P P P Pick up a Penguin

I was told not to blog too much and to chill-advice I seem to be ignoring so far. The main reason for this post is to help me remember what I’ve been up to-I can envisage my memory dimming quickly. So that I don’t spend all evening on here, this won’t be my normal careful polished prose, but more stream of consciousness. I doubt anyone will notice the difference.

Cape Town may not be the best place to arrive on a Sunday; of course if you’ve not slept on the flight and are sensible, the fact that it is mostly shut may well appeal. I was eager to get on with it and initially a little disappointed. The tablecloth (of cloud) has covered Table Mountain since I arrive and the 50km per hour wind would have kept the cable car shut anyway, so my immediate plan was foiled; my backup plan was Robben island. Couldn’t do that either (lack of boats and too much politics it seems), but I did manage to book a ticket for tomorrow (hopefully they’ll be sailing tomorrow-the weather was too bad today). The Cape is apparently one of the windiest places on earth-no apparently about it, it’s wreaking havoc with my hair!

Fearing a washout, I went to the very good tourist info office, stocked up on leaflets (while England lost 4 wickets), booked yesterday’s trip round to Cape point and went on a tour of the city-taking in the waterfront and the castle as well as a getting a general feel for things. I also discovered a secret Dutch plot to take back the Cape-they are everywhere. The guy I chatted to at the castle played it cool, but I could see the plan. Why else scope out the military installations? This led to my first regret-I should have brought my Dutch football shirt with me. Oh and chic, when said in a SA accent, sounds anything but.

Returning to the Cat & Moose (my hostel), I dropped the gear and headed off for provisions. This provided my first ‘Royale with Cheese’ moment-turns out that Woolworths SA is an M&S style food store. So it was humus, avocado and tomato for dinner rather than the fizzy shoelaces I was hoping for.

So, first day on tour, after no sleep in 2 days, my brilliant plan was waking up at 7.30 for the daytrippers tour to the Cape. It was more than well worth it.

When the bus arrived and only Thabo (my very cool guide was in it), I began to fear the worst; when he said one more pickup after the German couple joined me, I thought it was going to be very compact and bijou. However when the school trip from Reunion Island (French speaking near Madagascar I discovered) and we met up with the other bus, it was a full on posse that headed off for Hout bay and the seals of Duiker island. The other bus had an American lady, plus girls my age from Rome, Switzerland and London (outskirts, so pleasant enough). After an unfortunate grafitti incident from one of the Kids at the Cape of Good Hope, it ended up being two camps-us and the islanders. Briony was the first Brit I met and she announced herself by proclaiming in a loud voice ‘you should be ashamed of yourself’ at the patently non-English speaking Reunion teenager, while the other bus’ guide supervised his cleaning attempts. She couldn’t have been from anywhere else.

As we arrived in Hout Bay, Thabo pointed out the replica of Lichtenstein castle that a German had secretly built his wife over the bay as a surprise for his wife: she didn’t like it, yours now for 32 million rand.

The trip to see the seals tested the old Dutch sea legs a bit, but was well worth it. Glad we did this first, as it was quickly overshadowed by the African penguins on Boulder’s beach. I guess they floated off on a chunk of ice, I just loved it. They have a colony on the beach, and I have the evidence….

I was still glowing from the penguin encounter when we entered the Cape of Good Hope nature reserve and set down to a picnic lunch. Straight after lunch it was the activity part of the day-hike up to Cape Point (no one took the funicular) and then the far more wild hike along 4 km or so of cliff top to the Cape of Good Hope. Great stuff and pretty wild with the wind battering you.

After that a nice uphill cycle for half an hour or so back up; the Reunion island kids weren’t too good at sticking to the right side of the road! It was too chilly for the baboons to venture out of their caves, but we stop the bikes to admire the ostrich that was 10 feet away by the beach. After that lot, I was very surprised not to fall asleep in the bus on the way back.

On the drive back Thabo succinctly summarised the divide that now exists in South Africa-‘to our left the blacks are going home from work; on our right the whites are going home from work’. No longer a legal segregation, the divide is financial-the pavement was on our left, the other lane of hurtling cars on our right. I’m not sure how fast that will change when income tax is 14% when you earn over about 100 quid a week, with NO higher rate. Thabo was paying tax, which was good, and was positive about the direction of the country and that’s a great deal more important than what I think.

Heading off to Woolworths for more supplies, I bumped into the girls from the other bus, abandoned the supermarket and grabbed some dinner with them-a veggie stir fry (with rice) that was so good I didn’t eat again until 3.30 this afternoon.

Back at the hostel I bumped into my dorm mate Mauro, who’s from Chile and here learning English, and on heading to bed we were surprised to discover Josh (who looks like a dark haired Jesus) has moved in. Only the top bunks left now.

Speaking of Josh-Mac have you watched Road Trip yet?

Before this costs me a fortune-today I visited the botanical gardens, the world of birds (very confused about how I feel about aviaries, though given that a lot of the birds were rescued and I saw a golden phoenix, I have them the benefit of the doubt) and started to sort my trip to Hermanus (for whale watching). Highlight? Walking with the tortoises and wallabies.

No sunburn-yet.