South Africa

Check out our pics: South Africa

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AAAfffrica! Tracy was beside herself with excitement. Finally she gets to set foot on African soil, land of our ancestors. I was totally cucumber-like, having already been to Egypt many years ago and Morocco last October (nonchanlant sniff) and I did not hesitate to point this out. Many times. Tracy said my trips didn't count, that wasn't the real Africa. Whatever. So we landed in Cape Town, South Africa and even though I knew it was approaching their winter, I still expected to be greeted by a blast of hot air once we left the plane. Wrong. It was a little chilly. Then we are picked up by a taxi who takes us to our hostel, Salty Crax, (I know, I know, Tracy chose it) in Table View, a suburb of Cape Town next to the beach.

Initial impressions were how like the States it looked, and how brilliant it was to have so many British foodstuffs in the stores. Curly Wurlies, Marmite, Licorice Allsorts, real wholemeal bread and muesli without added sugar, greek yoghurt, a huge variety of real fruit juices. We were finally inspired to cook (not necessarliy using the ingredients listed above). We were also blown away by the friendliness of the South Africans we met. Within 48 hours we had 2 rounds of drinks bought for us (one from a guy in a Mexican restaurant and the other by the barman in a different establishment). We had a clothing store clerk give us free coffee coupons when he saw Tracy drinking her latte. And, in the aforementioned bar, we met Nola and her friend Eugene, who after talking to us for five minutes, invited us for breakfast the next morning. They picked us up at Salty Crax, we had a big Vera's (Ballard, WA.... sigh!) style breakfast and then they took us for a tour round the coast. We stopped at a Cuban bar for some refreshments and had a really good laugh.

Apart from being overwhelmingly friendly, another thing we noticed about the South Africans we met was their directness. On our first day at Salty Crax (sorry, had to mention the name just once more) the maid, after saying hello, immediately inquired: Do you have children? Why not? Which bed are you sleeping in? This big one or the bunk beds?

Then the conversation with the super-friendly waitress at the Mexican restaurant went something like this:

Waitress: Where are you from?
Tracy: The States…Seattle, Washington.
Waitress: So you must speak Spanish, yeah?
Tracy: huh?
Waitress: Yes, I’ve heard Seattle is a very run down place and poor.
Tracy: Interesting. You do realize Seattle is on the border with Canada? And that companies like Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks are based there?
Waitress: hmmm, well, that's what I heard.

After a few days at ......Salty Crax, we moved into the center of Cape Town, to the Cat and Moose backpacker's on Long Street. We did a wine tour of 4 different wineries, where we sampled over forty different wines, champagnes and ports. At first we actually drank the wine, but by the second winery we realized we needed to spit out if we wanted to maintain decorum. We went out to dinner later that day with some of our fellow wine tasters to a game restaurant where I had the shark and Tracy had the warthog. We also took a tour to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. The interesting part of the trip is that at one point we were shown around by a former prisoner. I would like to have asked him so many questions, but we were in a huge tourist cluster and it was just easier to shuffle along with the group. One day we climbed up Table mountain, and it was so nice to do some exercise. We were chuffed to realize we climbed up in less than half the time it's supposed to take. Wow, we are so great... and the views were really nice from the top. On Saturday night we met Nola and Eugene again in Long Street and we did a tour of a few bars/clubs. Cape Town is totally 'tucked in'. (One of our 'in jokes'). We had a tucking good time.

Hiring a car for two days, we drove out to the Cape Point Nature Reserve. Beautiful scenic coastal roads. We stopped in Simons town, a place my dad visited when he was in the Navy and had some delicious fish and chips and a beer in his honour. We also stopped in at the african penguin colony near Boulder's beach. The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point were great to see, partly because I remember learning about it in primary school and because it's a beautiful spot. We took some pics for Renee and Sean who were getting married that day. So hope they felt the vibes! Though we were enjoying Cape Town, we had to decide where to go next. We finally decided to go first to the place we most wanted to go....the Serengeti, Tanzania for some animal action......keep tuned.