On the Run in October: South Africa--Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula

 

One view from Table Mountain

Once again, a backstory exists. Because, "Why South Africa?" I have been asked so many times. Perhaps the backstory really began in my high school years when my mother suggested that I read Alan Paton's novel, Cry, the Beloved Country. I liked the book then although I certainly did not fully appreciate its themes, its scope of history, or its hope for a future South Africa. I have read the book as an adult twice, and I plan to read it again soon.

Here then is the ending paragraph of Alan Paton's novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, first published in 1948:

    "Yes, it is the dawn that has come. The titihoya wakes from sleep, and goes about its work of forlorn crying. The sun tips with light the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand. The great valley of the Umzimkulu is still in darkness, but the light will come there also. For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing. But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret." 

Umzimkulu River valley, a Google image. (We did not travel here.)

In the 1980s when economic sanctions against a S. Africa fully immersed in apartheid gained international momentum, S. Africa caught my notice once again. I remember discussing the issue with my mother, especially when the Reagan administration in the USA and the Thatcher administration in the UK resisted sanctioning S. Africa, instead denouncing Mandela and the ANC as communists and terrorists. Whether or not Mandela and the ANC were actually "communists and terrorists" did not seem to be the real issue for me: Apartheid was evil and should be addressed. I was glad when in 1986 the US Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act despite Reagan's veto. Anti-apartheid activism drew greater international attention to Mandela as well, and I became one of those who followed his story. I distinctly remember when S. Africa's President de Klerk released Mandela and other imprisoned ANC members from prison in 1990 and then when Mandela was elected S. Africa's President in 1994.

For me, a trip to S. Africa originally had to include Cape Town mostly because Mandela's story included that space. I really wanted to see Robben Island, the place where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment. Due to weather and sea conditions, though, that didn't happen in the end. I viewed Robben Island instead from the coastline and from Table Mountain. Maybe a return to Cape Town awaits!

That's Robben Island out there!

So aesthetically situated, Cape Town easily steals one's heart. About the same latitude as Los Angeles, it has a Mediterranean climate. Indeed, the entire Cape Peninsula is beautiful. Cape Town, the oldest and second largest city, is one of three capitols of S. Africa, home to the Parliament. Henceforward, I shall review our three days spent there, largely in photographs.

From NYC to Amsterdam to Cape Town takes so much fly-time; we are as exhausted as we look.

After his release from prison, Mandela spoke on the balcony where this statue is placed.

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Table Mountain and the Views

We took the cable car up to the top, but one can hike to the top of Table Mountain, and here is one of the paths to the top that we sort of followed from above while on the cable car.

Cape of Good Hope, where the currents from the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet. (The southern most point, though, is Cape Agulhas.)

Eland, an antelope species--we spotted these off the road quite near to the Cape of Good Hope.

We visited the penguin colony that hangs out at Boulders Beach. Penguins delight in such an unexpected array of presence and performance!

On our tour of the nearby wine lands, I found a university town in which I could easily reside--Stellenbosch, home of the prestigious Stellenbosch University--and some excellent chocolate--DeVilliers, should you care to name-check it.

A church in Stellenbosch.

A statue of Mandela at the front of the prison from which he was ultimately released, Victor Verster Prison.

Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula really do beg a return visit. Already I have a to-do and to-see list underway inside my mind. Now, if I can just get myself to the other side of the planet again!