Cape Town

Cape Town – other

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Cape Town

I have posted three other pieces about my time in Cape Town. This one fills in the gaps.

Flight from Singapore

I flew from Singapore on Qatar Air. They along with Emirates are the ‘go to’ airline for the cheapskate traveller heading east from SE Asia.

My neighbours on the flight to Doha were a middle aged couple for from Kent.  He was in the trucking business and they had just been on a cruise that took them from “Singapore and back to Singapore”.  They “got off in Penang, but didn’t get off in Thailand”.

I asked them what they thought what would happen in the ‘Brexit referendum’.  He told me that England was “going to the dogs because of the all the migrants”.  I said that it was a “big issue in Australia”.   He told me that he “heard about Tony Abbott”.  I said “he was an immigrant having been born in England”.  I also noted that Rupert Murdoch was a “serial migrant, having migrated to the UK and then to the USA”.

Curiously the bloke decided that the film was more interesting than talking to me.

Keeping on Walking

I bought a FitBit in Brisbane at the beginning of January.  It has made me aware of moving and not moving.  It is sometimes difficult to walk the recommended 10K steps per day.  During the layover in Doha, I walked around as much as possible.

BIG Hostel

I had made a reservation with the BIG Hostel in Green Point.  It was very highly rated on the booking site I use.

The staff at the hostel recommended a ‘backpacker’ shuttle service from the airport into the city.  There was a bit of a mix up finding other people that had booked the service.  Being a bit delayed is not an issue for a retiree.  The Rand 200 fare was very reasonable.

The hostel turned out to be really good.  It was in two houses that had been converted into a hostel with a mixture of dormitory and private rooms.  The staff were very helpful.

Green Point is one of the better suburbs in Cape Town.  It is where the World Cup soccer stadium was built and is only a couple of kilometres from the Waterfront area.

Notwithstanding that Green Point is a good area, the staff advised that it is not safe to walk around the streets after 8 p.m. at night.  This probably being a bit risk adverse, but it is an indication of what it is like in Cape Town.

All the houses in the area have security fences and alarm systems.  Many of the fences have razor wire.  Over the days that I was there, I noticed that it was usual to find broken glass in the street in the mornings.  This was caused by cars being broken into.

Restaurants and Craft beer

The hostel was less than 800 metres from ‘Main Road’ that leads from the CBD along the coast to the beach side suburbs to the east.

There are a lot of restaurants and some bars of the road.  There was one bar that served some really good craft beer.  It is disappointing that it is not recommended to walk the short distance from this area to the hostel after dark.

Walking to Waterfront

Notwithstanding the security issues after dark, it is safe to walk around this part of Cape Town during the day.  This seems to be true for all people including single women and older people.

I often walked from the hostel to the Waterfront area.  It is a really great area, will lots of restaurants, bars, cafes and shops.

On my second day, I had lunch at a great fish restaurant in the Waterfront.  I got a Messenger call from an old school mate who had recently travelled from Nairobi to Cape Town.  It was great to chat with him.  The internet connect was very good and the restaurant was quiet.  As it turned out, that was one of the few times where I had good internet and the place was quiet.

It would appear that good internet speeds are rare in South Africa.  Where the speeds are good, e.g. in an up market restaurant, the place is often noisy.  This has made Skype and Messenger calls problematic.

Comedy Club

My mate suggested that I check out the Comedy Club for “good beer, good food and a laugh”.  It was good tip.  I had a great night.  There were four acts and a very amusing Afrikaans compere.

Rugby at Newlands

On the first Saturday, that I was in town, I went to see the Stormers play the Bulls at Newlands.  The game was ‘sold out’, but I managed to buy a ticket at half time.

It is a good stadium to watch rugby.  The stands are very steep and you are close to the action.  There was a good mix of people in the crowd. I was under the impression that rugby was still the preserve of the whites.  It was encouraging to see lots of other faces in the crowd. There are also a lot on non-white players, however this seems to be to taking time to find its way into the national team.

It was strongly recommended by the staff at the hostel that I take a taxi to and from the ground.  There is a train, but this is “not for people like you”.

Long Walks

When I was in Cape Town I took and number of long walks along the coast to the east.  This took me to Camps Bay and other up market suburbs.   The people living there live very well.  I noticed that a lot of the houses and apartments being advertised in the real estate windows featured ‘staff quarters’.  That says a lot.

I was amazed by the number of really up market cars in Cape Town.  These included Bentleys, Maseratis as well as the usual Mercedes and Range Rovers.

I took the occasion Citi Bus.  I was typically the only white adult on the bus.  There the occasional white school children, but most the passengers were non-white.

Flick Link

https://www.flickr.com/gp/twwilko_photos/N1Yam4

 

 

Climbing Table Mountain

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I went to the top of Table Mountain on my second day in Cape Town.

That time I took the cable car.  It was a great day with clear blues sky and no wind.  The cable car itself is interesting in itself.  As it moves it rotates 360 degrees.  This enables everyone to have an equal opportunity to enjoy the views.

The top of the mountain is, as you would expect, very flat.  It is also quite wide, at least 500 metres across.  I spent about 2 hours walking around checking out the various viewing points.  It is a very spectacular place.

German girls wanted to walk to the Top

My plan was always to walk to the top of the mountain.  There were a few days when the top was covered in cloud and/or, it was too windy for the cable car to operate.  The non-operation of the cable is an issue in that, although I was confident of being able to climb up the mountain, I was certainly not confidential that my old knees would be able to cope with the walk down.

The staff at the hostel always wanted to know what people were doing.  Part of that was to put groups of people together.  It most cases this was for safety reasons.

When I told me that I was planning to walk up the mountain, they told me that there were three German girls that were also planning to climb the mountain on that day. We formed a group.

One of the girls had been using Uber.  She ordered a car and we headed off to foot of the mountain.  The 20-minute drive ended up costing up 80 Rand (less than AUD 8) – amazingly good value.

The Walk

The first part of the climb was a two kilometre walk from the bottom cable car station along a road to the start of the walking track.  As we walked I found out a bit about the German girls.  Two were friends from Hamburg.  One wasn’t feeling too good as a result of a heavy cold.  The other, older girl, was from Munich and told us the she was an experienced ‘trekker’.

A sign marks that start the walking track to the top via Plattwklip Gorge.  The sign advised that it took one hour to get to the gorge and another hour to get to the summit.

We hadn’t gone far when it became obvious that the two younger girls were struggling.  In particular, the girl who wasn’t feeling too good, was finding it really tough.  There was a lot of chatting in German.  The older girl told me that she had advised the others “simply take their time and walk at their own pace and that we would meet them at the top”.

As we headed off, it was clear that the older girl was really “an experienced trekker”.  Actually she could have given a mountain goat a run for its money.  I really struggled to keep up and decide to go at my own pace.

There were a lot of people on the track.  It was notable that even after over thirty minutes, no one was heading down – everyone was heading up.  Spurred long by the “experienced trekker”, I was overtaking other walkers and didn’t look like being overtaken by anyone else.

As it turned out, I was never more than 20 metres or so behind my pace maker.  At various points she stopped to wait for me.  At one point she stopped to chat with an English couple who were resting a shady spot.  This was a good idea, given the strong sun.  The couple were hilarious – they were arguing like ‘cat and dog’.  The wife was blaming the husband for “forcing [her] to climb up this impossible track…..he must have known how difficult it was and why didn’t he tell her………”.  He completely ignored her and when he heard that I was Australian he  simply what to ask about my thoughts on rugby and cricket.   This infuriated his wife.  My German companion tried to calm things down by saying she thought that “the track would get easier further along”.

As we left that arguing couple, I asked my companion what made her think that the “track would get easier”.  She told that it would probably get “more difficult”.  I did say anymore.

Finally at the Top

After two hours we were finally at the top.  I was wearing my FitBit.  I noted that it calculated that I had walked up 240 storeys.  I assumed that was about right, however it seemed lot more than that to me.

We wandered around the top of the mountain for a while.  At one of the viewing points, we came across for English girls who were doing handstands.  They asked us to photograph them.  They were ‘cards’.  They were travelling together and had decided to be photographed doing handstands at the all the ‘tourist spots’.

The German girl was keen to wait to make sure her countrywomen made it to the top safely.  We stopped off in the summit café for a beer. A couple of South Africa ‘lads’ joined us.  They didn’t pick our table because they saw me.  A rather interesting conversation ensued.  They were intrigued why we had walked up the mountain together.

Other Girls Make it

After about 30 minutes later my companion received an SMS.  The other German girls had made it to the top and were at the cable car station.  Slow and steady does work.

We took to cable car to the bottom.

Flickr Link

https://www.flickr.com/gp/twwilko_photos/TTwgB3

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Township

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When I am travelling I like to read books about the places that I am visiting. Typically, these are books written by travel writers. These are not travel guides, but are books written by writers about their travels, in the style of Bill Bryson or Paul Theroux.
On this trip I a reading ‘Cape Town to Kruger – Backpacker Adventures in South Africa and Swaziland’ by an Irish bloke called John Dwyer.

One of the things that he did during his time in Cape Town was a visit to a ‘Township’. I decided to do the same.

I organised the tour through the hostel. My guide arrived in ‘reverse African time’ – twenty minutes early. The guide ‘James’ told me that he wanted “to get going because of the traffic”. We headed into town where we picked up three Americans from another hostel.

Forced Removal of Blacks

As we were leaving the CBD, James stopped the van and pointed out a sign which said ‘District Six’. James explained that this area was particularly significant in the history of Apartheid. In 1982 the white controlled government declared the area of District Six and as a Whites Only Area’. The over 60,000 Black people living the area were forced to leave and their houses were demolished.

He also explained the operation of the ‘Pass Laws’. I mentioned these laws in my previous post about Robben Island.

James explained that all Blacks had to carry a ‘Pass Book’ at all times. The Pass Book’ detailed where they could live and work. For example, the Pass Book may say the holder could live in Langa Township (where we were headed) and work in the CBD of Cape Town. However, the holder may could only be the CBD during certain hours. The police would routinely stop Blacks in the street to check their Pass Book. It the holder was in the wrong place for at the wrong time, they would be detained. Repeated offenders would be placed in gaol.

Hospital

As we continued on towards the Township. The road passes that main Cape Town Hospital. This is where Dr Christiann Barnard performed that first heart transplant in 1967.
This is somewhat surreal give what follows.

Langa Township

Our first stop in the Township was a community centre. James explained that it was an initiative designed to provide unemployed people with skills and meaningful work. There didn’t appear to be too much going on.

There were a couple of women and bloke doing some pottery. Some of the items were being made for the Maryland University.

There were some other handicrafts for sale. One of the American blokes bought a model a bicycle made from wire.

While we were in the centre the American girl told me that see had been working on a project for a local Telecommunications company in Port Elizabeth. She was working on the project because the company was linked to Ericsson, with whom she worked in California.

The project “was not going well” and she had decided to leave. She was spending a couple of day in Cape Town before flying home. She also said the one of the reasons she decided to leave South Africa was the “extreme racism” she was forced to witness.

Living in a Container

Leaving the centre, we walked down street into the Township itself. We stopped at a shipping container. James explained that we were going to meet the person that lived in the container.

He opened that door and we looked in. We were introduced to the person that lived in the container. She was a disabled woman in her forties. It was very confronting.

Ex-Policeman

Our next stop was a large hall. James explained that the hall was used for accommodation. It had been divided into small rooms that were occupied by mainly single men. I also had showers and toilets.

Leaving the hall, we were taken into a shack the was in lane behind the hall.
We were introduced to its owner. James told us that he “would tell us about his life” and that we were “free to ask him any questions”.

The guy told us that he 65 years old. He was brought up in small town to the west of Cape Town. His parents were poor and he was forced leave school when he was 14. His first job was a messenger for a clothing store. When he was 18 he applied for a job as policeman. It was long process including taking examinations and medicals. In the end he was successful and joined the force.

After a short period of training, he was transferred to Cape Town.

He told us that he had lived in Langa most of the time he was in the Police Force. It was a little unclear how long he had lived in the shack, but he told us the he had built it himself. He started with one room that he built “overnight”. Once he “had claimed his spot, that was his”. Overtime he had expanded the shack to include three rooms. One is for this daughter. He told us that his wife died in 2009.

The shack has no toilet or running water. He and his daughter bring water from the hall next door. They also use the showers and toilets in the hall.
I asked him if he got a pension for being a former policeman. He told that he received a pension of 1,020 Rand per month. That is less than AUD 100 per month.
He told us that he was on the waiting list for one of the government ‘flats’ that are being built in the Township. He told us the he was not sure when it would be his turn to get a flat. However, he was “confident that he would get one”.

Stopping for a Beer

Leaving the shack, we took a very short down a lane to a place for a beer.
James explained that this was where the locals met to “chat and have a drink”. There were a number of blokes sitting around. There wasn’t too much chat – one was comatose the others were on the way.

We were introduced to the ‘Mistress Brewer’. James explained that the brew was made of fermented maize. I asked where the maize came from? He told me that it now comes from “Shoprite, the Supermarket in the Township”.

Apparently the brew takes 3 days to ferment and is then ready to drink. I assumed that in the absence of any refrigeration, it is drunk on that day.
We were offered to opportunity to drink the beer. The two American blokes declined. The girl had a go. So did I. We drank it out of a bucket. I am writing this over 24 hours later. I assume I won’t have any after effects.

Different Levels of Housing

After the beer tasting, we went on a short walk. We passed some two storeyed builds. The American girl told me that the buildings did not look dissimilar to the housing that is provided to the “lower ranks of the USA military”. She told me that she knew what that was like “because her sister was married to an Infantry Man”. She said that the “USA doesn’t look after its Servicemen”.

We were taken into one of the buildings. There was a small room with bunk beds. James explained that the room was occupied by three families. The parents slept in the beds and the children slept on the floor.
As we left, the American girl said that while the building looked the same as her Sister’s place, the sleeping arrangement were “better than that”.

We then returned the mini bus.

Some New Buildings

James drove us passed some new buildings, some of which were still under construction. He explained that these were being built by the government and the plan was to “move people from the shacks in to proper buildings over time”.

We then passed some cottages. James explained that these were ‘Bank Houses’. They had been built by their owners with loans from banks. Most were owned by ‘professionals’ e.g. teachers and government workers. Some had cars parked in the front yards. These places also had satellite dishes. I asked if they there was any robberies of these houses. James said that it was rare. “Most people respect the owners and the fact they were the “same as them”.

Immigrants

James then took us into another area than was far poorer than anything that we had seen so far. It was on the fringe of the Township, near the highway to the Airport. He explained that this was where the “immigrants were”. These are people from Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa that “have come to South Africa for a better life”.

It is really grim.
Check out the video of Flickr.

Flickr Link
https://flic.kr/s/aHsksdAauv

Link to Christiaan Barnard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiaan_Barnard

Robben Island

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Robben Island

One of the places I really wanted to see while in Cape Town was Robben Island. It is the location of the infamous prison where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners where held during the apartheid years in South Africa.

As you would expect, it is a place of great significance for South Africans. It has been accorded World Heritage status by UNESCO.

The people at the hostel recommended that I book ahead to get a ticket. My tour started at 1.00 p.m. The boat to the island was not what I expected. It appeared to be a ‘working’ boat, with limited places for the passengers to sit.

Prison Ship

The trip out to the island took about 50 minutes. There was quite a large swell. As we drew into the harbour on the island we could see a number of other boats. They all looked like your typical harbour cruise boats.

Once on the island we were directed to a line of buses. Once on board we were greeted by our Guide. He looked like a young Nelson Mandela. He asked which boat brought us to island. Someone old him it was the “Dias”. He explained that the Dias was one of the original “prison boats” that were used to transport supplies to the island. It was also used to transport the prisoners to the island.

Tour of the Island by Bus

The bus took us past the prison and to an area which the guide explained was the site of a leper colony. The island housed the colony up until the 1930’s. It must have been dreadful to suffer from leprosy in those days. I note that it has been determined that leprosy has been determined to not be very contagious. I guess that leper colonies were a bit of an overkill.

Robert Sobukwe

The bus then stopped at a house. The guide explained that house was where a political dissident by the name of Robert Sobukwe was held in solitary confinement. He was famous for leading the resistance to the ‘pass laws’. This was system under apartheid wherein the Blacks were issued with identity passes that were used to restrict where they could live and travel within the country.

The Guide told us that as part of his solitary confinement Sobukwe was not allowed to talk to anyone, including the Warders that were guarding him. Towards that end of his incarceration he was visited by the anti-Apartheid activist, Helen Suzman. The guide said that he met Suzman when she visited the island shortly before her death. She told him that Sobukwe told her that he was “forgetting how to speak”. What an extraordinary form of torture solitary confinement is.

Lime quarry

The tour took past the Lime Quarry, where the political prisoners were forced to work. The Guide explained that the educated prisoners used the “relative freedom” while working in the quarry to teach the illiterate prisoners to read and write. He also explained that the dust and glare at the quarry caused eye damage to the prisoners.

Penguins and Great View

We stopped for a short break the northern end of the island. From this point there is a great view of Table Mountain. You can also see some of the local penguins. Apparently their numbers are declining and no one is sure why this is occurring.

Large guns

Heading back to the prison we passed a large gun, one of three that were placed on the island during WWII. Of course these guns never fired a shot in anger.

Prison

The bus dropped us off at the prison. We were met by our next Guide. This gentleman was really interesting he was a former political prisoner.

The Guide explained that the prison had several blocks. The prisoners of different categories were held in separate blocks. There was a block for the ‘Coloureds’ (mix race) and the Indians. The ‘Blacks’ were held in separate blocks. The ‘Leaders’ like Nelson Mandela were held in a separate Block.

The first block that we entered was where the guide was kept. The ‘cells’ were large. Up to 20 men were held in the cell. The prisoners slept on blankets placed on the floor. There were no beds. This practice ceased under pressure from the Red Cross and it was causing the prisoners to contract TB.

The next block was where more ‘dangerous’ prisoners were held. This block has single cells. On the walls of the cells are cards will short stories written by the inmates. They are all harrowing.

Guide tells of his Personal Experiences

While we were in this block, the Guide fielded questions from the group. This was very interesting.

He told us about the controls that the Warders placed over their communications will the outside. The sending and receiving of mail was very restricted and all mail was read and censored. He told us about one particular Warden with whom he become friendly. This

Warden took the Guide’s letters and smuggled them off the island and personally sent them to the Guide’s family. He also encouraged the family to send him letters that he passed to the Guide.

The Guide told us the “the Warden is still alive and is one of his best friends”.
The last part of the tour of the prison was where Nelson Mandela was held. There is a quadrangle next to the block. The Guide explained that in the corner of the quadrangle was one of the spots where Mandela hid the manuscripts for his book ‘The Long March to Freedom’. Where the original fence was being replaced will a stone wall, the manuscript was discovered. Mandela had to re-write that part of the book.

Clever use of a Tennis Ball

The Guide also told us about the tricky thing that the ‘Leaders’ used to communicate with the other prisoners in the adjoining Block.

They used to play tennis in the quadrangle. They cleverly placed written messages inside one of the tennis balls. During the course of the game they would hit the ball over the wall into the next block. The prisoners in the next block would reply to the message and throw that ball back over the wall.

Apparently this went on for years. Notwithstanding the Warders saw the ball going over the wall and being returned, they never twigged that it was being used for communication.

Mandela’s Cell

The final stop on the tour was Nelson Mandela’s cell. I always find it a bit eerie to visit a famous place in history. This is one of those places.

Flickr Link

https://flic.kr/s/aHskutQjUK

About Helen Suzman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Suzman

Long Walk to Freedom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Walk_to_Freedom