David and Sue on top of Table Mountain

July 4
Our flights to Toronto and onward to London were uneventful except that the latter made very good time, thus closing the gap between end-of-dinner and start-of breakfast to 2 hours which seemed scarcely adequate for what we usually do in that space.

We met Mike LeRoy for Pizza Express lunch near Victoria Station and followed that with an informative and inspiring visit to the Tate Gallery. The day was very hot (30C+ in the shade) but we cooled off with a mini-picnic in St James’ Park after finding a good Waterstone’s bookstore to buy another SA book.

Table Mountain from the Robben Island ferry

The flight to Cape Town would have been easier if we had been amputated at the thighs — we’d never been in such a cramped plane! But the food was fine and after missing sleep the night before we slept like proverbial babies for 7 straight hours of the 11+ it took to reach the southern tip of Africa.

Today was simply magnificent! After the warnings about the weather, that especially in winter so often covers Table Mountain with a ‘tablecloth,’ we knew we had to get up there right away. So once we’d checked into Ashanti we were up in the dizzying cablecar and spend the whole day walking the extensive trails along the top (1000m above the ocean).

Sue was in some pain by the time we got back to the cablecar (you know there’s no stopping her when she’s determined, though) and we drank rooibos and ate muesli bars looking down the amazing Twelve Apostle rocky cliffs. The micro-climate flora was superb (even tho it’s winter) and we also saw black eagles, red-wing starlings and sunbirds.

Tonight we’ve just come back from a pasta dinner at Mimmos and we’re ready for a shower and then hit the sack (it’s 8pm!). I wish I’d brought my scarf, though. We have other warm clothes, but the nights are cold

July 8
As you drive into CT from the International Airport you pass unmistakable signs of the shacks and shanties of the CT townships. They flow unremittingly down the hillsides to the highway edge. Little did we realize that within a few days we’d not only visit a township but stay over — two white drops in an ocean of black at Khayelitsha Township (population a staggering 1.2M). The ‘township tour’ by Grassroutes began with a visit to the District 6 Museum that commemorates a 1960s forcible removal and demolition of a black, indian and coloured community when District 6 was rezoned as ‘white.’ Anyway, we’ll tell you the whole story later but for now we’ll just tantalize you with the first taste of Langa Township (our first port of call) where we watched a couple of women preparing sheep’s heads for the pot. First they seared the heads with a hot iron from the fire, then scrubbed them with wire wool to get rid of all wool and hair. The tongues, we were assured, are the most tasty part…

preparing a sheep’s head

sitting and socializing outside the toilet block in the township

Anyway, we stayed at Vicky’s B&B, set up 8 years ago by an enterprising woman who wanted her own business, but to do something different. She’d been downtown once where she watched tourists on a bus taking pictures of each other and thought she could introduce them to some locals, in an area for which they probably had only fear (having heard the scare stories). We slept in an 8×8x6 room in her shack and played all evening with her children. We also walked out and passed the time of day with many friendly strangers. We fervently hoped the pub opposite would not play its LOUD music all night (the shack walls were vibrating!) but all went quiet about 10:30.

David talks to Eugene

The shebeen(pub) was ironically named ‘the waterfront’ as there’s no waterfront in sight, but Waterfront is the name of the touristy harbour area downtown, where we went after Vicky’s for a tour of Robben Island (where Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years). Again, more stories later, but our guide, Eugene, was great. As a high school student in the 1980s he was on a committee planning a protest march, and during the march was singled out as a ringleader and ‘terrorist’ and sentenced to 15 years… What an excellent guide to an awful place…

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