Three days in Cape Town

Note : this post is quite long !

This weekend, I was in Cape Town. Well, actually, on Friday as well, but it was for work, so it's different ! It was really a last-minute decision. There was this SA-CERN meeting, where everybody is welcome to go, but since it's held in Cape Town, usually only Simon goes. This time, he could not go, so I went to "represent" him. We decided everything on Thursday, I took a plane ticket and rented a car thanks to the ever efficient Lianie : JNB/CPT at … 6 in the morning, return on Sunday at 9 in the evening (arrival at 11pm in Joburg …). As it is the high season in Cape Town, the accommodation caused some problems … I phones a few guest houses, they were all full, until one told me "Sure, we have a room for you for Friday and Saturday nights, but I am not in the office right now, so please call me tomorrow morning and I will arrange the booking". I still asked for confirmation that she guarantees I will have a room, because I don't really like arriving somewhere without knowing where I'll sleep !

DAY 1 : iThemba, meeting, beach
So, on Friday morning, I woke up at 3:30 to go to the airport - I wanted to go early enough in case the good ol' Alpha would give me trouble ;-) At the end, no problem, except that it was raining very heavily (and thus I was so happy to go to Cape Town and escape a rainy weekend in Joburg !). I arrived in Cape Town at 8, a few minutes to pick up the rented car, and by 9am I was at iThemba labs. So, no problem. I won't comment on the SA-CERN meeting  (political stuff that I don't always understand myself …). But of course, as I had feared, when I called the guest house, she told me "hum, for Saturday yes, we have a room, but not for tonight". Which is not very cool, since I had explicitly asked her if she guaranteed I'd have a room … anyway. She said she'd call me back, but in the meantime, I asked the people at iThemba to help me, and they finally find me a flat in the hospital (inside the lab), so cheap that I won't even mention it (let's say it was 10% of the price of the guest house !). On the minus side, being alone in a deserted hospital is not extremely pleasant.

The bed - not a real hospital bed :-)

The entrance of the flat

In the corridor ...

On the plus side, it was cheap, no a bad location, in a secured place (though it's next to a "camp for young criminals", as it was described to me). On the plus plus side, there were Zebras in the lab, so when I was sitting outside at night to catch the wireless, I could see that :

A night zebra ...

A word about iThemba labs in Cape Town … They DO have animals in the lab ! Zebras, Springboks (I think), Swans, Goose … It's pretty cool ! (I really didn't expect that !)

Black swans ...

After the meeting, I went to a shopping mall (to buy some stuff to eat !), and to a beach to see the Cape attitude - surf and cricket on the beach ! I could enjoy both the sun-set and the moon-rise. I took a million pictures - here's a subset ;-)

Welcome to the beach ! The only non-prohibited thing seems to be "use the trash bins" ;-)

Strand beach

Some guys playing cricket on the beach

Others just surfing at sunset ...

The sunset started, and it was nice because there were some clouds (but not too many !) and the mountains of the Cape peninsula. On the one side was the sunset ...

... and on the other side the moon rise !

DAY 2 : Cape Town Waterfront, Table Mountain, Cape Point
After a night where I had to ignore the noises made by animals and other creatures in an empty hospital, I woke up with the firm intention to use the 200 km per day allowed with the rented car !
First destination : Cape Town waterfront. It's kind of a huge shopping area, in the port of Cape Town. It's nice, there are souvenir shops, and the view on the city and the Table Mountain is lovely.

The Nobel square, with the 4 South African Nobel prizes winners

A strange red thing, with the Table Mountain in the background

View from the Waterfront

I didn't stay too long, because I wanted to go to the Table Mountain. As I didn't have a lot of time, I used the cableway to the top of the Table Mountain (1086m), but I think the trail is worth the try (3 hours one way).

The cableway to the Table Mountain

Unfortunately, the time to take the ticket (there was some queue !), clouds arrived and the mountain was fully in the clouds ! At the end, the view was OK, I could take a few pictures from the top :

Des marmottes !

… and from the bottom, it looks nice as well !

Even though it was a bit disappointing because of the cloud, I think in better conditions the view must be amazing ! A little bit expensive, though, but probably worth doing.
Then I continued towards the Cape Point, first on the Atlantic side. Camps Bay is a famous beach, where I stopped for some lunch.

Camps Bay

Then I took the Chapman's Peak Drive (for which one has to pay a toll of about 3 euros because it crosses a National Park). The views are pretty pretty !

Hout Bay

And I arrived at the so-called Simon's Town, on the other side of the peninsula (False Bay), where interesting signs were placed everywhere !

The views on False Bay are not bad either ;-)

I finally arrived at the Cape Point National Reserve, in which you have to enter (and pay, of course) to reach the Cape of Good Hope. It's a bit like for the North Cape in Norway : there is only one road to go there, you declare the region as a National Park, and you can make people pay. I have to say, though, that it's fine for me : the more places are preserved, the better. If it can avoid too many cars entering, I think it's a good thing (you'll see that it's not the case, though !). Some pictures of the park :

The light house, close to the Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope, seen from above

Cape Point

It's actually funny how they name the Cape of Good Hope ... The "most south-western point of Africa". This is because the Cape of Good Hope was considered as the most southern point of Africa (I think in many people's mind, it is, though it is not true ... the "real" south point is Cape Aghullas, not very far). It is very famous for that. But since it is not true, they called it the most south-western point. I'm not sure what it means. They could simply say "Cape of Good Hope", it's good enough :-)

The Cape of Good Hope is really a dead-end road !

Some cliffs

Looking south ... next land should be Antarctica !

The only photo of me you'll see in this post ;-)

On the way back, I stopped at some bays on the False Bay side :

Catch the bird !

I had not really expected it, but it turned out that the Cape Point Natural Reserve, is actually a Natural Reserve ! Not only of plants and flowers, which are beautiful, but also of animals …

I think these are cormorants

At some point, I was literally surrounded with baboons ! To the right ...
 

... to the left ...

... behind ...

... and in front !

On the way back, I stopped in Long Beach (the city is Kommitjie, I think).

This concludes a quite full day ! A lot of car, but it was really nice.
In the evening, I discovered that sitting on the right spot near the lab (I don't have access to the buildings), I could get a decent wireless, so I could chat a bit with Laura.

DAY3 : the winelands (Stellenbosch, Franschhoek)
Sunday started a bit cloudy, and so it stayed. However, there was sometimes a very warm sun, and I realize writing these notes, that I actually burned on the neck and the arms !
So, a few tens of km from Cape Town, is a city called Stellenbosch. It's a quite old city (almost as old as Cape Town, I think), and you can see the European (Dutch) influence in the buildings and so on. I visited the Dorp Museum (Village Museum), in which they preserved 4 typical houses, with the furniture of the same time. It's quite interesting.

This latter house has also very nice gardens (and a view on the church ;-) ).

Then I went to the Botanical gardens, where I found a nice bonsai, special for Laura (but I couldn't steal it).

I then had a quick lunch, and I left to Franschhoek, which is a village upper in the mountains, founded by the Huguenots (protestant immigrants persecuted in France thanks to Louis XIV). It is a very charming village surrounded by mountains and vineyards.

There is also a memorial dedicated to the Huguenots, and a museum. In the museum, many things are written in French (and not translated), which didn't bother me too much (heh heh)
The memorial is … a memorial, with all its load of symbols. I'm not a fan, but I have to admit that it is quite impressive, especially in such surroundings.

After this visit, I went for a smoothie and a pancake, very good. Then I left, I wanted to see the prison when Nelson Mandela spent his last 2 years (no, it's not Robben Island), but the road was in works, so, that's for next time.

The main reason why people usually go to Stellenbosch (or Franschhoek, all this region), is the wine tasting in the many wine farms around.

However, being alone, I didn't feel like going for wine tasting … I was more in the mood for nice landscapes and safe driving. So, I just headed to the airport, returned the car, checked in, waited, and here I am in Joburg !


Overall, I really liked Cape Town. Actually, I barely went to Cape Town city center ... I didn't visit any museum (for example I'd like to see the District 6 Museum). But the feeling I had was that it is waaaaay more relaxed than Joburg. This impression was confirmed when I arrived on the parking at the airport : there were a lot of security guards, they seemed a bit distressed, and I heard someone talking about being threatened by someone with a gun. Although one always has to be aware of their surroundings, I never felt unsafe during these 3 days. I could walk in the streets of Stellenbosch, or in the Waterfront, or on the beach, without feeling the least pressure, as I'd have felt in Joburg. Same for the driving, it all seems less chaotic there. On the other hand, the poverty is much, much more visible than in Joburg. Between the city and the airport, or between the airport and Sommerset West, you pass next to townships, and it is really hard to imagine people actually living there. So you try not to look, but then you see some guys crossing the highway running, or some lady with little kids walking on the side, and you can't hide the reality : people do live there. They don't beg for money at the robots (traffic lights), but they are here. This reminded me of these surveys saying that Cape Town is one of the most pleasant cities to live in, etc., etc. Yes, if you can afford a house in the nice areas, yes. If you're a tourist going from a guest house to a museum, a wine tasting, or a national park, yes. I have to admit, though, that it seemed to me that the walls around houses are less high in Cape Town … no systematic electric fence, sometimes a "normal" wall, which is more to indicate the property boundaries, than to protect against intrusions. But of course, I haven't seen a lot of Cape Town, so I can't generalize.
A "funny" thing for me also, is that most people spoke in Afrikaans by default, and everything is both in English and Afrikaans (more than in Joburg), sometimes only Afrikaans. The Dutch influence is much more visible in Cape Town than in Joburg. I guess I would have the same feeling in Pretoria, but I've never been there.
Anyway, to finish with this airport parking story, I didn't stay too long there - well, I did, but only because the machine reading the tickets, at the exit fence, was not working. The trip back home with the Alpha was fast and relatively easy, though I had got used to driving a "modern" car, with power steering, good brakes, good clutch, no vibration, silent … ;-)