South Africa

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We arrived in Cape Town late at night so stayed in the airport hotel for our first night. The airport is quite chaotic as they are currently refurbishing it hopefully in time for the 2010 World Cup. Arriving in the city centre shows why a lot of people regard Cape Town as the world's best setting for a city. Table Mountain dominates the skyline, but there are other peaks such as Lion's Head and Signal Hill.

Table Mountain is often shrouded in cloud (known locally as the "tablecloth") so we had to time our trip when taking the cable car up to the top of this 1000m peak. The floor of the cable car actually rotates as it goes along, ensuring that all passengers get a 360 degree view. From the top you can see the city and the harbour with Robben Island out in the bay. To the south is the Twelve Apostles mountain range (even though there are fourteen mountains) and the Cape of Good Hope where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. To the west is the beautiful Camps Bay.

The view from Table Mountain was great, but the view from the top of Lion's Head was even better. We were made to work for our view, though. It's only 669m high, but the last stages of the climb involve scrambling over rocks. The top of the mountain is really small which gives a fantastic 360 degree panorama of Table Mountain, the city, the western beaches and the Twelve Apostles. On the way back we walked down Signal Hill where at midday every day they fire a cannon. This was originally to help sailors set their clocks, but now it's just for the tourists.

As well as it's beautiful setting, Cape Town boasts a lot of interesting history. The V&A waterfront has been restored. Many of the colonial buildings are now restaurants. Seals swim in the harbour and the whole place is dominated by Table Mountain. The waterfront is also the departing point for trips to Robben Island. The island used to be a seal/whaling station (Robben is the Dutch word for seal), but was much more famous for being the prison that held Nelson Mandela during the Apartheid regime. During Apartheid black political prisoners as well as common law criminals were held here. Eventually they had to build a separate prison for the common law criminals as the political prisoners kept converting the other inmates into political activists.

The tour of the island was really brought to life as all guides were former political prisoners. Our guide was called Sipoh Nkose and he had spent five years here before the Apartheid regime ended. They have renovated the prison, though, so it's a lot nicer than it used to be. I guess that's to make it more palatable to the tourists.

We spent our final day in Cape Town at Camps Bay, a stunning beach backed by the Twelve Apostles mountain range. The beach is lovely, but the water is freezing as it's on the Atlantic coast. That night we met our group that we'd be travelling with through Africa for the next ten weeks. On the way back from dinner a speeding car lost control, veered across the road, jumped the central reservation, hit a taxi and then came to rest around a lamp post. It was all quite surreal.

Cape Town's only bad feature (except for the cold water at the beach) was its level of crime. every house is surrounded by razor wire and electric fences. People here seem like prisoners in their own homes. This is what happens, though, when really rich people live right next to really poor people.

From Cape Town we drove north to Citrusdel which is full of citrus trees and vineyards before we went north again to the Namibian border.

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Comments

[Greg]

jo'burg citizen.
Not prisoners, just cautious citizens. We come and go as we please. Or at least most of us do. I suppose it must seem strange though if you're not used to it. The walls and electric fences are all a facade really because crime tactics have evolved to a point where no-one bothers coming over the wall to gain entry to your property. They simply wait for your car to arrive at the electric gate and then put a gun to your temple and follow you indoors. But these things are not worth dwelling on. One lives much the same as everyone esle in the world lives - wrapped up in a small world of personal concerns. If you give in to fear, you're finished. You're right about the rich and the poor thing. Some visitors have told me that they feel sickened by it, and yes there's no glib answer or easy way to sort it out. One lives in a constant state of guilt. Despite the fact that one might have worked for what one has, one is reminded daily that being white makes these achievements criminal. (sweat of of the enslaved; colonialism etc.) This , more than crime makes it tricky living here. Thanks for your views. Greg

[JohnMorley]

Thanks for your comment
Thanks Greg. It's nice to see someone responding to a blog with a constructive comment. It seems like a very complex problem and it's certainly not something I could hope to fully understand in just a few days in SA. Cape Town is one of the most beautiful places on earth, though.