Cape Town 2 (5-1)

Saturday I had a private tour around the peninsula to Cape Point. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and blue sky. The mountains and sea were stunning. On the way we made several photo stops at scenic places. 

A longer stop was at Hout Bay, which was much livelier since it was morning and it was a weekend with good weather. 

I took the boat to see Seal Island, a nice 40-minute trip. 

It was especially fun to see some of the seals having fun in the water. Many vendors were there selling their goods. Since the wind was fierce and cold, I purchased a scarf that kept me much warmer the rest of the day. I also bought a South African doll and a bead necklace that were made in a local township.

Continuing along the beautiful coast, 

we stopped briefly at Camel Rock. Oscar, the driver, told me that he had only recently learned about this rock from a tourist who had read about it in a tour guide. Someone thought it looked like a camel and gave it that name. Since the only camels in the area are brought from the Sahara region for tourists, it seems strange to have a rock named after a camel here.

Another brief stop was to look at the marker marking the place where Vasco da Gama first set foot on the continent. It was marked with a flag when he arrived to claim the land, and then had other markers; so they know where he first stepped on land. There is also a marker for Bartholomew Diaz’s first landing spot on the Atlantic side. We saw it but didn’t stop.

In one place, there were a several wild ostriches along the roadside. My first wild animals here.

A longer stop was at the Cape of Good Hope, the southwestern-most point of the continent. When I was reading about the Cape, this was new information to me, as we had learned that it is the southern-most place on the continent. I guess information has been corrected to be more accurate. Oscar took the obligatory photo at the sign, 

and then I walked up to the view point and the top of the bluff. 

Since it was such a lovely day, the views were beautiful. The wind, however, was so harsh that sometimes it was challenging to stand and it was often difficult to hold the camera still.

We went to Cape Point, but, since it was almost 3:00, I decided that I didn’t need to take the funicular to the top of the bluff, as I figured the views wouldn’t be that different from those at the Cape of Good Hope and I wanted to get on to the penguins. So I just ate a quick lunch and we moved on.

Boulders Penguin Colony was great fun. It is home to about 2000 African Penguins, called such because they are the only species that breeds in Africa. These are the same penguins I saw at the aquarium, but it’s always more fun to see them in their natural environment. However, I was glad I’d been to the aquarium and learned about the dots on their chests, as it was fun to pay attention to that feature. 

Near the beginning of the walkway there were a number of man-made shelters for nests, one of which had a penguin in it.

Many were in nests with young ones, usually a pair of them, and some also had eggs. Both males and females take care of the young and eggs. At the aquarium I learned that the only way to tell if a bird is male or female is to do a genetic test since there are no distinguishing characteristics. One would be with the young ones, and the other hung around nearby, as they mate for life. One penguin took dead plants to add to the nest. 

Some nests are shallow, 

while others are deep holes in the sand.

It was fun to watch them waddle around. Occasionally, there would be a braying sound which the penguins make. For this reason, they were once called Jackass Penguins.

When I finished watching the penguins, it was time to head back to the guesthouse. Again the views along the coastal road were gorgeous.

Sunday morning I joined a small group Gospel Township Tour, which was a walking tour in Langa, a township near the city, that began with a visit to a church. I hadn’t realized that there are many townships, as people refer to “the township,” as in explaining that goods are made in the township. Our group included people from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium. The guide, who is from a township, explained that the word township means a town people were shipped to when they were removed from District 6 to be segregated. 

The townships have a variety of housing. On the outskirts there are single houses that are owned by people who have jobs and money but want to continue to live in the township. 

There are rent-to-own apartments. 

There is government-provided housing in overcrowded apartment buildings. 

On the edge of the town and outside the town are unofficial houses, which are tin or wooden huts that people put up because they want the privacy of their own place rather than living in the overcrowded government housing. These are what is seen from the highways and what are often known as shanty towns and is the image I had of townships.

Church is a central part of life in the townships, and there are many churches. Each church has an individual uniform that some people wear to church. We visited the African Methodist church, the colors of which are black, red, and white. The men wear a black suit with a white shirt and a red vest. Women wear a white hat and have a red blouse if they are married or a white blouse if they are not married and a large collar in the other color.

We went to the first part of the church service because it features the choir and a lot of singing. Sometimes the congregants stood and moved to the music; sometimes they sat. The songs seemed to be Bible verses, as a chapter and verse were projected on the screen so people could follow along in their Bibles. Some read as the choir sang. I can’t say I was as moved by the singing as I have been by gospel singing in the U.S. and in Ompundja, but it was an interesting experience. When we left the church, a man came out to speak to us and pass around an envelope in which we could make a contribution.

Then a local guide took us on a walking tour around part of the town. He moved to the township from the country when he was 16. Now he is unemployed; so guiding tourists is his work; in other words, he works for tips. He asked us to purchase large bags filled with small bags of chips to hand out to the children as a contribution to the people. As we approached the building in which we would visit a room, he told the children to gather for chips. Word spread quickly, and there was a good crowd when we came out of the building. More children ran up to us as we walked through that area.

The building we visited is government-provided housing. Sixteen families live in the building that formerly housed sixteen men when it was a men’s dormitory. There is a common room that is shared and becomes a bedroom at night. There is a common kitchen, but it is now used for storage; so each room has a microwave and hotplate for cooking. The families in the building share one bathroom. The bedroom we visited is for three families. There are three beds, and suitcases for their clothes are stored above them. Parents and babies sleep on the beds. Some beds have two mattresses, one of which is put on the floor for young children and older girls to sleep on. Boys over age thirteen sleep in the common room.

On the way back to the city, we went past two monuments. The first is a monument to seven boys who were beaten to death. The other is to a white girl who was killed because she was walking in the township at night. She had been there as an exchange student and had returned to do something to help the township, and some young men killed her because she didn’t belong there and shouldn’t have been there. Now there is a foundation in her name, and the men who killed her work for the foundation.

When we returned to the city, I had the guide drop me off downtown rather than at the guesthouse so I could catch a Hop-on Hop-off bus to the Table Mountain cableway, as I needed to do it on Sunday and it would save a lot of time to start from downtown rather than from the guesthouse. I was surprised how close it was to downtown, as I’d thought it would take a lot more time to get there. Purchasing a cable car ticket on the bus is recommended to avoid standing in line. That was a great move, as there was virtually no line for ticket holders, and I was in a cable car within ten minutes of arriving. I was also fortunate to get a place by the window so I could thoroughly enjoy the views on the way up. The floor of the cable car rotates 360^o while the car ascends and descends; so you get to see all around while standing in one place.

This was a perfect day to be on top of the mountain: the sun was shining and the wind wasn’t blowing. Being there was a magnificent experience. The views are, of course, stunning; so it was especially nice that it was such a clear day. I felt really lucky after being on top of so many mountains in China and not seeing the view below. I did the loop walk around that part of the mountain top. It includes views of the city and bay on one side 

and of the mountain and bay on the other side.

After two hours at the top of the mountain, it was time to head down. The line to the cable car was 40-minutes long. Then the bus trip back to my bus stop took another 40 minutes. At least only one direction was long. Since it was Sunday and was a beautiful evening, the beaches were full of people enjoying the park areas. When I got off the bus, I stayed on the beach path as long as I could. On the street I took inland, I came to a restaurant and decided to have a good dinner. I chose pan-fried sardines that came with a baked potato. Both were delicious.