We are on the big continent of Africa hanging in Capetown while we find the bikes and await the rest of our team of 6.
Totally captivated by the people– open and chatty and in stark contrast to what you expect when you see the electric fences and razor-wire that surrounds their homes. Gareth has spent hours getting the satellite phone going and tonight it happened so he’s happy now that his top-box of electronic trinkets all function.
The prices are generally similar to NZ. Great fruit and food abounds. The waterfront here is a super place to hang out with lots of street music and cool cafes to people watch from.
Not being able to stay away from wheels for long we took the bus tour around the local area looking at some of the chestnut forests planted by Cecil Rhodes (of the Rhodes scholarships) and had a very interesting visit to a “township” on the edge of table mountain. The area deemed ok for housing for a few thousand folk was home to more than 25,000 and growing every week with the Zimbabwe crisis bringing lots more people in search of a better life. The situation that we would find pretty tough was better than they had left behind. The part we wandered through with a local wasn’t intended for housing, raw sewage flowed, rats played, children smiled, old men sang, while the young stood on corners with hair styles to impress and of course the young men with their jean’s crutches hanging to their knees and bright underwear peeping out at the top. We felt welcome and it seemed such a contrast to the million dollar homes behind the security a few hundred meters away.
The port tomorrow to see what I packed 3 months ago. Hope there is a spare set of underwear.
Love Jo
Comments are closed.