Hello All,
I hope everyone is keeping well, thanks for the messages I've been recieving.
I'm feeling a little worse for wear at the moment, all self inflicted since I have arrived to the most Southern point in Africa. I'm currently chillin in Cape Town, officially my favorite city in the world having dislodged Sydney from the topspot.
This city has it all, beautiful beachs, achely pictursque landscapes, comosmapolitian to a hilt, and most importantly lots of beautiful women.
My lack of good health is down to the fact I've been having one of those weekends when you decide to reject your liver. Actually the weekend has been a lot more than just partying. If you look at the latest pics you'll get an idea of what I was upto.
More of that later though, when I last left the story I was in Swakamund. I ended up spending a further three days realxing and remaining still for what felt the first time in a month or so. My time was made more plesant by the company I was keeping. During this travelling experience you do meet many interesting and varied pepole but meet people who you can really click with is a rare thing, and best to be enjoyed. I learnt this the hard way, over New Years eve when instead of staying in Lamu where I was really enjoying myself, I travelled on down to Mombasa to meet some other people i had met but was badly let down on arrival. Moral of the story when its good go with the flow.
I spend my time louging on the beach and also taking part in another spot of Sandboarding, this time managing to stay on my feet and even complete a full turn without stacking it. The day of the beach was great though, here I jumped in the Alantic Ocean, the last night I was on the coast was in Tanzania and there it was the warm balmy Indian Ocean and I was longing to be swimming in the sea again. Well I jumped in and boy was it cold, the water here is brought up by currents from the South Pole and boy do you feel it. I attempted to swim for a while but pretty soon my teeth were chattering and I had to get out to dry in the desert sun. Adding insult to injury, all the local kids were jumping around having fun without a care in the world, i guess I'm the weak western link!!
Still despite the fact I spend most of the day on the shore it was still a great day. The waves were fearsomely powerful, really racing up and pounding the coast, great for surfing but the current is vicious and swimming is discouraged unless in safe areas. It was mesmerising just to sit and watch them relentless pounding the shore, especialy when looking down the beach you see the town give way to desert, I had to pinch myself that I was really there. Sandboarding fun really good fun second time around and I think I am being to get addicted, I'll soon be saying narly and dude in every sentence.
After a couple of days I made my way to Cape Town via a 30 hours bus ride. By the end of my stay in Swakamund I was getting itchy feet but also a feeling in the back of my mind, that the trip was running its course. The last few countries I had visited were becoming easier to travel around, and the reasons that send me out on this trip had been resolved in my mind. I still was planning on a further month in South Africa but the recurring thought was that its getting to the point at which you need to go home. I figuring i'd reach Cape Town and if the feeling persisted I was adjust my ticket.
Arriving in Cape Town, was fantastic. What a wonderful modern bustling city, with the waterfront habour in the foreground Table Mountain forming an imposing backdrop and the meeting place of two vast expanses of water. Over the past few days I have been immearsing myself in the city, eating well, partying with the rainbow like population and exploring the awe inspiring national parks around the city. The beaches here are amazing but no visit here would be complete without a climb to the top of Table Mountain and the Cape of Good Hope to just see some of the most stunning coastline the world has produced. Reaching the Cape of Good Hope, looking out over the ocean they have one of these sign posts that spell out the distances to all the major world cities and naturally London was included. 9624km away I knew then it was time to call it a day and head back. I adjusted my flight and resoved to explore Cape Town and the surrounding countryside in detail rather than rushing around the country for the next month. Actually an interesting pop fact for you all, the Cape of Good Hope is not the most southern point of Africa, that accodale goes to cape Agulhas 250km further down the coast, the Cape is an important martime place because it is where the currents of the two oceans meet.
Just how small a world it is was illustrated to me on a trip to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent most of his incarscarated years. On the boat ride across I got chatting to a girl who was standing next to me and I discovered that she was the flatmate in Rwanda of a great guy I met in Mombasa almost three months previously. What are the chances!!!
Robben island was fantastic is a very sobering way. it illustrates the cruelty of man and the capacity of the Human mind to delude itself, on the greater good. Its interesting to note in some respects how the struggle against apartheid has left a strange scar on the mind sets of the Afrikians peoples. These are the decendants of the Boers who came up with the idea of subjegating the native populace through Aparteid. Their history is quite golorious through a colonial mindset yet quite cruel and unenlighted when viewed through modern eyes. So where does that leave the modern Afrikans person? Can they be proud of their past or should they be ashamed?
Anyway while on this tour I was shocked at the indifference of the tourists who were on the tour. The tour guide was a former inmate political prisoner relatings his experiences, yet most peopel were fiddling with their bags playing with their cameras making stupid jokes. The irony was that how many thimes in history has this sort of indifference allowed something cruel, and evil to take root (Slavery, Aparteid, Hilter, Stalin) . People can be so ignorant.
Enough of my rant, yesterday I had one of the best wildlife experiences of my life. I do wonder if I'll ever experience something to beat it. Yesterday I went Cage diving with Great White Sharks, The pictures do not tell the half of it, these fish are huge, totally awesome and terrifiying. To be able to get in a cage and get within touching distance was fantastic. The boat we were on was about 20 meters long, seeing a shark 3+m long along side it brought home how big these fish are. We saw about 6 sharks, the biggest of which was 3.5m long (which is massive). They can grow to almost 6m long which is quite simply shocking. I would have loved to see one of these big boys. I'm still pinching myself, I should be getting a DVD sent to me of the experience, but that will only tell half the story. I'm still pinching myself that I did it.
Finally I'm currently relaxing in Hermanus Bay a famous whale watching area but its the wrong time of year. Even this town is beautiful but in September the huge bay before home to over 2000 whales as the come here to breed. Timed my trip wrong i guess. I'll be heading back to Cape Town this afternoon, and who knows I'll be seeing you sooner than I thought.
Stay tuned for the final installment.
Bowess
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