NUS criminals

Off topic, but the morons who smashed up 30 Millbank today need to be hounded down like dogs and incitement by the NUS investigated and that organisation decapitated if possible.

Clifton beach

Friday saw us go down to the beach. There are two main beach areas, Camps Bay which is the most popular, and Clifton just north of there. It has four beaches (named First - Fourth), the first two are apparently too secluded, third is the unofficial gay beach and fourth is the nicest. We got the minibus taxi down as far as Sea Point which is still a fair way away from where we wanted to be. These minibuses are reminiscent of the tube in that they lurch around alarmingly and are excessively crammed, although they differ in that you can't stand up but are at least guaranteed part of a seat and are a quarter of the price. We then walked round the coastal road and were pretty stunned by what we saw. This area is the answer to the Cote d'Azur (or perhaps Sandbanks) except it is clean, has stunning scenery and every house is also a fortress.

I'm sure I've seen this company ADT at work in Britain. At home I don't think they do armed response though.

This beach was quite different from any I've been on before. All along this stretch of coastline the houses/castles reach right down to the seafront, indeed in some places they are built into cliffs and the waves crash onto rocks below ground/-6th floor balconies. On the road level these houses (blocks of flats really) are simply a door into a lift and a ramp into a larger lift for the cars, preserving the view for the other side of the road. Incredible. On beachy stretches, footpaths snake down between the mansions to the beach level, on which there are no facilities like cafes, restaurants, chipshops, car parks, contraceptive outreach centres etc like in most of the UK except for a very clean and well-maintained toilet block with everything signed by the "Clifton Villagers' Association" and some guys on the beach selling ice creams from cool boxes and renting out umbrellas (pictured) at R25 for the day which we thought was a decent deal given the total lack of shade and my total lack of melanin.

The beach itself was beautiful. Clean smooth white sand, not busy, very peaceful, azure sea, even a few palm trees for effect. Sandra got quite agitated by the bearded man who left his headscarfed wife in a coat and trousers under a brolly while he went swimming, but aside from them... well, see her so-called revision photo above.

And I remembered sun cream! Unlike the previous day but I have forgiven myself as we didn't have summer at home this year and I couldn't remember the last time I'd used it.

Green Point

Thursday we spent exploring Green Point which is this area around the football stadium.

The stadium itself I haven't actually bothered to take a photo of yet. It's opposite our hostel (which is why I was so surprised when I heard they'd been disappointed with the world cup, but I suppose it depends on which teams were there) and is bowl shaped in white. They're still building the shiny road arrangement which was meant to be there for the travellers.

The park behind was closed for some reason, apparently still building it again, but we walked round and found THE SEA.

Moving round there was a lighthouse which is now some way inland, along a beautiful stretch of coastline. It really gave the feel of being the Atlantic and the waves were huge, causing us to abandon sections of the coast path, sometimes in a hurry.

Further round we decided to quench the thirsty of our long journey on a rooftop. The theme, set to be "now we are really on holiday", naturally led me to buy the Economist, I still haven't fully worked that one out.

I also spotted their Pimm's selection (had to order one of course). They had on offer classic Pimm's with lemonade to which I had to beg them not to add pineapple, and with ginger beer. Now in the UCL Conservative Society we created a few summers ago our house cocktail. Our patron is Nicholas Soames and it was invented at the bash after campaigning for him so it was called a Soames, and consists of Pimms and ginger beer. Naturally I was so delighted at seeing a Soames on sale in South Africa that I had to record it.

Then Sandra came back to the hostel and found some more Germans to talk to. Naturally.

The City

I'm going to try to go through what we've been doing recently.

On Wednesday we tried to explore the town a bit. We wandered around quite a lot, from our hostel down to Loop St and Long St which are the sort of social centre of town. Off Long Street we found a market selling all kinds of souvenirs, mostly drums and masks etc but quite a lot of qorld cup stuff too, and definitely a few vuvuzelas. I have so far resisted the urge but it won't be long. On that square was an art gallery looking at apartheid, the resistance to it and the art from blacks at that time. Some of it was great, some very dark and naturally some pretty poor (modern art again...) The building was interesting, all ancient furniture, you could imagine when the building was new.

After this we went to find some lunch in "Pick n Pay", South Africa's answer to Tesco's with a typically direct name policy it seems. Good except that it doesn't sell multipacks of chocolate bars so I am breaking my Mars-a-day habit. Eaten in the Company's Garden. When the Dutch started settling Cape Town in the late 1600s they sent a gardener out here to plant a vegetable garden to help fulfil the Cape's purpose of warding off scurvy. Over time this has evolved into a beautiful botanical garden, all wonderful trees and plants from all over (not just SA!) It has also developed rather aggressive wildlife, pigeons and squirrels, one of which hopped up and sat next to me before I leapt out of my seat to defend my Danish. Here is an inquisitive duck lookalike trying his chances, it was a huge thing which initially crept up behind me which was a surprise.

And the tenacious squirrel:

There was a lovely rose garden:

We also found the South African National Gallery which we are reserving for what we Europeans call a rainy day, but here they are more worried about wind as when it comes from the South East it can reach 80 mph apparently, they call it the Cape Doctor.

Then we wandered across to find the South African Parliament. Being boring types we found this very interesting. They have tours which are another rainy day plan. Sandra risked extraordinary rendition by taking a picture of it.

And later discovered what looked like an interesting building so we took a photo of it anyway. Pretty sure it's no longer an insurance company and I've forgotten who the chap in the foregound is.

Dinner

Steak. With my hand for comparison. Sandra's had the other half, it came as one slab of leg and we ate the lot. Fried it bleu. Price? R35 which is about £3.50.

Waterfront

We went out yesterday afternoon to the Waterfront. I didn't know why it's capitalised either. It's a sort of shopping stroke restaurant cafe bar complex which looks out across the main old bay of Cape Town. The town was founded as a port for sailors rounding the Cape and it remains a working port, so the view consisted in large part of container ships and tugs, but also mountains (they are hard to avoid). Anyway we walked round for a bt and decided to go for (half price!) cocktails and dinner. Our conversation went like this.

Adam: I have R300 so we should keep below that for dinner.
Sandra: It's ok I have my card.
Adam: Alright then. *orders wine*
...
Waitress: That'll be R302
Sandra: Adam my card's in your wallet.
Adam: What this old one?
Sandra: Adam you have the wrong card.
Adam: Er, Waitress...

So we have promised to go back again tonight. Two rand is less than 20p so it's not that bad.

Oh yes. A story I forgot from yesterday. After pulling our baggage off the carousel in Joburg, we went to take it away on the trolley when some blokes with a sniffer dog came round. They'd already been round once so we thought nothing of it, until the dog became very interested in my hand luggage. So much so in fact that the aforementioned blokes made me take it apart on the floor. Bearing in mind these dogs are supposed to be looking for cocaine or explosives or somesuch it did not look good. The culprit turned out eventually to be... Aniket. Who as I said had packed us some tasty pasta salad, which also included an entire cooked chicken. Which the dog wanted. I've never seen guards so fascinated by the contents of a lunchbox (maybe it wasn't just the dog who was hungry) but eventually we were released, only of course to be stopped again on the way out of Cape Town airport as described below.

Today we are off to the main part of town. Pictures to follow.

Arrival

So about 24 hours after leaving Camden, we have arrived in Cape Town.
Stood up most of the way to Heathrow.
11 hours in the middle of a row of ten on a 747 to Joburg.
3 hours wandering OR Tambo airport talking to people, of which more later...
2 hours in a 737, which I am now identifying as "the ryanair plane"
Lift to the hostel
Lie down.

I've been on Ryanair more times in the last year than is reasonable for anybody and so hadn't realised flights could be quite nice. In between sending BA cabin crew to fetch me G&Ts (if they want to strike they should earn it first) I watched Salt which was terrible and half of the Godfather which was worse, but it beats sitting next to a perspiring obesity statistic with your water bottle stolen by security men and a cackling Irish airline magnate demanding three quid for a new one.

Oh also I discovered that talking to said airport security men results in your bag being checked for explosives.

Anyway after getting through reclaim (thank you Granny for the strap but nobody else pays six hundred quid for a ticket and takes their clothes in a sports kitbag, so it wasn't hard to recognise anyway!), devouring Aniket's pasta salad despite an (awful) breakfast on the plane and playing baggage weight monopoly with Sandra's textbooks, we sat in the middle of a row of four seats to wait for the plane. Sandra got a homophobic Korean priest and I got a friendly (and alarmingly tactile) bloke off for a funeral who warned me not to trust anyone, unless they're white of course. Hoping he was an exception to the rule here.

Was very excitable on the second plane about mountains and wine and landing, which involves crossing over Cape Town and turning round over the sea to come back in over beaches to land, although also taking us over vast expanses of corrugated iron rooves. Dehydrated and randless for the budget airline water (foolishly presumed the 100 ml fluid rule applied here - it doesn't) we made it out of the airport, were picked up by the man from the hostel who was surprised there were two of us and who crammed five people and masses of luggage into a VW Golf which didn't like it.

I have a bone to pick. On the first plane, as mentioned we were in the middle of the row, again people either side of us. I got a snoring antisocial Guardianista-type who impeded my loo breaks (did I mention the free gin?!) whereas Sandra got a German woman and chatted to her for the whole flight, in foreign. Just like at dinner the previous night. So when we arrived at Cape Town, who were we sharing our lift with but two Germans. So I talked to the driver, for about a minute before we were stopped by the police. They seemed concerned either that he was an unlicensed taxi man or that they hadn't been bribed lately, it's unclear. Apparently part of the problem was the tinted windows, which driver Peter explained were so people can't see how many are in the car with you, deterring carjackers. Naturally.

Anyway now we are off to not get mugged, robbed, raped, beaten or stabbed in what we are told is the "posh area" which also contains the only nearby supermarket. Hmm. Oh yes WOOLWORTHS LIVES! In a South African incarnation anyway. There was one in the airport and one here allegedly. First however... a nap.