Arrival in South Africa

We arrived in South Africa after our final and rather uneventful border crossing.  We spent an evening at a lovely camp beside orange river where Bernard and I relaxed by watching movies on his computer in an attempt to escape the impossible midday heat. The next day we travelled further into South Africa to highlanders, a campsite in the mountains in vineyard country.  We spent our final official evening on tour enjoying wine tasting  - my ideal way to spend an evening. The next morning we drove into Cape Town and my emotions were all over the place by then - I couldn't believe that the tour was about to finish.  Part of me was so incredibly relieved at the prospect of a bed and ensuite bathroom for a week and a bit of space away from everyone.  Whilst the other part of me was incredibly reluctant to leave the routine of the truck knowing that soon I would have to say goodbye to Emily and Lindy in particular, two women I've grown particularly fond of during my months on tour.

That first morning in Cape Town and our last formal activity together was a tour of the black townships. Its incredibly humbling to see the conditions that many black Capetonians still endure. That three families sleep crammed into a small bedroom is hard to imagine, but that's the reality of many. But then, it was equally surprising to see that just many of the shacks "illegally" built out of corrugated sheet metal and old planks of wood were decked out with large TVs, stereo system and all the trapping of modern life.  One mustn't judge a book by its cover as going to Mzoli's taught us.  We went to this fantastic BBQ place in the township - it was a sunday afternoon just before Christmas and the place was pumping!!! It was full of black and white young people, eating various bits of BBQ with your hands and drinking fantastically cold beer on a hot sunny day. The music - oh yes that music- was unbelievably good R&B. I could have stayed there all afternoon - and a sure sign that South Africa is evolving slowly and surely.

After the tour we took our stuff off Shashe for the last time, took a taxi to our guest house in Tamboerskloof then rendezvous with everyone at the V&A waterfront for dinner.  The waterfront is rather lovely with great views of the table mountain and pretty good shopping, if a little on the expensive side. As expected saying goodbye to Mark and Lindy our wonderful guides was hard going and I shed many a tear saying goodbye to Lindy. Thankfully we had a few more days with Rodney and Emily from tour so I wasn't a complete mess.  Later that night I marvelled at how fantastic a warm bath, a big bed and a TV can be after being without all three for two months. I was very glad that we stayed a few suburbs away from the waterfront - we had a sense of seeing the real cape town, not what is put on show for tourists.  That first night I slept like a log beside my darling Bernard, a very happy and content girl.