Re-discovering the Cape Peninsula

Remember the names "Vasco Da Gama" and "Bartolomew Dias"? Apart from them being in our school books, what is the other thing that links me to them? Why, their association with the Cape of Good Hope, of course! While they passed it, and almost discovered the location for the world, on their way to India from faraway Portugal, I went straight there as a part of my most recent life adventure - CSC Deployment! Officially, I was in Cape Town for a month on work with 4 weekends to breeze through the most exotic locations ov this beautiful country. So, let me take you through a virtual Cape Peninsular Tour that actually took me to the South-Western most tip of the African Continent, often mistaken as the "Southern" most! 

Although, it is not a part of the tour, we started with Bo-Kaap. While the name might not ring a bell, the pictures will definitely do that!

Yes, now it does, doesn't it? Bo-Kaap is one of the oldest and most distinct neighbourhoods in Cape Town. The colourful homes once used to be white and were leased to slaves brought in from Malaysia, Indonesia and rest of Africa. Once the rule was lifted, people chose their own colours to brighten their houses, as an expression of freedom. Each colour symbolized the trade of the person living in it. The trades may have dissolved but the colours have remained, though specifically hurt by the gentrification that is gradually seeping in through this age old neighbourhood that houses the oldest mosque in the country. 

The next stop on our route was Camps Bay. This posh upmarket locality earns its name from its beach of the same name. Fine white sand, row of palm trees, natural rock swimming pools, swanky and expensive restaurants marks this area as the back of the Table Mountains, known locally as the 12 Apostles stand guard in the background. Named by Governor Sir Rufane Donkin, there are different versions to the story on why they are called the 12 Apostles, when there are actually 18 distinct rock faces. 

We then moved on towards Hout Bay. With it's distinct location, the Mariner's Wharf at Hout Bay is the oldest harbourfront emporium in Africa. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Known locally as the Republic of Hout Bay, it covers a large section of the peninsula and was settled by the Dutch as a settlement for timber industry. The bay area now is a tourists' and shoppers paradise for local stuff and memorabilia. You can also come accross groups of musicians of various age singing and dancing to local tunes. 


Hout Bay is also the gateway to the Seal Island. A boat ride with one of the local charters can take you close to this island in about 20ish minutes, through rather choppy waters! Located about 5.7 kilometres off the beaches of the False Bay, this 5 acre landmass is home to close to 64,000 Cape fur seals, the most adorable looking creatures, who are to be found all over the little landmass. The landmass is also home to a large number of cormorants or other varieties of non-marine bird specied who come here for breeding. 

 
A drive connecting Hout Bay to Noordhoek along the most dramatic 9 kilometres of marine routes, is the Chapman's Peak Drive. This stretch with rocky mountains on one side and picturesque marine drive on the other, skirts 114 curves with the Chapman's Peak standing imposingly halfway down the drive. The drive invites cyclist, bikers, and motorists alike and offers a wonderful panomaric view of the Hout Bay.

Our next stop was the Cape Point Ostrich Farm, located on Route M65 South about 400 meters north of the entrance to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Set up in 1996 by Dr. and Mrs. Coelle, this 65 hectare farm is an ostrich breeding farm. It also houses a restaurant - The Hatchery that serves the most amazing food, an ostrich leather store selling the most exquisite goods made of ostrich leather, an ostrich egg store that is sure to mesmerize any visitor by its sheer diverse use of hatched or used ostrich eggs. The Farm houses about 40 ostriches in 40 camps and brings them together during the breeding season. Beautiful Dutch style buildings form the landscape of the farm now run by Catherina Coelle, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Coelle.

With our stomach full of Ostrich and Springbok meat, we headed for the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve that covers the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. As mentioned at the very beggining of this post, Cape of Good Hope is one of the most beautiful looking tips of the continent. Rough waves, steeply rising rocky mountains and an abundance of flora and fauna makes this area a geologists and botanists delight. Originally named the Cape of Storms by Bartholomew Dias, it was later renamed as the Cape of Good Hope by King John II of Portugal due to its role in opening the trade route to India and the East.

Just over 1km east and about 20 minutes away is Cape Point with a peak slightly higher than the one at the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Point is often mistakenly claimed to be the place where the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean meets. The meeting point lies another 150 kilometres (93 mi) to the east-southeast at Cape Agulhas and that is hardly a location you would like to miss. 

The last stop for the day was the Boulders Beach off Simon's Town, home to the super cute African Penguins, also known as Jackass Penguins, thanks to the strange braying noise they make. These awesomely cute creaturesm found only along the coastlines of Southern Africa are found to be roaming, walking, and looking after their children. The African penguins are currently on the verge of extinction and to save them from becoming history, they are directly under the protection of the Cape Nature Conservation.
 

The Cape Peninsular tour actually covers a few more spots, but we were running terribly late, largely owing to our huge group size (11 of us) and the rains started pouring rather hard, apart from it getting too dark to try any other locations. So after a quick cup of coffee from a roadside diner, we headed back. But the tour should also necessarily include Kalk Bay and the very sandy and beautiful Muizenberg beach with its instagram-esque multicoloured wooden beach huts. 

As we headed back, tired and ready to crash, Cape Town and the world around it remained etched in our minds and will possibly be so, forever.

The African Safari

Having grown up on "Chander Pahaar", how can I not romanticise about Africa? Alright, it is South Africa, but it is the continent that matters and so since I am in the continent right now, how could I go back without doing a Safari. Ok, it is not Kruger, but it is a game safari for heaven's sake! 

The Aquila Game Reserve is a two-hour drive from Cape Town along the Karoo Mountains in the most picturesque Renosterveld and Mountain Fynbos landscape close to the Touws River. This private game reserve is a resort with multiple options, doing a day safari being just one of them and with a high probability of meeting the big 5 - Lion, Leopard, Rhinoceros (both black and white species), Elephant, and Cape buffalo! Well, I was short of time and hence, a day safari is all I could manage and what a day it turned out to be! And no, I did not get to see all the 5 but whatever I saw was a "first" for me!
 

How do I write about it? A safari is hardly an experience to put into words, but yes, having done the same back home at the Corbett National Park, the one difference that I could very easily decipher was the distinct difference in the landscape. The region is a part of a semi-desert natural region with stretches of the Savannah grasslands. This meant lesser tall trees and more bushes or shrubs. Strange how the giraffes survive here without being able to stretch their necks further up! Well, as we realized and as the guide shared, they stretch their long legs to bend their necks down, resulting very slowly to shorter heights. 

The safari took about 3 hours and we travelled through various parts of the reserve area encountering Hippos, Ostriches, Rhinos, Elephants, Giraffes, Elands, Zebras, Wildebeests, Springboks, and or couse Lions. And no, I had never seen an untamed free lion from this close, EVER! 

And God, it was cold! I mean, yes I know it is winter but how the hell does it get soooooooooo cold! So, if you ever plan a winter visit to South Africa with a safari planned to any of the reserves, be prepared! The wind can kill! 

The best part was something I noticed on my way out. Incidentally, they randomly put up flags from various countries along with the South African flag and for some strange reason, the Indian tricolour was fluttering that day! Well, once an Indian, always an Indian. And to think this was the weekend before Independence Day! The little joys of life!

Johannesburg – An introduction to South Africa

Well, here I am, and it has already been a week! Seems liek yesterday when I was rushing to complete my handovers and pack my bags! And what a week it has been in this beautiful and intriguing country!

We are a group of IBMers selected for the month long Corporate Service Corps assignment in Cape Town, South Africa, officially known as CSC#ZA20! So, we all finally met in person on Saturday morning after three months of having met each other virtually! And as it is generally the case with every deployment group, it was like "hey, long time! How have you been?" It was like meeting people not for the first time, but just after a while! We have a most amazing team and we cover 4 out of the 7 continents (Well, Africa, because we are already there, Antartica, because ...well, I am not sure if IBM has an office there!). One Autralia or New Zealander, and we could have them all! And what is most fascinating is that we bring together a cumulutaive of over 170 years of experience, as Sydney, IBM South Africa's Corporate Citizenship Manager pointed out at the kick off with the stakeholders.
 

You can’t be in Johannesburg and not go to the Apartheid Museum and Soweto! So, before catching our flight for Cape Town on the evening of 12^th August, we all went there for a trip and what a trip it was! On our way, we crossed the Calabash FNB Stadium, renovated for the 2010 Soccer World cup. Interestingly the stadium is shaped like a Calabash bowl used widely among the local people of Gauteng to brew local beer. It even has the froth right on top! 

The Apartheid Musuem is a must do for anyone who visits South Africa! Every exhibit and every structure out there tells a tale of the journey of a race and the struggle an entire nation went through to eliminate racial discrimination. There has been and will always be societal discrimination in every society because we civilized people essentially form our own cohorts based on a lot of economic and social conditions. But to turn an entire population into second or even third-class citizens based on their ethnicity and skin colour, is sheer CRIME!

South Africa, like many other colonized countries, managed to put years and years of sacrifice and protests to be able to change the condition. And the Apartheid Museum is a storehouse of all of those protests and a race’s unputdownable effort to prove their true claim to the country! Led by one man, a country managed to emerge from the darkness of an oppressed, exploited colony to one of the most thriving economies in the sub-continent! Ah! Madib’ omde (Xhosa for Hail! The tall Madiba!)

The next phase of our day tour took us to Soweto (another must visit if you are in Jo’burg). Established in the 1880’s with thousands of people from around the world and South Africa, flocking to the new town offering labour and money to add to the “Gold” industry, more than 50% of the population in Soweto is black, mostly living in multi-racial shanty towns around what had been the actual “GOLD” mines! Located in the Gauteng (most appropriately meaning “place of gold”) province, Soweto could be projected as the face of New South Africa, caught between prosperity and squalor on one hand and poverty and misery on the other hand. Known widely for the Soweto Uprising in 1976 when the community rose against the government’s policy to enforce education in Afrikaans instead of the native tongue. And it is right here in Soweto, on the Vilakazi Street that you come across the houses of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is known to be the only street that has been home to two Nobel Laureates.

It is not really easy to stop talking about either Mandela or Soweto when you come to know more about the history and the society here in South Africa. But I can only write this much for the interest to sustain!

The first lesson...

My son, who loves cricket to the point of obsession, recently had his first tryst with the real field, far away from the secured nets, simulated learning conditions, and friendly matches. His first real experience of the competitive cricket match, that was to teach him that being a player is not about playing IPL matches and success, but about toil and hard work. 

I have been pretty much in love with cricket (and cricketers) since childhood, as my undying love for Sourav Ganguly proves. I even stopped watching cricket for quite some time after he retired. Thankfully good sense soon prevailed and I was back in front of the TV to watch the game that so fascinates millions in our country and across the world. My brother, a deaf cricketer, has represented India in cricket from his team and has been known, as long as he played active cricket, as a "mighty good player". So, when my son's interest geared towards cricket, I was a happy soul. 

And he, true to his passion, has worked hard and in a pretty short span has managed to catch the eyes of the coaches as a potential future player. We were proud parents when we were told that he is to play a match on the 30th April and would have to get his documents for age proof. Having been familiar with the cricketing circuits while my brother was a player, me and my husband were super proud of our little boy being chosen to represent his club. After all, he is the youngest to be selected for the playing XI! I had of course spoken to him about how to deal with it even if he is not in the playing XI! I know he would have been devastated, but he was told me "So what if I am the 12th man. It is also a type pf learning to sit and watch a match". I am proud my son can say that! 

Well, fortunately for him, he was there in the playing XI, and like a proud doting mother, I captured moments of his bowling and batting (not that he emerged a hero in any of those, but he was playing in the first XI!!!), thank god for high powered camera mobiles!

The first match started off well for their team but was washed out due to rain. It was the second one that taught him his first lesson in being a sportsperson - you win some, you lose some, but unless you lose, you will never realize the true worth of a win. Yes, their team lost. Not a disastrous loss but one that would probably haunt them for a while. This isn't a match report, so I wont go into details, but they lost because winning friendly matches against weaker teams is hardly success.

Rhiju was heart broken and was silently crying at the end of the match and I had a hard time trying to make him understand that he alone could not have changed the reality unlike what he has seen on the TV. Looking at matches on the TV and seeing cricketers pulling off last minute wins with majestic shots was his notion of a match! I was glad though! You might wonder whether I am normal, but to be honest, I did not want him to be over confident. I did not want him to think that he is too good for his shoes. Like all mothers, I too want my son to win, to be able to fulfill his dreams, to be successful in what he wants to achieve, but not easily and not by becoming over confident. I want him to learn that the path to success is not smooth and you can't reach there in a day.

My process of making him a better sportsperson and a better human being started with the match that he could not win and I know I, along with my son, have a long long way to go! Rhiju, luckily, has started to realize that the road is long and arduous and not exactly an easy one. I am hoping this will make him a better human being, not just a good sportsperson. I am hoping it will make him a team player, not an individual sportsman, for it is in learning to be a part of a team, no matter how insignificant your role, that we truly emerge as true professionals. I love the way the team huddles after the fall of every wicket. I love the way they stand by each other and not blame each other, if one of them fails. I love what Rhiju is learning and the way he is learning!

Somehow, in today's world of rapidly decreasing tolerance levels, I hope to teach him a bit of humility and tolerance, even if that does not make him a "public" hero! He will be my hero, and a true one when time comes, if he can manage to inculcate these smaller intricacies of life and be more tolerant, more open, less biased, and better human being!