Day 8, October 26th 2007

Wilderness to Cape Town
lots of kilometres (in a minivan!) - all tar roads

The group had collectively agreed it would be good idea to leave as early as possible to fit in with Henck's suggestion of some whale watching in Errrmawnnoos (Hermanus to you and me!! Sorry Henck) and head up Table Mountain (it was as exciting and awesome as it sounds) in the same day. It was a long drive to Cape Town.

So the alarm clock went off an hour earlier today! At home when you're in the humdrum of life getting up early is such a chore (if you're me!). On holiday, albeit after a five day bike ride, when the sun is beating in through the curtains and the birds are going at it for all their worth, it just seems so much easier.

I think everyone found it strange not to be standing around in their cycling gear, ready for warm up exercises and a briefing as to the day's route. Something definitely was missing. A few of the group seemed delighted to be free of their two wheel friends. As for me, I was sad not to be getting on my bike, enjoying the scenery, the fresh air and the group craic.

At 6.10am we were on the road, heading out of Wilderness and up along the coast road. Now Australia boasts of their Great Ocean Road in Victoria. And man do they market it. It doesn't have a look in to the road out of Wildnerness or for that matter the coast road right along this stretch of SA. The road twists around the rugged coastline, clinging to the cliffs affording you panoramic views of the coastline bathed as it was in the early morning sunshine. Just wonderful.

We drove for miles and miles (sorry, I've lapsed into good old UK speak). Thank goodness for air con as it was pretty hot out. We stopped for breakfast in Funnydutchberg (it had a berg at the end of it! And it was Dutch! What do you want from me? I'm not Bill Bryson, you know.) at a garage! Maybe we were hungry. Maybe the food actually was good. But it was really tasty. I went to pay for my breakfast and was told it was over R700! Suddenly realising that was the entire bill for 11 people I shuffled back to my table. Breakfast was apparently part of the package. Either that or Henck treated us.

Onwards we drove through the Overberg (pronounced Offerbergh - you have to pronounce the 'gh' in the same way as in Lough). Imagine a really long road, with fields stretching out eithe side of you as far as the eye can see (before the mountains take over in any event) and as far in front and behind as you can see. Then imagine these fields full of canola, corn, wheat etc. That's the Overberg. I've never seen anything like it. Combine harvesters in the middle of one of the fields looked like a child's toy from the road. An amazing sight.

The sad thing is that farm workers earn on average R600 per month, and there's 13 Rand to the pound £ at the minute! They earn when they work. When planting and harvest isn't on there's no work, and no pay. Oh! There's no Income Support or the wealth of other incentives not to work that we have in the UK. You're on your own in SA.

Eventually we arrived in the seaside town of Hermanus. Full on sun. Blue sky. Whales in the sea close to shore. Pretty town. Just what the doctor ordered. We had a beautiful lunch in a restaurant, part of which was in a cave! right on the sea shore. Our table afforded a view of a baby whale (small bus) thumping its tail repeatedly on the water whilst mother glided gracefully along. The adult southern right whales are just huge. You could stand and watch these gracefull peaceful creatures all day. It's so relaxing.

However the life of a tourist demands a tight eye on the watch. Everyone back on board we set off for Cape Town. My shoes were lying on the floor and my socks attempting to dry out. Henck thought it a good idea to get back on the rocks close to the sea to view a couple of whales heading close to land. Good idea on the way out. On our return the tide was really coming in, and split second timing was required to get from one rocky outcrop to the one nearest to land. Well I didn't quite manage it, concerned as I was not to drop my camera in the water or bash it against the rocks!

Hours later we arrived in Cape Town. From a distance Table Mountain has an unfamiliar look. We arrived from the south and came in past the airport and more depressingly (as ignorant tourists who haven't actually visited the townships feel initally) past the many townships. Khayalitsha, Langa, Joe Slovo, Athlone. Just four of the sprawling settlements to which the black were consigned during the evil reign of apartheid. Khayalitsha were I visited on the Sunday has a population of 1.5 million - the same as Northern Ireland!

Then it was up the narrow steep streets leading to the foot of Table Mountain. Our rotating circular cable car took up to the top of the mountain. Cloud was racing in around the Lion's Head and the base of the mountain, but at the top we had clear blue sky. The back and sides of the mountain had a thick skirting of cloud - a view similar to that out of your plane at 37,000 feet. Just magical. There was no cloud over Cape Town. Apparently the heat of the city burns off the cloud. As you may know, when the cloud sits on top of Table Mountain it's known at the Table Cloth. Tourist photos taken it was back down again and off to our accomodation for the night.

Our hotel, the Fountain Hotel was just across from the main bus station, a fact drummed into us by Sam on the safety briefing. Tourist tend to leave their brains at home when on holiday, and he reminded us to be very wary.

George and I were assigned our key, and we headed up to room 1010. Well. What awaited us was like nothing I've ever seen or stayed in before. I'll upload a picture for you to see the inside of the living/kitchen area. And. And we had a view of Table Mountain. Ding dong. We just couldn't believe it.

Showered, shaved and aftershaved it was off to dinner. Mama Africa's was overbooked so Henck had arranged dinner at the Gold Museum. What a prize that turned out to be. We were shown into a courtyard where chairs and small tables were set out in two rows. At least that's what Shaun and myself had thought. No!

We were in for a spot of djembe training. African drums! Do correct me if they're called something other than djembe drums. My memory can't hold all the details!! Our teacher taught us three rhythms. He then played a melody and shouted 1, 2 or 3 and we assisted...with our 1, 2 or 3 rhythm and shouting. Great fun. One of those experiences were you're tempted to rush straight out and buy a drum!

Dinner was in the form of a continuous flow of small bowls of food from different parts of Africa. This was interspersed with dramatised stories including giant (papier mache?) characters, with music and typically vibrant enthusiastic African singing. There was a wonderful surprise for Henck! Sam and Peter had arranged for Henck's wife to come along!

After dinner Henck had a word for each member of the group and handed out a print of the photograph taken by Sam as we finished the bike ride at the Ebb and Flow chalets in Wilderness.