Reunion in Cape Town

Joyous reunion with Barb's mom at the Cape Town airport
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Cape Town, South Africa

Dec 31, 2006 – Jan 4, 2007 and Jan 20 – 22, 2007

Omi brought with her many of the things that we missed most about home

16912 km from home
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We didn’t know what we would find in South Africa except that Barb’s mom would be meeting us here for a three week holiday. Omi, as she is affectionately known to our children, would be arriving at roughly the same time as we on New Year’s Eve in Cape Town. When we landed in Cape Town, we discovered that her plane just also landed but at the international terminal; we had clear customs in Johannesburg earlier in the day already and arrived in domestic arrivals. It was great that we could greet her as she came through the customs gates. It was wonderful to see her again after more than 6 months on the road.

Victoria and Alfred Waterfront with Table Mountain in the background
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Omi brought with her many of the things that we missed most about home – the warmth and love of our relatives and friends, belated Christmas gifts and greetings from our loved ones, birthday gifts and greetings for Barb, and of course the many tins of Christmas baking for us to enjoy. We all thoroughly enjoyed the baking over the many coffee and tea sessions that we had together and probably regained a few of those pounds that we had been happy to leave behind us during the last six months. We wish to thank everyone who sent along their greetings, gifts and contributions of baked goods and sweets. Karsten and Stephanie were especially thrilled with the root beer flavored Jelly Bellys! They had been craving root beer ever since their last one at the Vancouver airport. Did you know that root beer does not exist in Europe of Africa???

Beach cabins at one of the cape beaches
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Well we wasted almost no time in getting into the sight seeing mode. We found out pretty quickly the very next day that South Africa is as different from Kenya as Haiti from California. In fact, Cape Town’s Victoria and Alfred Waterfront district reminded us very much of San Francisco’s waterfront or even False Creek’s waterfront. The number of quality restaurants and exclusive shops is simply amazing to behold. The development is extremely posh and there is simply no evidence of poverty anywhere in that neighborhood. For the first few days of our time in Cape Town, Barb and I kept saying that this is simply not the Africa that we had experienced for over 6 weeks in Kenya.

Penguins at Boulders Beach
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We decided on renting a car after taking a shuttle service the first day and paying through our noses. As it turned out, this provided us with tremendous freedom in mobility in the Cape Town area and later in the Wine Country and on the Garden Route. We discovered that it is almost impossible to get around South Africa by public transportation. We did not see one single public transit bus anywhere. Locals without cars commute by using mini buses similar to numerous matatus in use in Kenya. With the exception of one single white tourist, we observed that these mini buses were almost exclusively used by the black or colored people (South African refer to descendents of black and white folks as colored) who mainly lived in the townships on the outskirts of the cities. The South African government seemed to spend most of their transportation budget on paving roads and not on public transportation. We witnessed ongoing paving projects everywhere that we went – even in remote mountain passes. Consequently the roads in this country are second to none in other countries we visited and certainly light years ahead of Kenyan roads.

Chapman's Peak Drive around the cape. It is a long ways down.
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Without writing too much about our activities and risk boring our readers to death, here are some highlights of Cape Town in no particular order with the comments attributed to the individual who expressed them:

• The restaurants, shops, and excitement of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront – Karsten
• The beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens with the huge variety of flora native to South Africa (most of our indoor plants are their outdoor plants) – Mom
• Spectacular Chapman’s Peak Drive as well as the rest of the drive around the Cape – Barb
• Penguins on the beaches at Boulders – Mom
• Robben Island tour to see where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years (of his total 27 years in jail) – Mom
• The view from on top of Table Mountain is spectacular – David
• At times Table Mountain appears to be covered with a table cloth of white clouds that shimmers and flutters in the sunlight – David
• Jubilee Community Church – Karsten
• The warmth and hospitality of Gary and Ann-Marie of Tyger Table Villas Guest House (email: bpsam@ifafrica.com and phone: +27 219308780) along with their free wireless internet service – David
• Sweets and Christmas baking that Mom brought along – David
• The lovely outdoor café at the Rhodes Memorial site where we had lunch – David