Mossel Baai (Bay) & Cape Town

I'm being cheeky & using Afrikaans for some places - I may even start learning Afrikaans (it might be easier than Japanese!)

We didn't spend long in Mossel Baai - another overnight stay at another nice place, but not much to do - and I don't think I took any photo's, so I will go straight to CT - Cape Town.

But I will say - it still made me feel sad for the black people that live in the shanty houses - some have electricity, some don't.  I don't want you to feel sad by reading this, but in South Africa, it's reality and I feel sad for them.  I'm assuming most of them would be poor and would find it hard to feed themselves & family, their living conditions are bad - only 1 room for everything with portable toilets outside.  It's a horrible site, and the sad fact is that what they have and where they live is probably what they have known for all their life.

Here are some pictures I've tried to take along the route to Cape Town - I promise it will get brighter.

This place we drove past had these tin & wood 'houses' that went for miles - hundreds, maybe thousands of these in this one area - out in the middle of no-where.

This photo was taken as we were coming into Knysna - people live here - could you?

Ok, lets move on to something brighter, but not forgetting these people.

The GPS took us to the wrong Alfred St, Cape Town, so we ended up in Muizenberg.  Nice place tho - stunning views so here's a peak!

There are stalls like these everywhere - people selling knick-knacks to fruit to anything.  I'll have more pictures later

Anyway, so after another 45 mins, we finally found The Salvation Army Beth-Rogelim - which is where we are staying until we leave CT.  Beth-Rogelim is a home for men, from homeless to more permenant residence, to men with disabilities to unemployment.  It reminds me of when I worked for The Gill Memorial (through The Salvation Army - which is a men's homeles hostel) - there are blokes there for all sorts of reasons.

 

Our little residence is on the top floor (7th), next to the Colonel's (for those in the Army) and across from the Captain's who is appointed to Beth-Rogelim. 

 



Now, we have 2 balconies - one that overlooks the Waterfront (very pretty), and the other that looks like this:

 



Yes, you see right - an unfinished freeway.  My friend Lynn Zola (who is a Cape Town'ian) tells me that the municipality or whoever ran out of money or something like that, but then buildings went up around it in the meantime so it could not have been finished anyway.  She also tells me that there is a saying & fits in perfectly - when you're at the end of your road - there's The Salvation Army!

The next few days, we spent touring around Cape Town on the sight-seeing bus, the Waterfront (which wasn't too far from Beth-Rogelim), the flea market, seeing the sunset at Signall Hill and the very spec helicopter ride to finish -which I will get to.

A few random pic's from the Sightseeing Bus:


Table Mountain - Fun facts:
The cable cars take four to five minutes to reach the top of the mountain
Approximately 909 000 visitors from all over the world use the Cableway annually
The floor of the circular cabin rotates to allow travellers 360° views
More than 800 people can enjoy the trip every hour
Each of the two cable cars can carry 65 people
The Cableway has transported over 24-million people to the summit of Table Mountain 

View of Cape Town from the car park at Table Mountain. 

 

Trees along the coast line are bent over because the wind is so strong

 

Cape Town Stadium - will tell you more later

The Wheel at Waterfront

The observation wheel at Waterfront was also a great thing to do:

View of Table Mountain from the top of the wheel carriage we were in

I will get to Waterfront in the next post.