Cape Town is an incredibly beautiful city but, before you see the beauty, you see the extreme poverty of township housing on the way from the airport to downtown. Shacks, often little more than pieces of corrugated metal hammered together, line the highway into downtown. We were told that, in an effort to clean things up for the World Cup, the government has built some public housing, and sure enough, soon we passed a section of small, neat, stuccoed cement block houses lining the road, behind which were more shacks.
Our hotel was in Seapoint, on the other side of Table Mountain, one block from Table Bay. Quite nice, but we were told not to go walking at night. Daytime walks along the water were lovely, though. During my last days with the Overseas Adventure Travel group, we had a city tour and visited the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, saw the Moslem part of the city, and had dinner with a coloured family (seems hard to write but here it is PC) in their home in one of the townships. Renee and I did a "must see" trip to Robben Island where we viewed the cell in which Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life. On Saturday, January 30, the day I was due at Cross Cultural Solutions, we took the cable car up Table Mountain for spectacular views and we drove along the coastline out to Cape Point, which is not where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet! The best part about the day was the visit to the penguin colony where we saw African pengins enacting their courtship rituals, braying and even mating. During my time here, I definitely plan to go back to the top of Table Mountain and also to the penguin colony - I could have spent a half day at each, instead of just a half hour. I left the group as they were entering Kirstenbosch Gardens back in town because I knew I would have plenty of time there for a much longer visit (probably several visits) and because the gardens were a short cab ride from the CCS home base which would be my abode for the next five weeks.
So here I am, living with 19 people younger than me (some by a lot), making this very stratified city my home for the next 5 weeks. Just another challenge....
Our hotel was in Seapoint, on the other side of Table Mountain, one block from Table Bay. Quite nice, but we were told not to go walking at night. Daytime walks along the water were lovely, though. During my last days with the Overseas Adventure Travel group, we had a city tour and visited the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, saw the Moslem part of the city, and had dinner with a coloured family (seems hard to write but here it is PC) in their home in one of the townships. Renee and I did a "must see" trip to Robben Island where we viewed the cell in which Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life. On Saturday, January 30, the day I was due at Cross Cultural Solutions, we took the cable car up Table Mountain for spectacular views and we drove along the coastline out to Cape Point, which is not where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet! The best part about the day was the visit to the penguin colony where we saw African pengins enacting their courtship rituals, braying and even mating. During my time here, I definitely plan to go back to the top of Table Mountain and also to the penguin colony - I could have spent a half day at each, instead of just a half hour. I left the group as they were entering Kirstenbosch Gardens back in town because I knew I would have plenty of time there for a much longer visit (probably several visits) and because the gardens were a short cab ride from the CCS home base which would be my abode for the next five weeks.
So here I am, living with 19 people younger than me (some by a lot), making this very stratified city my home for the next 5 weeks. Just another challenge....
OOOooh look at the penguins! I am so jealous!
ReplyDeleteWe had our own little penguin here tonight too...miss maggie does an adorable version of a penguin waddling when she is wrapped up in her towel after a tubby!