12th October 2009

Today we are going whale watching. Our guide picked us up early and we travelled to the seaside resort of Hermanus in Walker Bay in search of the Southern Right Whales. We were not disappointed, there were whales everywhere. Some were breaching and showing off their tales, others were just floating out to sea. We saw baboons everywhere and watched fisherman trying their luck in the strong seas. After lunch we began our journey back via a lovely winery and orchard. Had a wine tasting and bought some local produce.

13th October 2009 Our last day..............We ventured around the city of Capetown on foot. We walked through the streets and saw some fascinating architecture. The Mutual Building on the Parliament Street facade has carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled Xosa, Pedi, Maasai, Matabele, Basuto, Barotse, Kikuyu, Zulu and Bushman. As we enter Grand parade there is a main public square surrounded by the Cape Town City Hall, the Castle of Good Hope and the Railway Station. The square is generally used as a market place and parking area but has also been the venue of major political rallies. It was the first place where Nelson Mandella addressed South Africans following his release from prison in 1990 and also following his election as president on 9 May 1994. There is a Memorial Statue in the middle of the square called the Volunteer Memorial. We took a tour of the Castle of Good Hope which is the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa. The Castle was built between 1666 and 1679 by Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a maritime replenishment station and a defensive fort against unwanted visitors and even the unpredictable weather. Zacharias Wagenaer was instructed to build a five-pointed stone castle - the "Kasteel de Goede Hoop". The Castle was planned from a central point with five bastions, named after the main titles of Willem, the Prince of Orange. The Western bastion was named Leerdam, followed in clockwise order by Buuren, Catzenellenbogen, Nassau and Oranje. After our tour we then headed for the District Six Museum. District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867. Originally established as a mixed community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants, District Six was a vibrant centre with close links to the city and the port. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the process of removals and marginalisation had begun. The first to be 'resettled' were black South Africans, forcibly displaced from the District in 1901. As the more prosperous moved away to the suburbs, the area became a neglected ward of Cape Town. In 1966 it was declared a white area under the Group Areas Act of 1950, and by 1982, the life of the community was over. 60 000 people were forcibly removed to barren outlying areas aptly known as the Cape Flats, and their houses in District Six were flattened by bulldozers. The District Six Museum, established in December 1994, works with the memories of these experiences and with the history of forced removals more generally. Apartheid was terrible time in history as seen in this museum. We then continued to the Gold of Africa Museum complex which is the worlds first museum dedicated to the history of African Gold. Set in a restored landmark building the museum complex is dazzling. It is quite literally filled with gold. The heart of the museum is one of the largest and most beautiful collections of African gold artefacts, the Barbier Mueller collection. We ended up back at Victoria Wharf and saw Noble Square. The square honours South Africa's four Nobel Peace laureates: the late Chief Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and former presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk. Albert Luthuli was a Zulu Chief and he was the first African to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace (1960), in recognition of his nonviolent struggle against racial discrimination. In 1984 Archbishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent work to end apartheid and bring equality for the people in South Africa. Mandela and FW de Klerk were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. FW de Klerk won his award for his part in ending apartheid. Mandela won his for his fight against apartheid.