South Africa- February 2005
We arrived in South Africa still on the truck, and stopped at a place called Citrusdaal on the Orange River where they organized a grueling six hour bushman walk in the baking heat. I wussed out and only did half but Mark soldiered on claiming that it was actually a good hangover cure.
Our first lunch stop in South Africa proved unexpectedly hilarious when we pulled over by a very picturesque picnic area, only to discover that the whole area was literally crawling with huge ants! I found it quite funny until we realized that they were biting very aggressively, and we all ended up standing on the picnic tables to eat our lunch before calling a halt and fleeing the area without even going to the loo!! Even so it took half an hour to kill all the ones that had made their way into the truck on our feet and we realized why it was that all the passing cars had beeped as they passed!
Our final stop was in Stellenbosch, a city very close to Cape Town well-known for its winelands. Not surprisingly our last group activity from the truck was to go on the wine tour which lasted all day, visited four different estates and involved tasting many different wines and cheeses(yuk!) It also included a really posh dinner in a restaurant along the way and it was a lovely day so everyone really enjoyed it. Stellenbosch was a University town and had a very lively nightlife.
On the 6th we took off towards Cape Town, only stopping for photos along the way at Table View, where we discovered that the sea was just as cold as in England! It took about two minutes for our feet to turn blue as its on the Atlantic side! However the weather was glorious so it wasn’t quite like England.
Finally, we arrived in Cape Town and left the truck for the last time! We were dropped at a backpacker called Aardvarks which was really nice, with little flats with a kitchenette and bathroom between six people, but also proved to be the most expensive one in the whole City and it was out in a suburb called Sea Point, where there was not much except take away restaurants and you had to take a taxi to actually get into the town.
We stayed there a few nights but decided the place to be was Long Street, the main road through the center with numerous backpackers along it. So after a long walking mission we investigated them all and found one that offered us a twin room for the same price as the dorms, which was an offer we just couldn’t refuse so we dragged ourselves away from our truck friends who were all still staying together, and moved into the very center of the nightlife! Funnily enough a couple of them took our cue and followed us to Long Street the very next day!
Cape Town is very much a beautiful city with Table Mountain on one side and table bay on the other, and its also full of beautiful people- Long Street was THE place to go out and we soon appreciated that Time Out wasn’t wrong in saying that Cape Town is where wannabe models and actors go to wait tables while they wait to be discovered, so we did feel a bit funny going out there wearing our grungy traveler clothes, plus I felt like I would need to lose at least five stone to really fit in there! However go out we did and we had a number of good nights out, there were a lot of trendy cocktail bars doing special offer cocktails for between 1 pound and 150, whereas cocktails in Britain would be at least 350 with the sky the limit! Even Mark , and Ben and Dave when they moved into town, joined in with drinking the cocktails which I found amusing as they were served in dainty little glasses and usually girly pink colours, but it was actually probably cheaper than drinking beer in those sorts of places.
While we were in Cape Town the first touristy thing we did was get the boat out to Robben Island which is supposed to be one of the musts. It was also an amusing disaster of a day- we bought the tickets the day before from tourist info, decided that the 11 o clock ferry was a good bet given the nightlife surrounding us and got up early and took off walking in the vague direction of the Waterfront. WE narrowly avoided ending up on the motorway and actually found some walking signs and started following them, quickening our pace as we realized time was getting tight. We reached a roundabout and, following the map theyd given with the tickets, went straight over and carried on walking. When we saw some gates closing in front of the footbridge in front of us, Mark pointed out that it was in fact a swing bridge that was now going to open to let a boat through. We stood there for what seemed like an hour before a yacht finally crept through, getting more and more stressed because wed paid for the tickets and weren’t going to make it just because of the stupid bridge. When the gates finally opened, ten minutes later, we set off at a run round to the right thinking it was just there, only to discover that there was construction work and boarding up everywhere for an event that was going to take place so we had to run left, and literally ran as fast as we could getting frustrated at every turn, round in a huge circle of at least a mile if not more to finally arrive at the dock after 11 very relieved to discover millions of people still waiting for the boat. Thank god for African time!! We were absolutely exhausted, having meant to sprint around the corner but ending up actually going for an all-out run in our sandals and spent the boat journey recovering our breath! On the way back, we were annoyed when we arrived at the same roundabout and realized that if our instructions had sent us right we would have been there in plenty of time!
Robben Island itself was really interesting- it has in the past been a leper colony and a prison- in particular the place where Nelson Mandela spent his time as a political prisoner. We had a tour around the prison, given by a former prisoner which was funny as he was speaking from experience about the conditions. It was particularly interesting to hear how the rations and clothing allowed differed even between “blacks” and “coloureds”. The ex prisoner quite drily told us that the guards when he was there actually claimed they had employed nutritional researchers that had discovered that blacks don’t need bread!
We also had a bus tour around the island to see the mines where the prisoners including Mandela had done their hard labour, and saw penguins and seals along the way!
When we got back to the waterfront we spent some time there as its one of the highlights- the Victoria and Albert or V&A waterfront- its been developed into a very upmarket hive of activity, full of very fancy bars and restaurants with a view of the water.
The other main thing to do in Cape Town is to get the cable car up table mountain. Unfortunately we kept resolving to do this but kept discovering that it wasn’t running because of the weather. We could see why as the winds were strong enough to knock you over! Table Mountain itself was very impressive , and spends half its time covered by the “tablecloth” , the white clouds that gather around the top and look really impressive- unfortunately that’s also a bad time to go up as you cant see down, but once the winds blow the clouds away the cable cars stop running which makes it difficult!
Having been thwarted a few times, we decided to try and hire a car to go down to the Cape of Good Hope. Unfortunately this plan was ultimately thwarted too- the opening of parliament was on the Monday, and while this meant that we saw some good parades, you couldn’t hire a car for love nor money until after we left! Luckily I randomly came up with the suggestion of getting a motorbike instead and it all worked out really well! We had t get a scooter as Mark isn’t 25, but it actually went really well for what we needed it for and we got a weekend special and had a whole weekend of riding around the coast. We saw some amazing scenery on all sides, drove down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point and around the coast, and were able to go up the mountain to where the cable car and see some amazing views of the city and bay. As it happened the cable car was running so we were able to go up after all, no clouds, just perfect views in all directions. We also stopped in Simonstown where theres a beach where penguins just come up onto the rocks next to you. The water still wasn’t particularly warm though, even on the Indian Ocean side. All in all we had a great time- it was really fun and I think we enjoyed it more than if wed had a car, especially since the weather was fabulous the whole time and we had the rushing air to keep us cool!
We booked bus tickets for the 14th(Valentines Day) and spent our last night going out for dinner with Dave and Ben on the Waterfront,which was really nice before we all went our separate ways. We ended the evening by popping into a Belgian bar where Mark and Dave ordered a Belgian beer without asking the price then nearly had a heart attack each the price was 29 rand (2.90)! Usually the price is between 5 and 8 rand so it was like being in Britain for them!
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