Cape Town is a little...different...than Johannesburg. Its one of the most highly visited cities in the entire continent in Africa. Its a beautiful city, with stunning ocean views and landscapes. Its also full of tourists and lots of high end shopping, accommodations and restaurants. I'm sure if one had lots of money, this would be a fabulous destination. There is a large mix of ethnicities represented here, including heritage from: Europe, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, Mozambique, Mauritius, Saint Helena and Southern Africa. While the local population comprised of a wonderful medley, I had a hard time not sneering at the gobs of rich white teenagers with their hoity-toity parents sauntering down the streets, as if they owned them. I guess we all have our prejudices we have to work through, my own included.
Despite my irritations on the walkways, we did enjoy some of the local attractions. Our first day we visited The Castle of Good Hope (a historic military station), Iziko Slave Lodge (an ancient slave house and modern day museum detailing the history of slavery in Cape Town), some lovely gardens and a walk down Long Street (where lots of the action takes place).
The following day we visited the Waterfront, which was absolutely beautiful and quite reminiscent of California's coastline. While walking around we tried to catch a glimpse of Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years, but couldn't see it, and the tour to visit it was a bit pricey. We did catch a glimpse of the new stadium constructed for the 2010 World Cup, from a distance.
Next we climbed "Lion's Head," a small mountain on the perimeter of the of the city. We were hoping for spectacular views of the city and coastline, but instead were surrounded by an abundance of fog and cool mist! There were beautiful flowers and plants along our walk, though, and it felt as if we weren't really in Africa, more like Maine or Ireland!
From Cape Town, it was time to head northbound, slowly making our way to Nairobi, Kenya, in time to reach our flight by the beginning of February. We landed in the city of Kimberely, South Africa, for a five day stay. Kimberely is a much smaller town than Cape Town or Johannesburg, and bases most of its tourism on their history and diamond mining. We went to visit "The Big Hole" a huge (now water-filled) hole that was created by 50,000 miners digging for diamonds over about 40 years (bringing forth some 2,700 kg of diamonds). This is also where the company De Beers was formed, which to this day today still retains a monopoly over the world's diamond market. There was also a museum, and what I thought was a rather odd mini-town, with old storefronts, displays, and lots of creepy mannequins.
Other than Big Hole, our time in Kimberely was mostly spent at our hotel, where we tried to stay cool in the sweltering heat of high 90's everyday. (I guess we did play a game of mini-golfing, where I was the reigning champion.) We were staying in (well, next to) a lovely historic home with a huge kitchen and great amenities, which we were able to enjoy. Our sleeping quarters, however, we not as lovely, as we were staying the dorm room full of bunks, and only one small window, which let in lots of hungry mosquitoes at night. Who doesn't love deciding whether to have heat stroke or be eaten alive?! We were able to utilize the kitchen to assemble our impromptu Thanksgiving meal of rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and cupcakes for dessert. It was good, but left me missing cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and most importantly, my family. I was grateful, however, that Guy and I were able to share a lovely meal together in South Africa!
From Kimberley we found out our only option to cross the border into Botswana was to take a combi, (minibus). So has begun one of what I believe will be many combi rides. Gone are the days of the luxuriously huge buses of South America. Combis are packed full with about 15 passengers, when really, they would be "comfortable" (and I say that word loosely) with about 10. And combis don't leave at a specific time. You wait until they are full, and then you leave. We showed up at 9:30 am, and left about 1:30 pm. And if you're taller than 5ft, you won't have sufficient leg room either. Four hours later, we arrived at our final stop in South Africa, Mafikeng, just at the border before crossing into Botswana. While Guy was hopeful that we were going to discover something good in this town, I wasn't crossing my fingers. Even though there was nothing noteworthy there, it was a nice place to rest for a day before heading onto our next destination...Gaborone, Botswana!
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