Collected Emails No 7.

Collected Emails No 7.

The hostel was in a secure gated community in the Eastern Suburbs. The owners turned
out to be semi-autistic drug addicts, so the atmosphere was not exactly warm and
fuzzy. I showered and took a nap, then found one English traveller to come out for
a beer to celebrate my birthday. Again, we had to take taxis door-to-door. The pub
we found was lively, and full of white people being rowdy. It reminded me very much
of Sydney, Australia, or Orlando, Florida. Even a few beers later, with much effort
of observation, I was unable to find any evidence whatsoever that we were still
in Africa. I was suffering from a severe case of culture shock.

The next morning, I got up early with a nasty hangover, to get back to the station
as soon as possible, and on the first train bound for Cape Town, which was sounding
absolutely magical in comparison with this big "City of Gold". By the way, Jo'Burg's
gold mining and burgeoning industries now account for an incredible 20% of all Africa's
economy.

The train took another 27 hours, and I had a colourful group of men in my sleeping
compartment. One was a French-speaking Congolese bodyguard, who had been protecting
the country's president until he was assassinated. Now understandably unemployable
in Congo, he is off to visit his brother in Cape Town, hoping to find work and settle
there. Another was a sweet black guy from Soweto, on his way to study on the Cape
and glad to get out of Jo'Burg. There was also a mixed Indian/African/Asian man
with his son, hoping to find a house in Cape Town, in order to move his tent-making
business and family away from Jo'Burg's crime and punishment. The last was a
white South African, a typical Boer with short shorts on, and with considerably
less mastery of English than Afrikaans.

The Boer turned out to be a severely paranoid individual. The whole trip, he would
not stop telling us about how "THEY" are trying to get him. Of all the ways
in which "THEY" have been using "psychology" to trick him and steal from
him, and frame him, and take away his wife, and lock him up in a mental institution,
etc. He was quite a character, sometimes amusing, sometimes annoying, but also a
bit scary. But when the Indian/African/Asian man tried to convince him to "accept
Jesus in to his life" and prey "a lot," I was no longer sure which of the
two was the crazier.

I spent all the non-sleeping hours of the trip in the restaurant car, playing cards
with two Dutch businessmen who had decided to take a train across South Africa for
fun, but who regretted it, when one of their sleeping compartment-mates was either
too drunk, or couldn't be bothered to get up in the night, and peed all over the
compartment from the top bunk!

The arrival in Cape Town was spectacular. Endless vineyards and mountains and a
bright blue sky, and then a view of coast and the sparkling city with Table Mountain
towering above it. It really is a magical place!

The backpacker world is extremely developed in Cape Town, with many beautiful and
competing hostels to choose from, each offering a network of relaxed travellers,
with regular parties and excursions to the beach, etc. Life here is really comfortable,
and extremely expensive, unless I accept that I am no longer in "Africa" really,
and stop comparing the prices to the rest of my trip. During my three months of
travel in East Africa, I spent a total of around US$2000. In South Africa I could
easily spend that in two weeks!

Yesterday I climbed the 1000m Table Mountain, walking straight up from the hostel
where I am staying. This has got to be the most stunning natural feature of any
city in the world. When I got to the top, exhausted but immensely satisfied, I realized
that I had also come to the end of my African voyage.

I have few days to relax and enjoy this lovely city, and then look forward to going
home, to seeing my friends and family, and to sorting out whatever has been building
up while I have been away.

Much love,

Rolf