Day 2 - Silvermine, Simonstown, Fish Hoek, Lavender Hill

My first morning in South Africa, I slept pretty soundly (except for waking suddenly at about 1am) and got up promptly at eight. I felt really refreshed and glad to be here.

Today is a national public holiday called the Day of Reconciliation. Prior to 1994 it was called the Day of the Vow (or "Covenant" also called Dingaan Day) and celebrated the Afrikaner victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. After the end of Apartheid it was changed and is mean tot foster reconciliation between different racial groups.

Mostly it means everyone's off work so we all go have a holiday, and today the Bethke's decided we should go up Table Mountain Reserve and see Silvermine. And that we did! And I took many photos, even though my batteries died repeatedly.

From a good lookout point I got some shots of the city, with part of the mountain in the background.

Here are my lovely hosts! That's Tony, Andrew-John, and Erika Bethke.


We stopped beside this body of water behind a dam (called Black River I think) and had a picnic, and we weren't the only ones who had this idea. Many families had come out for a nice day in the sunshine, and some were even having a swim. (And can I just say that nudity, though not rampant, is not nearly as big a deal here as it is in the states.)



From our vantage the water reflected the beautiful clear blue sky, but it usually appears black... until it gets shallow, and then you see it is actually dark reddish-brown, "the colour of Coca-Cola". This is apparently because the water travels down the mountain and picks up all sorts of minerals and organic material from the plants it passes.




Erika was quite excited over this plant, but of course I can't for the life of me remember what it's called. It's very pretty though, as are most of the plants here.



We found a nice bridge to cross, which had some absolutely gorgeous lillies around it.



Over the dam you can see more picnic areas and trails for mountain biking and things, and in the distance the clouds stream over the mountain. You can almost believe some giants are sitting on the other side, smoking their pipes in the careless sunshine.

It was as we crossed this damn that a boy of about five or six gave all of us a hard stare, and slapped me (and everyone else, I found out later) hard on the back as he ran past. Apparently we were "danger", and though I was taken aback I think he was with his sisters, so good on him if he was protecting them from percieved threats. Especially since he was stark naked when he did so!

And then we came back to our lovely picnic! Seriously, this was a most romantic scene, and the weather could not have been perfect.
Silly AJ is dead set against harming other living creatures, so he actually let a spider bite him rather than shoo it away!

Beware springboks!


We then made our way to Simonstown, which is wayyyy down on the southern point of the cape. We went up the side of another mountain and took pictures of the naval base.

And I caught the cliffs in the distance, capped with clouds.

Can you see the submarine?

And AJ poses for us! By the way, this area is called False Bay. Can you guess why?

We then went down into Fish Hoek (which means - surprise surprise - Fish Hook!) to use the public toilets at the beach, and then get ourselves some ice cream (in that order, by the way!)
Mmm! Soft serve cone with a Flake bar! I haven't had one of these since I was very little, a long time ago in England. I shed a tear for the memory, it was so sweet.

See here the prices for food. My cone cost all of like, 7 Rand, which comes to about seventy cents. That's more than reasonable for a delicious ice cream cone on a warm sunny day.

Then we took a walk along the shops in the town, and actually intended to visit the priest of one of the churches AJ knew, so we shopped as we waited for him to get back to us... he never did, but we saw some interesting things anyway.





On the way home we went through several parts of the slums, including an area called Lavender Hill. Many of these places are where the coloured (not just "black" mind you) people were relocated by whites during Apartheid. They are ugly, cement square blocks with poor insulation or ventilation and no vegetation. Even in America you couldn't be paid to live in places like this.



We stopped for some petrol on our way out. Gas stations here have attendants who do everything for you. I was trying to take a picture of the advertizements, to give you an idea of the snack food they have here (incidentally, coke, sprite, and lays potatoe chips... exotic eh? But I also wanted you to see the prices) but as I was focusing the lense one of the attendants walked in front of the signs, saw me, and started pulling faces and posing. He made me laugh, and then he and the others started cutting up so we all laughed. I finally got the lenses sorted out and took their picture as a memory.
What fun! Even with poverty right next to us, we can grin together. And honestly, though I understand all this racism and stuff on a fundamental level, it's moments like these that make me wonder how such a nonsense thing can control the lives of entire nations.


What an exhausting day of adventure! Too many more days like this and I'll be all vacation-ed out before the end of it all! Luckily this was a "holiday" within a holiday, so I won't have too many more day as full as this was!