I'm back, such simple words that somehow cannot convey the mix of excitement, disappointment that one feels when uttering them. Excitement upon meeting all those family and friends you had in the back of your mind whilst travelling and disappointment because the feast of sights, experiences and sounds that had engulfed and at times threatened to overwhelm you are at a end. From here on in and for the near future the "challenge" is coming to terms with the fact that sights and sounds you will see are thought to be known and understood.
This is my final hurrah on this particular journal entry so please allow me to indulge myself.
More on that later...first back to the story
Well after sending my one and only night in hermanus bay partying hard with a bunch of backpackers I hardly knew I caught a ride with the Shark diving company back to Cape Town. At this point I only had one final day in Cape Town and the following day my long journey home would being with only a brief stop in Jo'burg then Doha before touching down in London.
I had experienced a fair amount in Cape Town and spent the final day, on a Township tour, visiting the Aquarium and finally taking in a movie. The Township tour was a mornings tourist activities about which I had mixed feelings in taking part. I felt as if I would be heading out on the tour almost as if to say to the inhabitants "look your poor".
However the tour was well constructed and focussed on the struggle of the balck people within South Africa, then gave a history of how the townships were created and finally we visited two of the main townships which lay behind table mountain on the cape flats. Here the informative guide and people discussed their lifes today and the problems they faced. The tour was well constructed and very informative, looking back on how aparteid, it staggers our western minds to believe that such cruelty and balatent racisium still exisited in our "civilisation" a mere 16 yaers ago. Whilst in the townships, i realised that my fears of the rife crime that exisited within them was at best unfounded. Crime does exisit but the atmosphere I felt within them was no worse than other impoverised areas I had visited.
Come to think of it in many ways I have been a voyeaur, in world terms a "rich" boy slumming it for 4 months amongst some of the poor countries of the world. As a tourist you always know you can end it at anytime, for the people on the ground its just life.
The aquarium was fun and highlighted the massive differences between the Atlantic ocean and the Indian, well worth visiting as it gives you all sorts of facts you can spout to people you hardly know. "Did you know that Indian Ocean has a temperature of 26 to 22 degrees celsuis and yet the Atlantic has a temperature of only 15 to 17 degrees"
Jo'burg I hardly saw and the journey home was long and drawn out, despite the fact I had endured worse journeys on land flying is still a mighty pain in the butt. At the end of 30 hours I finally made my way home, my brothers had conspired to make sure I was given a great suprise in seeing my cousin and niece on arrival at my brothers flat.
And so that is all, life returns to its regular rythme of work and money, yet this experience I feel will stay with me and in many ways my mind has been altered, the people I have met have shown that life's possibilities really are endless and the rut in which I felt trapped before I left had only had one architect..me. Lets see if I can keep out of it this time.....
P.s You may ask why was it that i decided to come home,
Well you've been a backpacker in africa too long when...
someone offers you a lift and you get on top of the car instead of in it
a policeman approachs your hands immediatley reach for your wallet
you feel relaxed and massaged as flies walk across your skin
a meal that doesn't contain maize is no longer "food"
buying a beer you start expecting change from 30p
having a "shower" is standing under a dribble of freezing water
having a "wash" is getting wet in the rain
cockroaches and other bugs are considered your living companions
you can breathe Alan's cabbage farts within a tent halfway up kilimanjaro in freezing conditions
a greeting involves a series of hand acrobatics
you know a pushchair can be disposed of in favour of a long piece of cloth
getting on bus involves being the 30th person onto a 14 seater minibus
wildlife is no longer wild but just life
you can laugh with abandon and no-one will look at you funny
the natural warmth of the people pervades your soul
you can live for the today, without worrying about tomorrow
when the magic is within you and you can stand and say I too am a African
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