Table Mountain

If there is a MUST in Cape Town, it is to climb Table Mountain. From far, it looks really beautiful. OK, there is a cable-car. Of course, I have to boast that it is made in Switzerland! But it is not a reason to make use of it...

From closer, it is already more challenging. And the name of the path is a bit scary: Skeleton Gorge. Some of my friends also advised me not to climb as a few tourists were attacked and robbed on the mountain. Climbing the mountain, we met a few guards. Since the first time I climbed Table Mountain, 16 years ago, it is the first time there are guards on the mountain. It did give a sense of security, but is it really a good sign ? The walk is so nice. There is quite a lot of shade provided by indigenous trees. And after around three hours of a good climb, we are at the top!The view is spectacular.But this time the highlight of the walk happened as we were coming down from the mountain. At one stage, I felt a presence behind me and automatically turned my head for a quick check. I thought: "hold on, this is not a dog following us". And I looked again: there was a baboon! Right there on our tracks! Well, I quickly moved to the side and the baboon - undisturbed - walked passed us. Further down, we caught with other climbers, who were as excited and scared as us. It was the talk of the day. A few days later, there was the whole story of "John Wayne" - the celebrity baboon in the local newspaper. But the story was so huge that it even made it in "The Independent", which i bought while on my London stopover.

Cricket

One of the must is to spend a day at the cricket ground. People come with their picknick and sit on the grass. It is a very relaxed atmosphere. There were around 9000 spectators and we managed to get the Mexican wave going, although the cheerleaders were a bit confused as to which direction it should be going.

The game was between South Africa and the West Indies. I went to the second day of this 5-day Test match. Yes, cricket can be long and boring - after all it was invented by the British. The South African team - called the Proteas - is ranked number two in the world, but they were struggling against the Caribbean team. They had already lost the first Test match played last week in Port Elizabeth and need to win this one to keep the serie alive.

I have not the time nor the patience to explain all the cricket rules here (but do I understand all of them anyway?). Just a picture of the wickets that the bowlers aim at and that the batters defend.The action got underway with the last two West Indies batsmen being dismissed fairly quickly. Then it was the turn of the South Africans to bat. They score at quite a low rate, probably because the field was slow. The action and the setting was great. And on top of that, there are many statistics at cricket, so there is always something to discuss. I will certainly be watching parts of the next 3 days on TV and hopefully post the final result.

Carnival

For the 100th time this year, the Minstrels Carnival coloured Cape Town. It takes place on the 2nd of January. It is a day of celebration for the coloureds, since it was the only day off they had for the whole year.

The celebrations were supposed to start at 10 am. We decided to get there by 11am, but the march only started at 1.15pm. In Switzerland, the party would have been over already... It seems the problem was that the bus company had not arranged enough busses to bring the people to town.

All in all, 73 groups from all the coloured suburbs walked down the main streets. It is a big "coloured party". From the little children up to the grand-parents, from the musicians to the performers, they all take part.
What keeps surprising me, is to see that even 13 years after the democratic elections, the racial groups are still very much keeping to themselves. As my friend says, it is now their choices to do so, it is not imposed on them by the system. But cultural, wealth and locational differences are still widespread.