Cape Town Around Town

One of many views from the apartment

We had the great good fortune of a friend's hospitality (the Foreign Service is like that) in Cape Town. We stayed at her waterfront marina apartment while she was away visiting family in Australia. This apartment was very close to the V&A Waterfront, which meant we could walk to restaurants, the boat for Robben Island, endless shopping, the Ferris wheel and the Springbok Rugby Museum, among others. We looked across at The One and Only Hotel, whose spa we visited on Friday.

When we were "in town" we got around very easily in taxis, which are all metered and seldom cost more than three or four dollars. Two destinations in town that we enjoyed a lot were Table Mountain and Robben Island. We did both in the same day, starting on the 9:00 a.m. boat to the island. The trip takes about 50 minutes but it was a beautiful day without much chop or wind and the scenery surrounding the harbor was endless entertaining.

Photo opp--Table Mountain from Robben Is

Once we docked at the island, we transferred to two large buses. The Japanese tour group took one, with their own translator, and the rest of us took the other with English-speaking guides. We made three stops where we were permitted to get off the bus. The first was clearly a photo opp looking back at Table Mountain and Cape Town. The other two permitted us to see firsthand parts of the prison complex, including the isolation area where Robert Sobukwe, former leader of the PanAfricanist Congress, was held for many years.

The final stop permitted us to visit both the general political prisoner area and the (mostly ANC) "political leadership" area. The latter is where we saw Nelson Mandela's incredibly small cell, where he lived for 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment. This part of our tour was led by a former political prisoner, a man who entered Robben Island an angry young man (his self-description) at age 20 and left at age 32, his 25 year sentence reduced by the amnesty program. As with the District Six Museum, hearing the story from someone who experienced political imprisonment added an authenticity that could not be achieved any other way. He has been doing
tours for 12 years, no longer lives on the island, and talked about how painful the process was at the beginning, but also how it has helped him heal.

Due to the pace of the tour, we were really unable to linger and only had time for a few questions. The entire compound has been cleaned out except for a few examples of cell "furnishings." It is unnaturally quiet and clean. The village of Robben Island, which we drove through, houses about 200 people, all of whom work on Robben Island. It seemed oddly like a ghost town since we did not see any people--just the church, tennis courts, schools, houses.

On the Ferris Wheel

Coming back to harbor

Catching the rays

At the end of our return boat trip, the sun was shining warmly and we took immediate advantage to en joy a ride on the Ferris wheel--four rotations around with fantastic views of Table Bay and Table Mountain. After a sushi lunch on a sun deck we grabbed a taxi for Table Mountain. Who knew if the sun was going to stay with us?

Off-season travel advantages struck again at Table Mountain. No lines at all for the cable car. Relatively few people and we were able to distance ourselves from the whiny American college students quickly. From our apartment's kitchen and guest room windows we had a full view of the mountain--usually shrouded in fog through the morning. But this day was blue-sky clear. We found the apartment complex from above and looked south to Camps Bay, with a wide beach and lovely second homes. Although many animals live in the park we saw only a few dassies, the small brown groundhogs. They could have cared less about our presence--just kept nibbling on their food or basking in the sun out on an exposed rock surface.

No-so-wearable-art: skirt made from grasses and plants of RSA

Generally speaking, the South African economy looks like it is booming--though recent concerns about a drop in credit rating may suggest otherwise. The quality and variety of foods and goods available at reasonable prices as well as the surprisingly well-swept streets (no litter anywhere) was a stark contrast to Congo, where most goods are imported and relatively costly and substantial refuse is a part of life. On the other hand, as we drove around we also saw settlements or townships that were shanty towns housing thousands of people in thrown-up sheds of corrugated metal or plywood. These areas have uncertain water and electricity supplies and poor sanitation. They do not lack for satellite dishes, however, which seemed an enigma. Is TV an escape from the harsh reality around them or a way to keep a toehold on  hope--or both?