If you arrive in Cape Town at night you may miss it. In the morning you won't. Table Mountain dominates one of the prettiest cities in the world, described by National Geographic as “one of the most iconic cities on the planet.” A city sandwiched between the blue sea and the imposing Table Mountain. A city of 3.5 million people of different colours, religions, different racial roots, a truly “rainbow city”. Table Mountain keeps guard over this city, a silent witness to its history.
It was the Dutch East India Company that started the city of Cape Town. In 1652 they sent, Jan Van Riebeeck to develop a fueling station to solve the problem of scurvy suffered by ship crew, due to lack of fresh vegetables. He was to set up a station - Fort de Goode Hoop - to provide fresh vegetables to be loaded on to ships before they set off to the Dutch East Indies. Riebeeck and crew worked the hard, rocky ground, succeeded in creating gardens which supplied fresh vegetables to passing ships. Today what remains is called “Company Garden” a place you can visit and stroll through. Reinbeck's success led to a hoary history; wars with local tribes, struggle for land, slavery, classes between the English and the Boers (People of Dutch origin), issues of colour and ultimately the formation of an Apartheid (racial segregation) government in 1948. For a period Cape Town was divided based on the colour of the skin - Whites and Blacks.
Shop till you drop
The V&A (Victoria & Albert) Waterfront is a good place to start exploring Cape Town. This is a fashionable shopping centre. Spend hours buying branded products, handicrafts, music, movies or join the friendly people (all speak English) to window shop, enjoying the balmy weather. Most days there will be Bands playing. Hungry, step into one of the many restaurants. The seafood is recommended. From the V&A you can catch the ferry to Robben Island. Robben (Dutch for “Seal”) Island seven kilometres out to sea was the island prison used by the Dutch and the English to imprison unwanted people, leprosy affected, hardened criminals and political prisoners. It was where Nelson Mandela spent nearly 20 years confined largely to a solitary cell. Today it is a National Monument symbolising the spirit of reconciliation.
There is a Tourism office located in the V&A Waterfront. On enquiry we were told that there is a “hop on hop off” Red Bus that runs between various attractions. The tourism official looked out of the window and said “Yes there is no table cover, Table Mountain is clear today go there first”. Sometimes Table Mountain is overcast with clouds which the Capetonians refer to as a Table cover. The red bus chugged its way up Table Mountain passing rugged slopes covered with what is considered the last areas of the “Cape Fauna and Flora”. It dropped us at the point from which the cable car to the top of Table Mountain begins. The Cable car whisks you up 1000 metres to the top. While it is climbing it rotates so that you can get a 360 degree view. From the top you can see Cape Town and its suburbs, Robben Island, and the Bay. If it gets chilly there is a restaurant where you can grab a hot coffee or a popular choice— a cold ice-cream. Catch the red bus again and visit the up-market area of Camps Bay dominated by the spurs of Table Mountain nicknamed the twelve apostles. Camps bay has some spots for surfing. The water is cold. The area is lined with shops and restaurants and up on the hill you can see the homes of millionaires. Get back on the red bus to take one of the most spectacular city roads, between the sea and the mountain. The sea down below to the left and the beautiful houses on the mountain side to the right.
In Cape Town, do like the citizens do, spend time outdoors. In the city centre you will see a collage of buildings, Georgian, Cape Dutch, Victorian and skyscrapers. Walk to Parliament Buildings see live debates on Wednesdays, take in the Museums, haggle for trinkets, walk through the parks. Walk along Long street and see the architecture; walk up the steep hill to Bo-Kaap.
Many shades
Bo-Kaap is a colourful part of Cape town. The houses are painted in bright contrasting colours like yellow and purple. This part of Cape Town was where Cape-Malay, people originally bought from Malaysia (and parts of Dutch East Indies) settled as slaves, labourers, political prisoners, who were freed and never returned to their original countries. Apart from Malays there are Indians and East Asians living cheek in jowl in great harmony. We had Chicken Briyani in one of the restaurants. Felt like home. Whatever you do, do not miss the 6th District Museum. The Group Areas Act passed by the Apartheid government mandated that district 6 land should be reserved for whites only. The problem was that there was a thriving township on this land; a township of locals (Bantu), Indians, Coloureds, largely non-white. The Museum highlights the daily life of the citizens and how in a land of segregation people of different colour and religions, lived (photographs), cooked (recipe for Apricot Chutney and Tomatoe Bredie displayed) danced and married into the neighbourhood, acting as one family. However this did not stop the Apartheid government from sending in the police, dogs and earth movers. The citizens were ordered to pack and carry whatever they could. They were bused away to other locations. District 6 was bull-dozed to the ground. To this day sixty years later the area lies bare as the day it was cleared, overgrown with grass and weeds a monument to a sad chapter in the city's history.
Around Cape Town there is much to do. Take a wine tour through Stellenbosch, drive one of the world's prettiest drives-The Garden Route, go whale watching, be lucky to see the great white. As Judith Cornell a resident of Cape Town said “Can you imagine a more perfect place to live in? The mountain at your back, the sea at your feet, whales and flowers and lovely people”. Will we visit again? You bet.
