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Cape Town

At last, our destination! But not everything goes smoothly - this IS still Africa.

Our car was fixed though and we could drive the last leg into the city. The slow trip in was caused by a truck accident blocking the road - so South Africa was no different to all the other countries where we had seen truck accident after truck accident! And then the hotel Debs had booked had stuffed up our booking - they had wrong dates, some dates not booked for us, some dates double booked ... just the usual.

One final dinner together and then the trip was officially finished! Had four months really gone so fast? None of us could really imagine getting home and back to "normal" but it was nearly upon us.

Cape Town is a lovely city. It has, of course, that magic location - the mountain, the bay, the beaches, the sea. The Red Bus made real tourists of us, a hop-on/hop-off, open-topped bus with earphone commentary. It took us into town, to the Table Mountain cable car and to the beaches in the day. Fred and Ingrid joined us wandering around downtown, taking the cable car, walking around and having lunch on the mountain, and then imbibing a cool Chenin Blanc overlooking Camp's Beach.

Unfortunately the day was smokey from local bushfires and the view from the top of Table Mountain wasn't as clear as we would have liked. But right at the top of the mountain itself, the air was clear and we followed one of the many walking paths. The flora in this region is unique with most plants not found elsewhere in Africa. The unusual vegetation and the amazing rock formations hid small animals, and we spied Rock Dassie families and lots of strange lizards. Proteas, so prized by florists everywhere, were growing wild, and clumps of paper daisies in all colours crunched underfoot.

Fred organised a night out for us all (except Debs and Thiemo who had already gone to Fish Hoek where they will spend a month getting the cars ready for the return trip to Nairobi with a new group) at Mama Africa's in downtown Cape Town. Traditional food, atmospheric surroundings and an amazing black African band playing frenetically all night!

Robben Island is a "must-do" in Cape Town. It has been, at various times, a leper colony, a prison and, most infamously, the place of incarceration for anti-apartheid political prisoners, most notably Nelson Mandela who was there for 18 years. The island is strictly controlled - no wandering around by yourself here - so a tour is the only way to get there. A fast catamaran from the charmingly restored Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (think Darling Harbour or Docklands but bigger and better) takes you over with great vistas of the bay as you ride. Penguins and cormorants float all around you in the (very) cold water.

Once there, it's onto the bus for a once-around the island looking at the points of interest: the leper graveyards, the old chapel, the community hall, the shop, the school, the quarry where the prisoners laboured. Then we were handed over to another guide who took us around the prison and especially the cellblocks where the political prisoners were held. This guide, like the others in the prison precinct, was one of those political prisoners for about 7 years. He talked quietly about his time there, what the conditions were like, what the guards were like, how they worked in the quarry or at other tasks, how the educated prisoners taught the others, how they survived. It was moving stuff.

A quick walk back to the ferry and some penguins came out of the bushes for a stroll and to say farewell!