Cape Town

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Cape Town

Our arrival in Cape Town coincided with the last few days of build up to the world cup final. There was serious world cup fever sweeping the place because the Boks were in the final. SA flags and shirts everywhere and there was much talk of an anticipated Springbok victory. We were lucky enough to overlap with my girl friend Clare and two of her friends-Jess and Rachel, all of whom had been doing medical attachments in Hospitals in Cape Town for 3 weeks. They had finished on the day we arrived and were around for a further 5 days. It was awesome to see them and we had a few great days out and about. We were lucky enough to be able to crash with some Kenyan friends-Paolo and Jeremy-who are at Uni at UCT so we filled their house with all of our junk. We had to completely unpack the car because Cape Town is renowned for its crime and nothing is safe in the car, even when it is parked in a drive way with the gate closed. It is amazing how much stuff you can fit in a car and you don’t realise how much you have until you remove it all like that.

There were several rather drunken evenings out on the town the highlight of which was the one following the Final. We all watched it together in a local pub that was totally packed full of SA supporters as you might expect. It was a very close game with England giving a very good account of themselves but at the end of the day I think the best team won and it was incredible to be a part of the energy that was released in Cape Town that night. Everyone took to the streets and people were partying all over the place in huge crowds. It was infectious and we had a great evening out.

During the days we spent time seeing the sights including a trip to Simons Town to see the African Penguins that nest there and a visit to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. It was very strange to be sitting there in our faithful old Landcruiser that had brought us all the way from Kenya-it also marked a turning point because we are now half way and everything we do from here will be taking us closer to home. We spent a day trying to surf at a place called Muizenberg although the surf was very poor-the place is within sight of Seal Island which is where the BBC captured their phenomenal footage of great whites breaching out of the water whilst taking fur seal pups. Doesn’t bear thinking about when you are flopping about in the waves in a black wet suit! People are taken there in false bay every year by sharks. We did a memorable wine tour with the girls the day before they left and it was very sad to see them go.

Dames also got to do some kite surfing with Paolo and Jeremy-both of whom are incredibly talented at the sport. They also took us to the UCT dam where we did some rather unethical fishing for black bass and Rich, Tony and I also climbed Table Mountain one day. We set out with reassurance from Paolo that it was a short walk and that we didn’t need much water. 5 hours later we were dying of thirst drinking from mountain streams in attempt to quench ourselves. It was quite amusing really and we were thankful to be back down again. We did have one bad experience in amidst all the fun though. Unfortunately we left an Ipod on the dash board of the car one evening. The car was in the driveway with the gate shut behind it but somebody obviously jumped over the gate to have a look, saw the Ipod and smashed the front left window and stole it. It was frustrating to have been so naïve but what turned out to be even more frustrating were our attempts to get a new window and a police abstract for an Insurance claim. The window was eventually ordered through Toyota and instead of taking 2 days to arrive it took 6 and the Police report never happened despite 3 visits to the station because we couldn’t get hold of the investigating officer as he was always out on work. All this meant that we lost nearly a week of time which means we will be slightly more rushed on the way home. There is nothing one can do about these things however and at least we had a good time in Cape Town whilst we were waiting.

The area around CT is absolutely stunning but is just so not African. You could be forgiven for thinking that you were in Europe because there is very little to suggest that this is anything to do with Africa. It is so built up, tidy and westernised-it takes a while for you to get your head around it when you come from a place like Nairobi.

Paolo and Jeremy are in the middle of their finals so it was perhaps not the best time for us to be harassing them but we were fairly good at entertaining ourselves and hopefully we didn’t distract them too much. It was very very kind of them and their flat mates Jeff and Stu to have us. Liz and Derek-Nicks folks were actually in CT whilst we were there and they took us down the coast to a place called Hermanus one day. Hermanus is interesting because there is a big bay there which is quite literally full of southern Wright Wales at this time of year as they come there to give birth. We saw so many wales some of which were only metres from the shore. Out in the bay there were huge splashes from where other Wales were breaching out of the water. I had seen Wales before but never this close so it was really cool to see them like that.

We finally for our window repaired 13 days after we arrived in Cape Town! I don’t quite know where all the time went but it was now time to move on. I am sure the boys on Upper Holly Lane were glad to see the back of us after nearly 2 weeks in their sitting room although they didn’t show it.

We have come up the coast via the garden route, Plett Bay and Jeffries Bay and the Bungy and Bloukrans which Nick threw himself off. It is still very quiet from a traveller point of view. The weather is good and thankfully the sea is getting warmer the further north we go. It was like Ice in Cape Town. We briefly saw Jess Brainch-a friend who studies in Grahamstown but we spared her from a night out with us because she too is busy revising for finals. We are now at the southern end of a spectacular piece of coastline called the wild coast. This is black homeland territory and was formerly known as the Transkeii-it feels more like the Africa we all know and love and the sea is getting warmer! Tomorrow we are heading north to what sounds like a fascinating piece of coast called Mkambati that has been recommended to us by some friends who live in these parts. Apparently there are waterfalls into the ocean and wildebeest on the beach so should be really interesting. We will be there for a few nights before going up into the Drakensburg mountains and Lesotho to try our hand at some trout fishing in the beautiful mountain streams up there. Mozambique is not far off now and time is ticking. Many more good times ahead I think!

I never posted a link for our Zamibia and Botswana photos so here they are. Just copy and paste.

http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9862&l=b681f&id=503568147
http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9867&l=f8bf1&id=503568147

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