south africa, part 9

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Franschhoek: a town influenced by the French Hugonots (17^th centrury)

Neat white homes, wedged between mountains and lots of fields with grapes

Our hostel is neatly tucked away outside the town; mainbuilding and kitchen with some lodges are separated by an orchard of … pears.

Having done some washing (I like to wear white shorts) and behold, I’m turning around the corner and there sits Fred (see Georgetown), smoking in the shade. Yabba dabadoe, we have our second ritual of bearhug. So in the evening we share wine, lots of cigarettes (I’m running out of cigarillos) and laughter, Fred, his friend Jennifer and daughter Chelsea invite me for their ‘Braai’; accompanied by the proprietor with pretzels.

In the morning we awaken with the sound of Jon & Vangelis’ 1492, good choice, especially since our dorm is just empty except for the 2 of us.

Sipping my coffee, joined in by Fred, who tries to book for Capetown in the same hostel as we are going to. But the Sunday is fully booked by the most hostel; which was difficult enough when I prebooked in February noticing ther was something going on. It turns out

there is a cycle tour, the equivalent of the Tour de France in 1 day.

We take goodbye with a bearhug and exchanging phone numbers. The drive takes a mere

60 minutes and how spectacular it is to arrive in Capetown: the freeway itself has nice yellow & red blossoming bushes; above the mountains cottonlike clouds are hovering, so I’m glad I’m not driving and take picture after picture.

In our hostel they have made a mistake with the booking, so instead of a dorm we get a nice spacious room with 2 beds, bathroom adjacent, just for us and for the dorm price !

I make inquiry on behalf of Fred’s company: they could check in on Monday for a dorm, not for the Sunday though, so we phone Fred. We will see what they decide on and head for Cape of Good Hope, the supposedly division line between Atlantic & Indian Ocean (which is geographical incorrect)

In this national park the ostriches are roaming, likewise Baboons (feeding them by the way will be fined with 5000 Rand, since feeding makes them attack people and they can easily kill an impala e.g.) We see some baboons climb into a pickup car with open windows. The Cape itself is crowded… finally a couple of buses with Asian people on it: we could not escape them apparently on our trip….

The 2 huge white crosses for Diaz (1488) & Da Gama were meant as warning beacons for ships, now they stand as silent monuments and providing a nice spot for a picnic in a rather strong breeze (originally it was named Cape of Storms)

Outside the park are lots of locals, selling nice carved stone statuettes and wooden animals

I decide on a stone statue (it will reside on the white chimney at home) and try to buy a wooden enormously heavy mahogany Hippo, but could not agree on the price (beside the fact I will have difficulty to carry it with me in my backpack)

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Photos

cape of google hope...
indian ocean meets -supposedly- the atlantic ocean