THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE & WHALE ROUTE
by LysDor
It is a rocky and stormy promontory at the southernmost tip of South Africa, where the Two Oceans meet.
Vasco da Gama, intrepid Portuguese mariner, sailed around the Cape to discover the ultimate route to India at the turn of the fifteenth century and to land on the sub-tropical shores of Natal which he so named in honour of Christmas Day.
On the way to the Cape, I stopped often to see the whales. The Cape Metropolitan coast offers excellent viewing of southern right whales from the shore from June to November. They can be identified by the characteristic double or V-shaped blow. Bryde's whales are found further offshore in False Bay all year round, and the orca ('killer' whale) is also occasionally seen.
There are many white-sand beaches, seclude or like this one with pastel-colored cabins. The reason of the emptiness is not the early hours but season - it was early spring!!.
Bridge Swinging
by CEP1863
You are standing on Gourits Bridge secured by the harness whilst someone counts 3-2-1 jump and you do - or at least I did. Leap, fall, jump or dive off the platform while being securely attached to the opposite bridge – the ultimate swing. Feel the rush of the air past your face as you swing over the riverbed below, underneath the bridge to the other side. This is great for those who don’t like to jump head first – here you don’t hang upside down but go off feet first ensuring that you are in an upright position at all times.
Cost 160 rand for a single person jumping, 220 rand if you want to jump as a pair. You can get a cd rom of your jump for an extra 90 rand. Make sure you have good suitable footwear on as there is a climb back to the top once you have jumped
TOWNSHIPS!
by PEE-WEE
Cape Town’s townships have played a major role in the struggle against apartheid. Langa, meaning ‘sun’, was established in 1927 and is South Africa’s oldest planned township. The type of dormitory accommodation that would become common for migrant labourers was first built here.
Until the pass laws were abolished, such hostels where for men only. They lived in basic units, each accommodation 16 men, who shared one shower, one toilet and one small kitchen. Tiny bedrooms each housed up to three men. After the pass laws were abolished, most men brought their families to live with them (earlier, those who didn’t have a job outside the Homelands were not allowed to leave). So each unit became home to up to 16 families, each room sleeping up to three families.
It’s no wonder that people moved out and built shacks, joining the hundreds of thousands of others who had come without work and set up home in communities such as Nyanga (literally, ‘the moon’), the second formal township that sprouted the famous shanty town of Crossroads, now a township in its own right. Guguletu (Our Pride) was set up in 1962, while Khayelitsha (New Home) has boomed from a squatter settlement that was home to those cleared out of Crossroads into the republic’s third-largest township with a possible population of 1.9 million.
While the infrastructure has certainly improved since 1994, with the rows of concrete reconstruction and development project (RDP) houses being the most visible example, vast squatter camps, with a communal standpipe for water and a toilet shared among scores of people in the best of circumstances, still remain and are expanding all the time.
Metro Railways
by mvtouring
When you use our public transport system, please try and use it during peak hours when there are lots of other commuters around as we have a lot of muggings happening on the trains. If you cannot then please look for the compartments where the security personel is located and travel in that wagon
Fine Food - Great Views
by glennkasner about Baia
Dine like the royalty at this exquisite restaurant.
Guaranteed to be a special occasion. The fresh linefish is a must but they do serve excellent meat, poultry and game dishes as well - not to mention the dessert menue and huge wine list!
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Cape Point Lighthouse
The 2010 Football Stadium Under Construction
Lighthouse
Zewenwach Estate house
