Cape Town: 25-30 September
What a beautiful city! Cape Town is just delightful (and quite like Sydney in a number of ways) - very scenic, centred around it's harbour of Table Bay, bustling Victoria & Albert Waterfront (like Darling Harbour/Circ. Quay), very multicultural/cosmopolitan & predominantly English speaking!! Unlike the rest of South Africa, we were to learn.
Virtually every vista within the city is dominated by the 1,073m precipices of Table Mountain which lies smack in the centre of the city, 15 min drive from the water's edge & separates the wealthy inner city & suburbs from the sprawling shanty townships, hidden behind it, where the black population was relocated to during apartheid.
We hopped around accommodation a fair bit: one night in a swanky hotel fresh off the plane (need a good sleep after 23 consecutive hours of sunlight on the flight!) then to much more economically priced backpackers: incl. the Blue Mountain! Which were serviceable & functional, but with fantastic staff who were of enormous help to us planning things.
Day 1
Headed out, bright eyed & bushy tailed, to climb Table Mountain. 1,073m didn't sound so high!! 2 hours of near vertical ascent at places & parched for water, we crested the (?granite) eponymous plateau. They say the weather is notoriously changeable at the heights, for unique weather patterns haunt the summit. Apparently at about 900m, the falling cold air condenses to mist & rainfall which often leaves the plateau covered in a dense mist across it's surface, while the city below can be in full sun, leaving the mountain apparently covered in a 'Table cloth.' Very pretty, but dangerous for climbers! Fortunately our day was clear & we enjoyed lunch overlooking the city before catching a cable car back down to earth (reminiscent of the new Scene-descender ride at the Skyway in Katoomba.) Descents the 1,000+m in <10min so your ears pop!
Day 2
The Two Oceans Aquarium (see pic of Aditi near sign for explanation of name) is a recommended sight in the Cape. Not quite as jazzy an underwater tunnel as Sydney's (this one is not 180 degree glass but 90), still a fantastic place!! Plenty of large sharks to squeal at, cute African penguins to see (resemble fairy penguins. Once known as Jackass penguin due to distinctive donkey-like call) and an amazing giant kelp forest.
In the afternoon, we took a walk around the city (following a tour listed in our invaluable Lonely Planet 2002!) careful to hide cameras & keep valuables close on us, of course. (In hindsight, CT was the safest place we visited!) An amazing experience & tour through 400 years of South African history, from the Castle of Good Hope built in 1650's by early Dutch colonists, through British architecture of Victorian times to modern CT with a bustling CBD glistening with glass towers.
The most memorable parts by far were two museums (doesn't seem an appropriate word given how recently the events they recorded took place): District 6 & the Slave Lodge. District 6, only a little place in a converted Methodist church, recalls the enaction of a particular apartheid law in early 1960's which made it illegal for blacks to reside or work in District 6 - at the time, the black suburb of the inner city, larger than Redfern. Within a year, all the residents were evicted & forcibly moved to what became the shanty townships on the outskirts of town (behind Table Mountain) without infrastructure, which rapidly became slums. Their old houses were bulldozed, the roads dug up & the district remained open land: a blighting sore on the face of Cape Town. The museum is famous as it was began & is maintained by evictees of District 6, who have shared photos & stories in pictures, narratives and poems that line the walls. Just devastating.
Slave Lodge (in old Supreme Court building, ironically on site of lodge for government slaves of early 19th century) recounted the history of South Africa's slave trade. The horrific journeys on cramped ships, the attrition rate of such voyages, the nature with which slaves were regarded exactly as veterinary property & traded as same. Through to civil rights movements of USA & democratic rights in South Africa.
Day 3
Winelands tour - out the Stellenbosch & Paarl; the Hunter Valley of the Cape. Fantastic day, brilliant people on the tour: two delightful American girls studying in SA on exchange, a friendly & congenial Canadian photographer, two sweet French tourists & one very burly host. His boss, owner of Ferdinand's wine tours, is famous for winning South African Big Brother some years ago. For shame!!! Great day, don't remember a lot! We all swapped emails, which was a nice idea until I began to decode drunken scrawl a week later.
Day 4
Cape Peninsula & Robben Island
Virtually every vista within the city is dominated by the 1,073m precipices of Table Mountain which lies smack in the centre of the city, 15 min drive from the water's edge & separates the wealthy inner city & suburbs from the sprawling shanty townships, hidden behind it, where the black population was relocated to during apartheid.
We hopped around accommodation a fair bit: one night in a swanky hotel fresh off the plane (need a good sleep after 23 consecutive hours of sunlight on the flight!) then to much more economically priced backpackers: incl. the Blue Mountain! Which were serviceable & functional, but with fantastic staff who were of enormous help to us planning things.
Day 1
Headed out, bright eyed & bushy tailed, to climb Table Mountain. 1,073m didn't sound so high!! 2 hours of near vertical ascent at places & parched for water, we crested the (?granite) eponymous plateau. They say the weather is notoriously changeable at the heights, for unique weather patterns haunt the summit. Apparently at about 900m, the falling cold air condenses to mist & rainfall which often leaves the plateau covered in a dense mist across it's surface, while the city below can be in full sun, leaving the mountain apparently covered in a 'Table cloth.' Very pretty, but dangerous for climbers! Fortunately our day was clear & we enjoyed lunch overlooking the city before catching a cable car back down to earth (reminiscent of the new Scene-descender ride at the Skyway in Katoomba.) Descents the 1,000+m in <10min so your ears pop!
Day 2
The Two Oceans Aquarium (see pic of Aditi near sign for explanation of name) is a recommended sight in the Cape. Not quite as jazzy an underwater tunnel as Sydney's (this one is not 180 degree glass but 90), still a fantastic place!! Plenty of large sharks to squeal at, cute African penguins to see (resemble fairy penguins. Once known as Jackass penguin due to distinctive donkey-like call) and an amazing giant kelp forest.
In the afternoon, we took a walk around the city (following a tour listed in our invaluable Lonely Planet 2002!) careful to hide cameras & keep valuables close on us, of course. (In hindsight, CT was the safest place we visited!) An amazing experience & tour through 400 years of South African history, from the Castle of Good Hope built in 1650's by early Dutch colonists, through British architecture of Victorian times to modern CT with a bustling CBD glistening with glass towers.
The most memorable parts by far were two museums (doesn't seem an appropriate word given how recently the events they recorded took place): District 6 & the Slave Lodge. District 6, only a little place in a converted Methodist church, recalls the enaction of a particular apartheid law in early 1960's which made it illegal for blacks to reside or work in District 6 - at the time, the black suburb of the inner city, larger than Redfern. Within a year, all the residents were evicted & forcibly moved to what became the shanty townships on the outskirts of town (behind Table Mountain) without infrastructure, which rapidly became slums. Their old houses were bulldozed, the roads dug up & the district remained open land: a blighting sore on the face of Cape Town. The museum is famous as it was began & is maintained by evictees of District 6, who have shared photos & stories in pictures, narratives and poems that line the walls. Just devastating.
Slave Lodge (in old Supreme Court building, ironically on site of lodge for government slaves of early 19th century) recounted the history of South Africa's slave trade. The horrific journeys on cramped ships, the attrition rate of such voyages, the nature with which slaves were regarded exactly as veterinary property & traded as same. Through to civil rights movements of USA & democratic rights in South Africa.
Day 3
Winelands tour - out the Stellenbosch & Paarl; the Hunter Valley of the Cape. Fantastic day, brilliant people on the tour: two delightful American girls studying in SA on exchange, a friendly & congenial Canadian photographer, two sweet French tourists & one very burly host. His boss, owner of Ferdinand's wine tours, is famous for winning South African Big Brother some years ago. For shame!!! Great day, don't remember a lot! We all swapped emails, which was a nice idea until I began to decode drunken scrawl a week later.
Day 4
Cape Peninsula & Robben Island
posted by Aditi & Brent at 5:02 pm
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