I'm back and CPT etc

When we last saw our intrepid traveler he was going back to the JNB airport to meet his daughter and fly off to Cape Town. The idea was to spend a couple days there while Mom was in Angola then meet up again in JNB and off to WDH.

(Editor: Here might be a good time to comment on my use of jargon, slang, town names, airport codes and other unfamiliar terms. I'm not going to explain everything, you have to do some work too. If something is puzzling, then look it up. I suspect you will learn something along the way. )

I'm back "home" now so these travelogue posts are after the fact. I was only able to get internet access twice in the three weeks. Mostly because I didn't want to get it. So we need to cover South Africa and Namibia and travels therein. Why is it that the more expensive the hotel, the more lame the internet? I've been sleeping in my bed for a few days now and it finally feels like mine. The first couple days I was totally disoriented. We had been moving to a different hotel/lodge most everyday and I couldn't deal with sleeping in the same place twice. I swear the first night I woke up and was convinced that the new hotel I was in had been fixed up to look exactly like my house except if I went down the hallway there would be the rest of the hotel. I really was confused. The bathroom was in the same place as home, the view out the window was the same but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was somewhere else.

The picture is of the lovely coast east of CPT proper. Million dollar houses with a view to match. And a beautiful morning it was too, the locals were complaining that it had been raining so much.
We were staying right in the waterfront. The Victoria and Alfred (not Albert) hotel. We awoke to find ourselves among street performers, tour boats, fishing boats and a historic harbour. Took a really nice ride that morning down to the Cape of Good Hope which really isn't the southernmost point of Africa but should be since it is so spectacular.

Saw the penguins on the way. Used to be known as "Jackass penguins" from their calls but now a more PC name is given. About 15 years ago they came ashore on these rich folk's beach and took up residence. Sort of like the sea lions in San Francisco, if you can't get rid of them, make them a tourist attraction. They are pretty cute the way they walk and don't seem to give a damn about the tourists.

Down at the cape we had to be careful about the baboons. They hang around the car park and know how to open unlocked doors and can break windows too. The answer to this problem? The baboon chaser. A guy with a slingshot whose duty it is to keep them away.

The next day the wind was blowing so our trip to Robben island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for so may years, was canceled. Had to make do with walking around town. Like we were to see in the rest of South Africa, Cape Town is a mix of good freeways, shanty towns (officially known as informal housing), modern buildings, squalid markets, expensive shops, cheap trinkets, rich and poor. A history of Portugese, then Dutch, then British, then Dutch again and finally British rule before independence. A fascinating mix and dangerous to be in the wrong place at night.

We did get to see the building where the prisoners were put on the boats for the island. And where relatives waited to see their kin. One tradition was that if a free woman was to marry a prisoner she could go the the island for the brief ceremony then return with half the wedding cake as a momento. What a heartbreak!