16th June – Cape Town to Mossel Bay

We woke up and got our stuff together, had out B&B breakfast and hit the road.

Our first stop was a gorgeous peninsular where Wynand and Sarah walked far out on to the rocks and explored the rock pools and rock formations. We all had a great time taking photos and (for Sarah) posing like an explorer atop mountainous peaks. The rocks were strewn with bull kelp that had washed up and was in various states of drying up. Wynand picked up a piece of fresh stuff and wiped out his pocket knife quick as a flash and sliced it in half. It might sound mundane and inconsciquential but the texture of the inside really was fascinating.

We left there to get back on the road. On the road we actually saw a lot worth talking about such as the guys who stand on the freeway (albeit in a slow moving part) and sell their wares to the drivers. Everything from in-car phone chargers to wooden snakes to stuffed Smurfs and then fruit (presumably raided from the nearby orchards).

We also passed by a few squatter camps, these are the communities of people refugees/displaced people/disadvantaged people (it really is hard to explain) who live in shacks crammed together. These are, I guess, slums and really quite sad in that they are so close to Cape Town – a major and completely westernized city. The camps themselves are undeniable pretty in their rustic appeal and the use of color and graffiti and most of all the repetition though everything they stand for is the opposite. The shacks are made of bits and pieces, mostly tin, and are tiny little buildings surrounded by hung washing and fires. The camps are gigantic, they span on and on and just keep going – and these are small ones compared to say Sawato in Johanesberg.  

The people from the squatter camps use the free way to walk on which presents a bit of a confronting problem. South Africa, apparently, is the only country in the world whose freeways are complete with ‘watch for pedestrian’ signs. The entire side of the road is lined with people, men, women and children. Some carrying water buckets to lug water home, carrying wood, some with things to sell and some with nothing just going about their business. The government had put up walking bridges over the freeway which most seemed to use, yet some still just cross apparently. Scary.

The next stop we made was in a very Dutch area at the southernmost point of Africa, the point where the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean meet. We stopped at the point and took some great photos of the ocean and the anchored boats, all in bright colors. We also had some lunch here - some calamari and mussels. The calamari here is seriously exquisite (or at least all that we have had has been).

The landscape here is phenomenal, it is as if someone has chosen little pieces of landscapes from all over the world, put them in a processor and chucked the contents out in the Cape. As we drive by we will see a flash and think, wow that’s like Wales, or New Zealand, or central NSW, or the Snowy Mountains, of the Scottish Highlands, or the Braidwood area, of the South Coast, or Alaska, or Yorkshire, or India and sometimes a flash that looks just a bit like the classical Africa you see in all the documentaries. And yet all this comes together to make something completely unique and distinctly South Africa.

The mountains too are spectacular. No one told us about mountains in South Africa, but they are phenomenal.

From here we went on to Mossel Bay, along some more stunning landscape and seaside with a crakalackin’ sunset.

We made it to Mossel Bay and another stunning B&B, we skipped dinner, well and truly full from our massive breakfast, calamari lunch and a brief icecream and chocolate pig out at a rest stop. We hung out in the common room, had a drink and Wynand and Sarah played a round of pool. Sarah’s move to avoid procrastination and pre-sink the eight ball was rejected by Wynand and so eventually the game swung in favor of him.

Another great day, with a lot of observing.