Graptolite - Safari Day 19 to 23
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Fri 23 Apr 2010 07:57
South Africa
19th April
We arrived in Cape Town by late afternoon; rented a car and drove down to
the Quayside Hotel in Simon`s Town on the Cape to the south of Cape Town.
The room view is over a nice little marina.
There is a certain sense of tying up loose ends to being here in Cape Town
as according to my original circumnavigation plan I should have been here
for Christmas 2008. By taking the revised route through the Red Sea it got
me a Christmas in Penang, Malaysia instead.
As fellow travellers are sleeping rough in the airport in Jo`burg, we are
having ourselves a very pleasant extension to an already long trip.
20th April
We went up the cable car to the top of Table Mountain today which is
something that has to be done when here. It was worth the trip and the
views were as advertised.
The weather here is autumnal but warm enough and sunny. The whole place
looks very Mediterranean and reminds me of Greece or Turkey. Some trees
are even dropping leaves which I`d not expected. Later we went on more of
the tourist trail by going to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. I`m still
trying to find out why it`s “Alfred” and not “Albert”. There must be a
good reason.
21st April
Today we got up very early for a longish drive down the Cape to see the
sunrise from the Cape of Good Hope but it was a wasted trip as the park
gates were closed until daylight. On the way back to Simon`s Town we
stopped off at the penguin colony at Boulders Beach. After a bit more
sleep we tried the Cape of Good Hope again and went up to the lighthouse
at Cape Point. It`s a desolate, windy spot.
In the afternoon it was a boat trip out to Robben Island to see where
Nelson Mandela spent his pre-Presidential years. The bus trip around the
island and the prison tours are conducted by ex-inmates who must have been
originally locked up for crimes against public speaking.
22nd April
We drove out to the Cape Winelands outside of Cape Town today. It`s very
pretty mountainous scenery. We had a nice lunch in the wine-growing town
of Franschhoek.
Even in the very European-looking Franschhoek the street begging and “car
guards” are a bit of a nuisance with the implied threat that your car
might end up somewhere other than where you left it unless you give them
money. The drive back around False Bay took us past some huge
nasty-looking shantytowns which must spawn these entrepreneurs. Much of
Cape Town looks really pleasant though but the best bits still seem to be
only for us white boys.
23rd April
Flying to Windhoek, Namibia, today to see the red dunes of the Namib
Desert which we didn´t get to see the first time around.