Day 11 - September 9, 2006

Today was the first day in a while in which we were allowed to sleep in. We all got up around 10am, since we did not have to meet our tour guide until 11am. Today we are touring the Cape Peninsula down to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. At 11am, we met up with Colleen again aboard the SHAWCO bus and starting our journey down the peninsula. We first drove through the City Centre, past the Waterfront and Clifton and Camps Bay beaches. Our first stop was a seaside area called Llandunwo. Apparently, lots of movie stars have houses here on the coast, and there are several beaches below. We stopped to take pictures here.

Then, we boarded the bus and drove down to Hout Bay, a fishing village that is shaped like a horseshoe. We again stopped and took some great pictures of the scenery. Next, we headed towards Chapman's Peak, a mountain pass through the peninsula, giving us some great views of areas where great white sharks and whales reside. From this point we passed Kommetjie, a mostly white neighborhood, and then went down to Cape Point. On the way we passed lots of craftsmen selling their wares and an ostrich farm.

We reached the Cape Point reserve, which was part of the Table Mountain National Park around 2pm. First we grabbed lunch at the restaurants there and then made the trek up to the Cape Point lighthouse. This is the point where the Indian meets the Atlantic Ocean, and the scenery was beautiful. We ended up taking lots of pictures there, before heading back into the bus.

Next we drove down to Boulder's Bay and Simons Town, where a large colony of African penguins reside. We ended up getting really close to the penguins, although they were on the stinky side. In Simons Town, we got down from the bus and Colleen gave us a quick walking tour of the area. This is the spot where lots of coloureds were evicted to townships such as Ocean View. Apparently, the only coloured allowed to stay in Simons Town was an Indian man who ran the aptly named Patel Bros - the ubiquitous grocery store.

Tonight we are having dinner at Zelda Groener's house, a faculty member at the University of the Western Cape. She lives in Glencairn, a mostly white neighborhood, even though she is coloured. Her house is quite nice and has a great view of False Bay and the Indian Ocean. She even had halal meat prepared on my behalf for dinner. We had snacks, drinks and dinner, which was great. We also had very good conversation and discussed everything from American politics to the housing crunch in the townships of South Africa. Around 10pm, we got back on the SHAWCO bus and headed back to Ivydene for the night.

When we reached home, however, we found out a bit of unfortunate news. Tabari and Calley had left a side room unlocked and got their laptops stolen. Tabari also got his laptop bag, containing his passport and plane ticket, stolen too. So definitely a bit of bad luck for them! The police came to take their statements, but it's a good lesson for the rest of us to always be careful here in South Africa!