Cape Town

Undoutably one of the worlds premier cities. Cape Town is the prize of South Africa. It truly is a beautiful place and one of the few places in South Africa where you feel safe enough to walk around. The backdrop of Table Mountain has to be seen to be believed. The explorers and early settlers who made the long arduous journey south from Europe must of felt euphoria on finally glimpsing the unmistakable flat top of the mountain. It looms large above everything.
We spent 4 days in Cape Town and enjoyed every minute, even though the weather was decidely English. We first visited Robben Island, which was made famous as the political prison used to detain many of the famous civil rights activist of the fight against apartheid including Nelson Mandela. The tour of the prison is made more emotion in that it is given by former prisoners themselves who lend personal experiences from their time behind bars.
Cape Town is a mix of San Francisco and New Orleans. The centre is full of bars and restuarants that cater to every culinary desire. We stayed on Long Street the obvious center of activity and enjoyed sampling all the treats along the length of the street.
The prime tourist attraction of Cape Town is the newly developed Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. We're not sure who exactly Alfred is, as usually it's Victoria and Albert, maybe the South Africans lost something in translation. The V&A surrounds the harbour and working dry docks, which makes it an unusual place to walk around. There are a multitude of restuarants and shops all vying their trade at extremely inflated prices.
We also visited the small but moving Distict Six Musuem in the centre of Cape Town. District Six was a mixed race suburb full of rabbit warren streets and crowded markets. Probably not unlike Harlem was in the 60's. During the 70's the apartheid era government systematically removed all the inhabitants from the suburb out into the surrounding townships on the Cape Flats. All the streets were renamed and straightened in an attempt to revitalise the city centre. The musuem tells the stories of many of the former residents of District Six.
After our time in Cape Town it was time to head north into the deserts of the Namib and our last stop on the African continent.