The Zulu Kingdom now offers visitors a chance to experience the Brew Route, similar in many ways to the wine routes of the Western Cape.
The Route consists of 8 breweries, which range from SABMiller (second largest brewer in the world) to the family run Farmers Brauhaus in Hattingspruit, Dundee.
The route takes tourists through a large part of the province and is impossible to complete in one day, but there is excellent accommodation available throughout the route, especially in the Midlands.
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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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BIG news is shaking the diamond industry, with claim of the largest ever diamond being discovered by a small unnamed mining company.
The ROCK which is supposedly the size of a coconut and 1.6kg!, is said to be around 7000 carats! If it is genuine, it will dwarf the famous Cullinan Diamond discovered in 1905 – in fact, it would be at least twice the size of that stone” Said gemmologist Les Milner.
Scepticism surrounds the discovery as only a cell phone picture of the stone has surfaced, and the near perfect appearance is making experts suspicious.
While decisions …
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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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With winter behind us now, well in Durbs anyway, it’s time to focus on the outdoors and the beach. After tidal waves and a rush clean-up of the Durban beaches after the freak weather in April and May, this year’s Beach Festival was definitely no wash out!
The festival exceeded the expectations of the organizers by attracting more than 700 000 people (tourists and locals) and generating an impressive economic turnover of around R700 million. “We have once again pulled off a world class beach event this year proving that we are Africa’s premier sporting and events capital,” said Lindiwe Mahlangu, head of Durban Africa (Berea Mail).
During the 10 days of the festival there was a further economic injection of around R110 million in catering, hospitality, entertainment and fashion during the weekend of the Vodacom Durban July. Well I definitely know what I’m doing in July 2008!
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This all male harmonic choir is South Africa’s biggest musical export. Their distinctive melancholy sound pulls hard at the heart strings of South Africans everywhere. Perhaps a homesick Safrican will hear this somewhere and decide to come back home.
It was formed by Joseph Shabalala in 1960, who still heads up the group. They shot to international fame on Paul Simon’s album Graceland, and have won a number of Grammy’s since in their own right and 12 nominations in total (2 for their new album “Long walk to freedom….
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Today marks Madiba’s 89th birthday and starts a week of festivities, including the soccer match dubbed “90 minutes for Mandela” featuring greats Pele and Samuel Eto’o and the launch of a humanitarian campaign.
Guests at the launch include Presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and ex-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. British entrepreneur Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel are also expected to attend.
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