Town. I will say that I will never complain about the quality of London commuter trains again. Although Cape Town trains are more punctual (and don't go on strike every second Tuesday), they have all the aesthetic appeal of a graffiti-covered public toilet from the 17th century. Anyway, our reason for going to Simon's Town was to spend time with the African penguins at Boulder's Beach. Most of them looked pretty grumpy and there were signs everywhere telling us not to get too close because the penguins bite. Then again, if you were evolved to live in icy climates and you ended up in Africa, you'd be grouchy too. The rest of Simon's Town was very reminiscent of the English seaside, filled with tea rooms and fish n' chip shops. Taylor and I ignored these though and settled for lunch at Cafe Penguino, which I can only imagine was going for an Italian feel but I couldn't be too sure.

Again, we had to leave Cape Town for our next visit; Robben Island. For me, this was a must-visit and I was not disappointed - except for all the tourists you have to bear with. A 20-minute ferry ride (much smoother than the one I took from Zanzibar) brought us to the island where Nelson Mandela and many political prisoners of the apartheid era were imprisoned. What did surprise me was that the prison only formed a small part of the island. The bus tour around took us through the sizeable town where many of the guards used to live, but is now home to roughly 200 museum staff members - including former prisoners. The other side of the island was fairly uninhabited, and consisted of a few World War Two relics, an old golf course, and the former lime quarry where prisoners would labour. Unfortunately, we were forbidden to leave the bus and wander through ourselves at any point during the tour, and our guide was unable to explain why.

Throughout the visit, we did get the impression that many of the museum staff were unhappy with how the management were running the island. At the end of the bus tour, we met our prison guide (whose name sadly escapes me); he was a former Robben Island inmate who was incarcerated in the 1980s at the age of 18. He took us through various sections of the prison whilst telling his story, how the prison functioned, and what daily life was like. It was a truly fascinating experience which was marred slightly by the constant interruption of one family as they were worried that they were going to miss the ferry back. I hate tourists.

The visit ended with a look at Nelson Mandela's former cell, a tiny space which was kitted out with to look exactly as it would have. It was a nice way to conclude everything we had learnt both at Robben Island, and at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. However, you could only take it in for a few seconds before some cretin with a big camera muscled you out the way. For those concerned, the family did make it back onto the ferry with plenty of time to spare.

Next up on Cape Town's never-ending list of things to do was shark-diving. This would be Taylor's highlight of the trip, and perhaps my worst moment - for reasons that will soon become clear. Our day started with a 3:40am pick up (yes you read that right), and a 2.5 hour drive to Gansbaai, a small bay further south down from Cape Town where most of the shark watching in Souh Africa takes place. The sharks are mostly attracted to this area because there is an island a few miles offshore which is home to roughly 30,000 seals; like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Once we arrived at the bay, we were fed a full cooked breakfast (this would soon backfire on me) and given a briefing on what would happen through the day. By the time we were taken outside, daylight had come and we were ushered onto a boat with a large cage strapped to the back of it.

Once we had gone a few kilometres offshore, we anchored up and began changing into wetsuits whilst the crew worked on attracting sharks to the boat. After 15 minutes, a Great White Shark appeared and the first group of nine were dropped into the cage. It was quite a small shark but still reached 3 meters and was big enough to cause considerable damage to dangling limbs. Whilst the people in the cage were gasping, screaming, and cheering, I was watching from the boat and starting to feel very queasy as the boat rocked up and down over each wave. So that I don't have to go into too much detail on this (first time for everything) I was seasick from that point on until we reached shore again. I did get into the cage when it was my turn but I was unable to spot any sharks for the 10 minutes I lasted before I had to climb out and stick my head back into a sick bag. From what Taylor tells me, it was an amazing experience and she did see sharks once I had climbed out. The biggest one we saw all day was 5 metres long and was adventurous enough to start attacking the bait that had been hung out of the boat. I wish I could have been in a better place to be able to appreciate these incredible creatures more than I did, but at least I know to take sea-sickness tablets next time.

Safely back on land, I decided that I wanted to be as far away from the sea as possible, which in Cape Town means climbing to the top of Table Mountain, 1085m above sea level. Many hostels and tourist companies give very strict advice on how to stay safe on Table Mountain because apparently it is a hotspot for muggings and pickpockets, Taylor and I found this to be over exaggerated. On our route up, via the Pletteklip Gorge at 9am, there were a lot of people making their way up and down so we could not understand how someone could get isolated enough to be robbed. I read that the ascent was 800 steps; what they did not tell you was that they were 800 of the steepest steps known to man. At last, my freakish long legs came in handy! The estimated time that is supposed to take on our route is 2 hours so we were happy to have done it in an hour and 50 minutes. The views were breath-taking, giving you a 360 degree view of Cape Town, the Cape Peninsula, and even the West Coast back up towards Namibia. Satisfied with our efforts on the way up, we chose to take the easy option in the form of the cable car on the way down. This was very cool as the floor of the cable car rotated to give everyone a perfect view of our incredibly steep descent. We even waved to some nut-jobs who were attempting to abseil down the mountain as we passed. When we reached the bottom (at about 1pm) there was about an hour long queue for the cable car on the way up; our taxi driver informed us that the queue would only get bigger as the day went on.

For today, our last day in Cape Town, we embarked on a walking tour through the Bo-Kaap district, the infamous Islamic area of Cape Town where former slaves settled and soon painted their houses in an array of bright colours. To this day, the community come together every Ramadan to decide what colour they will each paint their houses for that year, so as not to choose the same colour as their neighbour. It was an amazing sight which was accompanied by a wonderful variety of smells coming from the different Islamic restaurants, cafe's and spice shops.

Unfortunately, today also brought the darker side of South Africa which Taylor and I so far managed to avoid. I was approached by a beggar who was unlike all the others I had come across and when I declined to give him any money, he became very aggressive and threatened to stab me even though I did not see any knife. Even after I gave him a 5 rand coin, he continued to threaten me and claim that he felt like killing someone today. Luckily, we were just passing a very posh looking restaurant which Taylor and I dived into to take refuge whilst the security and waiting staff tried to chase the beggar away. The man was so determined that he tried really hard to follow us in and claimed that he would be waiting outside for us. Very shaken, the restaurant staff allowed us to stay for a couple minutes whilst security ensured it was safe for us to go back outside.

After nearly 3 months of being in Africa without any issues like this whatsoever, it is unfortunate that this had to happen on our last day, especially in the most touristy part of Cape Town. I'm not proud of myself to have caved in and given him a 5 rand coin as he was clearly a junkie but in the heat of the moment when someone is threatening you, your natural instinct is to try everything to get them away. I don't mean for this story to put anyone off coming to South Africa, it certainly hasn't stopped me from wanting to return, but it is an invaluable reminder of where I am and that staying vigilant is always vital, no matter how safe you feel.

The day has ended on a high though with more drinks down the bars of Long Street and time to reflect back on where I have been for the past 3 months. I have been to some incredible countries with fascinating cultures and peoples, each one completely different from the next. How the experience has changed me, I do not yet know; maybe that's for others to tell me, but I do know that I cannot wait to come back again and immerse myself into even more African countries and cultures. Thanks for following my blog too everyone!

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Photos

Table Mountain
View from the V&A Waterfront

Lime Quarry on Robben Island
This is where Nelson Mandela would come to Labour

Shark Diving
Before the hell ensued...

Start of the Climb
FYI, we did it in an hour and 50 minutes.

Needing a Sit Down
My legs were dead at this point.