more information on South Africa Cape Town
A friend from Germany was in town last week and desperately wanted to visit some natural hot springs. We have 4 of such that I am aware of, and there are all within 2 hours of Cape Town.
Goudini Spa: A large family resort with municipal charm and old world holiday camp appeal. This place has been a traditional family mainstay for many many years and is still going strong. The rooms are basic but cheap and the grounds are very lush and well landscaped. Not really ideal for young people, but great for families, wanting a quick getaway from Cape Town at little expense.
The Baths: It has been a while since I was here, but I remember enjoying the place greatly, the baths are steaming hot and the setting is quite remote and very much amongst nature.
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Capetonians love flea markets! and we have several every weekend: Here are the main ones.
Greenpoint Stadium Flea market: This started with a guy selling Boerewors rolls on the weekend and has blossomed into the largest fleamarket in Cape Town.
It is held every Sunday and public holiday from 09:00 till 17:00. This used to be a fantastic market with bric-a-brac and intersting things, nowadays it has declined into somewhat of a tourist trap, with many stalls selling identical items, Chinese grey goods and boot polished curios. It is still worth a walk around, if not only for the bustle and throng. It is situated in Greenpoint, in the carpark of the stadium, but since construction began for 2010 I suspect the market has been moved nearby or cancelled for the time being. I will update this post when I get information.
Milnerton Market: This is my favourite flea market in Cape Town, with plenty of oddities and collectables that vendors have dredged from deceased estates and antique stores. The market has a policy of keeping the curio and t-shirt sellers to a minimum to retain the feel of the market. It is held on an open piece of land next to the R27 (West Coast Road) in Milnerton every Saturday and Sunday from 07:00 till 16:00. There are some good food stands here also selling pancakes, boerewors rolls, biltong and rusks.
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Every Spring, tourists and local nature lovers come from all over to pay homage to one of the most spectacular flower shows in the world.
The West Coast of South Africa, is an acquired taste, compared to the lush garden route. It is rocky, dry and sometimes quite featureless. This makes a huge about face in the spring months when wildflowers carpet huge swathes of it in a massive display of colour. This is starting right now!
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It is quite frightening to see how very dependant we are on the steady supply of petrol from our refineries.
This latest shortage is caused by The CEPPWAWU union striking over wages and this is causing delivery problems nationwide. The refineries are still making regular deliveries, but panic buying has caused stations to sell up to 50% more than usual, resulting in many dry pumps and more panic.
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We have had a harsh week of weather, with icy temperatures and driving rain, causing a significant amount of flooding.
As usual the worst hit are the poorest of the poor, living in informal settlements without drainage. 49 townships are said to be affected and 38000 people.
“It was terrible. If four major storms hit consecutively, there is nothing one can do about it. The problem is that people settled in low-lying areas,” said Mayor Helen Zille.
As it was explained to me by my Geography teacher. the Cape Point area is actually an island and the large land area in-between is basically a low lying sand bank. So when heavy rain comes they always flood.
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In the last 10 years Cape Town has seen an explosion of retail areas, and shopping malls. I am not entirely sure where all these extra consumers are coming from, but it seems that business is thriving across the board.
The latest addition is Willowbridge, which is less of a mall and more of an enclosed shopping street. It houses some very upmarket stores and I am betting the rents are commensurate.
You can see a directory of the retailers here.
There are plenty of restaurants and coffee shops, with most of the usual suspects present ie: Vida e Cafe, Col’cacchio, Kauai. We had a marvelous pizza at Col’ Cacchio (which apparently translates as “up yours!”) in my opinion this small chain offers the best pizza in Cape Town, with the thinnest crust and highest quality ingredients. We also had to have another ice cream at Cafe Magnifico, even though they charge and extortionate R14 for a scoop, which is about twice what you would pay elsewhere.
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Thanks to some nifty climate change South Africa is getting more and more snow in the winter months, and skiing is now a viable option for 3 months of the year.
Tiffendel ski resort in the southern Drakensberg is located on the slopes of Ben McDhui “Ben Mac”, the highest peak in the Cape (3000m), granted they supplement the snow with the man made stuff, but beggars can’t be choosers. If we make a conserted effort to burn more fossil fuels and increase our pitiful carbon footprint, South Africa could add “Ski destination” to it’s tourism accolades.
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I was about to try and compile a list of the extensive and mostly unintelligible slang used in South African “English”, but the good folks over at wavescape have done such a good job that I needn’t bother. I have included the list below and will add in the ones that I find missing.
Some might prove useful to travellers here, but more importantly, reading them will give you an insight into our complex dialect, and the reason we get portrayed as either villains or morons in American films.
Below is a passage of the most cryptic slang available, which you can use to test your South African-ness. You can then decode using the dictionary, which I will try to keep updated. Please feel free to send me any omissions/corrections that you find.
As with most slang, it loses a lot in translation, For instance “I will Donner (Daw-ner) you” politely translates as “I will hit you”, but that just doesn’t get across the true gravity of the threat.
Those offended by foul language may want to skip the rest of this post.
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While Cape Town has seen massive up scale development in recent years, certain areas have been noticeably neglected, and none more so than Adderley street and the Cape Town train station.
Adderley street used to be the jewel of Cape Town, with all the major department stores and “The Golden Acre” shopping centre, which housed the finest retailers in the CBD.
Right now Adderley street is a string of low end takeaways and loan shark shops and The Golden Acre has oxidised into an extension of the train terminus. This is partly due to the emergence of the V&A waterfront and other 1st world shopping areas.
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If you are planning on being in Cape Town this week, pack some foul weather gear, because something evil this way comes.
We have been extremely fortunate so far this winter, although quite chilly at times, the rain has mostly stayed away and we have had some gorgeous clear skies.
This week it is all changing apparently as a series of storms (4) are lining up to batter the cape all week long. Tonight’s storm looks to be nasty, but Thursdays is said to a “really big one”
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