Cape town
Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika
General background :
The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of the African Continent.
It borders the countries of Namibia, Botswana,Zimbabwe,Mozambique, and Swaziland.
Lesotho is an Enclave entirely surrounded by South African territory.
The two most striking difference between South Africa and other African nations are its economic prosperity and its racial diversity. Two historical facts account for this uniqueness: 1) South Africa received more European immigrants than other regions of Africa; 2) it held large mineral deposits which were strategically important to Western nations, particularly during the Cold War. As a result, theEconomy of South Africa is the largest and best developed on African the continent, with modern Infrastructure common throughout the country.
South Africa also has the most racially diverse population on the African continent, with the largest White population as well as the largest population of Coloured (i.e., mixed racial background) and Asians in South Africa.
Nonetheless, these non-Black racial groups comprise only about 15% of the total population.
Racial strife between the white minority and the black majority has played a large part in the country's history and politics, culminating in the apartheid regime, a system of segregationist laws instituted in 1948 by the National Party. These laws began to be repealed or abolished in 1990 after a long and violent struggle by the black majority, as well as some White, Coloured, and Indian South Africans.
Black South Africans were finally allowed to vote in 1994. In spite of this radical change, the country escaped the violent factionalism that has plagued other African nations: South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century.
Today South Africa is often referred to as The Rainbow Nation - a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later elaborated upon by then-President Nelson Mandela as a metaphor to describe the country's newly-developing multicultural diversity in the wake of separatist apartheid ideology.
South Africa is the first, and to date only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme.
Remerciements
About ten years ago, a friend of mine emigrated to Cape town; we kept in touch regularly and eventually, after three or four years i went to visit - i fell in love with the place immediately.
I had an excellent time and was surprised at the hotch potch of different cultures living side by side : i was really anticipating something foreign and alien, however, it was pretty much yurpeeeen but in a kinda oldy-worldy kinda way.
The thing that really struck me though, was this very real concern for personal security - people were carrying guns for self defense against car-jacking, break-ins and hold-ups ... that kind of thing... i wasn't too reassured to be told that just next to the main airport - Jan Smuts - the army had set up watch towers and cut down brush which had been offering easy cover to people firing shots at cars on the motorway going past the Crossroads township.
I did take tons of photos, but at the time digital cameras didin't exist - home computers were still science fiction and portable telephones were huge chunky things ... and this is only about ten years ago.
Needless to say that the film has since degraded quite a bit and despite the best efforts of photo-service and my own best attempts, the pictures look as though they date from another epoch ... like photos from when we were growing up in the sixties or seventies .....
Cape town is very modern and similar to any city any where - big motorways cuttin' through, huge sky scrapers and beautiful open spaces and parks ... with it's fair share of monuments.
The founding father, himself:
A bit contentious i thought, given that at the very beginning of RSA's history this guy would have been responsable for driving out the bushmen from their ancestral territories and all that .. not to mention the boer war.
There is still evidence of a colonial feeling to the city, this one below is probably an ancient governers' mansion which was more than likely bought out by a rich merchant then converted into the main bank :
But there are, and i just can't stress it enough, tons of modern and high tech cafés (the sports café on Albert wharf), restaurants and bars and things in this thriving and vibrant city.
Cape town it self is surrounded by water: the atlantic ocean to the west, the south atlantic to the south (d'oh!) and further away (nearer Durban) is the Indian ocean.
Hence the abundance of beautiful sandy beaches that stretch as far away as the eye can see ... as well as the expensive hotels and blonde bims.
One of my first views of the fabled table mountain came from a beach called Blue Berg Bay.
This is the first photo taken, as soon as i put my weary feet (after twelve hours flying) on solid ground :
Blue Berg bay is so named because the haze from the water gives Table mountain a bluish tinge - not that visible from the foto :-(
From the left the main peaks are : Devils peak, Table mountain in the centre and Lion's head (the lumpy hump thing at the extreme right).
A few kilometers further along :
Closer still :
A nice close up - Cape town nestled snuggly between the feet of Table mountain and the sea :
I managed to climb Lion's head and Table.
When/if/eventually i go back, i really want to climb Devils peak (3000 meters, i think) and try to go for a hike along the ridge which skirts the whole of the sea called the twelve apostles - there are twelve mini peaks of varying heights.
Lion's Head
This was a nice little hike; we set out at about four in the afternoon and followed dusty and well worn trails to the top - it took us about 2 hours i think.
Cape Town :
Looking towards the beach - Olympic stadium :
Towards Beacon Hill :
Towards Robben Island :
The 12 Apostles :
View towards Table Mountain :
Table Mountain
This hike was another story.
We set out at about eight thirty in the morning and had a nice stroll through the nature park ... all very quiet, pleasant and green... at tenish, all signs of life started to become more and more scarce ... no sounds, nothing.
The terrain changed abrubtly - where once there was dense forest and woodland, we found ourselves in a rocky, rubble strewn no-mans land ... completly barren and desolate ... lunar is the only way to describe it ... in France, during Le Tour de France, the race often goes up Mount Ventoux - it's exactly the same.
We were probably at about 1500 meters and starting to hit cloud cover ... at one point we went into a valley and we could see roiling clouds coming in behind us - very impressive if not a bit worrying ... and there was just stillness and complete silence.
The sun was high and the wind was a bit stiff, although it wasn't cold we could already feel wind burn on our arms and legs.
We stopped for lunch at about midday and cleaned ourselves down a bit - the mountain range has a very high iron ore content which gives it very rich colouring; all in ochre, brown and red ... but when you've been walking around and sweating it all sticks to you and you do feel a bit scummy ... we set off again at about 12.30 and had about another 700 meters to climb.
By about two in the afternoon we finally reached the top - it really is increadibly flat up there; you can see for miles and miles.
The sun was really beating down and some of the rocks were increadibly hot to the touch
We had to cover another 200m to hike over before we could reach the real summit where there's a lift - for old wrinklies - and the viewing platform.
We didn't stay too long at the top - we were already thinking about the return and how long that would take ... but above all; there's not much to see finally, given that you are above the clouds and you just can't make out a great deal.
Looking back towards Lion's Head :
The descent was very quick - all down hill - and a bit hairy in places ; down steep and slippery slopes with little or no hand holds ... most often with sheer, dizzying drops, on very narrow natural staircases ... rope bolted to the rockface to act as a hand rail.
We passed waterfalls, streams, goats and sheep grazing ... beautiful.
We arrived home at about six in the evening, showered had a huge barbecue and crashed out.
It was an increadibly long and tough day, but well worth the effort.
General background :
The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of the African Continent.
It borders the countries of Namibia, Botswana,Zimbabwe,Mozambique, and Swaziland.
Lesotho is an Enclave entirely surrounded by South African territory.
The two most striking difference between South Africa and other African nations are its economic prosperity and its racial diversity. Two historical facts account for this uniqueness: 1) South Africa received more European immigrants than other regions of Africa; 2) it held large mineral deposits which were strategically important to Western nations, particularly during the Cold War. As a result, theEconomy of South Africa is the largest and best developed on African the continent, with modern Infrastructure common throughout the country.
South Africa also has the most racially diverse population on the African continent, with the largest White population as well as the largest population of Coloured (i.e., mixed racial background) and Asians in South Africa.
Nonetheless, these non-Black racial groups comprise only about 15% of the total population.
Racial strife between the white minority and the black majority has played a large part in the country's history and politics, culminating in the apartheid regime, a system of segregationist laws instituted in 1948 by the National Party. These laws began to be repealed or abolished in 1990 after a long and violent struggle by the black majority, as well as some White, Coloured, and Indian South Africans.
Black South Africans were finally allowed to vote in 1994. In spite of this radical change, the country escaped the violent factionalism that has plagued other African nations: South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century.
Today South Africa is often referred to as The Rainbow Nation - a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later elaborated upon by then-President Nelson Mandela as a metaphor to describe the country's newly-developing multicultural diversity in the wake of separatist apartheid ideology.
South Africa is the first, and to date only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme.
Remerciements
About ten years ago, a friend of mine emigrated to Cape town; we kept in touch regularly and eventually, after three or four years i went to visit - i fell in love with the place immediately.
I had an excellent time and was surprised at the hotch potch of different cultures living side by side : i was really anticipating something foreign and alien, however, it was pretty much yurpeeeen but in a kinda oldy-worldy kinda way.
The thing that really struck me though, was this very real concern for personal security - people were carrying guns for self defense against car-jacking, break-ins and hold-ups ... that kind of thing... i wasn't too reassured to be told that just next to the main airport - Jan Smuts - the army had set up watch towers and cut down brush which had been offering easy cover to people firing shots at cars on the motorway going past the Crossroads township.
I did take tons of photos, but at the time digital cameras didin't exist - home computers were still science fiction and portable telephones were huge chunky things ... and this is only about ten years ago.
Needless to say that the film has since degraded quite a bit and despite the best efforts of photo-service and my own best attempts, the pictures look as though they date from another epoch ... like photos from when we were growing up in the sixties or seventies .....
Cape town is very modern and similar to any city any where - big motorways cuttin' through, huge sky scrapers and beautiful open spaces and parks ... with it's fair share of monuments.
The founding father, himself:
A bit contentious i thought, given that at the very beginning of RSA's history this guy would have been responsable for driving out the bushmen from their ancestral territories and all that .. not to mention the boer war.
There is still evidence of a colonial feeling to the city, this one below is probably an ancient governers' mansion which was more than likely bought out by a rich merchant then converted into the main bank :
But there are, and i just can't stress it enough, tons of modern and high tech cafés (the sports café on Albert wharf), restaurants and bars and things in this thriving and vibrant city.
Cape town it self is surrounded by water: the atlantic ocean to the west, the south atlantic to the south (d'oh!) and further away (nearer Durban) is the Indian ocean.
Hence the abundance of beautiful sandy beaches that stretch as far away as the eye can see ... as well as the expensive hotels and blonde bims.
One of my first views of the fabled table mountain came from a beach called Blue Berg Bay.
This is the first photo taken, as soon as i put my weary feet (after twelve hours flying) on solid ground :
Blue Berg bay is so named because the haze from the water gives Table mountain a bluish tinge - not that visible from the foto :-(
From the left the main peaks are : Devils peak, Table mountain in the centre and Lion's head (the lumpy hump thing at the extreme right).
A few kilometers further along :
Closer still :
A nice close up - Cape town nestled snuggly between the feet of Table mountain and the sea :
I managed to climb Lion's head and Table.
When/if/eventually i go back, i really want to climb Devils peak (3000 meters, i think) and try to go for a hike along the ridge which skirts the whole of the sea called the twelve apostles - there are twelve mini peaks of varying heights.
Lion's Head
This was a nice little hike; we set out at about four in the afternoon and followed dusty and well worn trails to the top - it took us about 2 hours i think.
Cape Town :
Looking towards the beach - Olympic stadium :
Towards Beacon Hill :
Towards Robben Island :
The 12 Apostles :
View towards Table Mountain :
Table Mountain
This hike was another story.
We set out at about eight thirty in the morning and had a nice stroll through the nature park ... all very quiet, pleasant and green... at tenish, all signs of life started to become more and more scarce ... no sounds, nothing.
The terrain changed abrubtly - where once there was dense forest and woodland, we found ourselves in a rocky, rubble strewn no-mans land ... completly barren and desolate ... lunar is the only way to describe it ... in France, during Le Tour de France, the race often goes up Mount Ventoux - it's exactly the same.
We were probably at about 1500 meters and starting to hit cloud cover ... at one point we went into a valley and we could see roiling clouds coming in behind us - very impressive if not a bit worrying ... and there was just stillness and complete silence.
The sun was high and the wind was a bit stiff, although it wasn't cold we could already feel wind burn on our arms and legs.
We stopped for lunch at about midday and cleaned ourselves down a bit - the mountain range has a very high iron ore content which gives it very rich colouring; all in ochre, brown and red ... but when you've been walking around and sweating it all sticks to you and you do feel a bit scummy ... we set off again at about 12.30 and had about another 700 meters to climb.
By about two in the afternoon we finally reached the top - it really is increadibly flat up there; you can see for miles and miles.
The sun was really beating down and some of the rocks were increadibly hot to the touch
We had to cover another 200m to hike over before we could reach the real summit where there's a lift - for old wrinklies - and the viewing platform.
We didn't stay too long at the top - we were already thinking about the return and how long that would take ... but above all; there's not much to see finally, given that you are above the clouds and you just can't make out a great deal.
Looking back towards Lion's Head :
The descent was very quick - all down hill - and a bit hairy in places ; down steep and slippery slopes with little or no hand holds ... most often with sheer, dizzying drops, on very narrow natural staircases ... rope bolted to the rockface to act as a hand rail.
We passed waterfalls, streams, goats and sheep grazing ... beautiful.
We arrived home at about six in the evening, showered had a huge barbecue and crashed out.
It was an increadibly long and tough day, but well worth the effort.
posted by Damiel | 11:26 PM
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