Day 7 and Day 8, Cape Town, South Africa

Day 7: District Six Museum, Wharf Walk, dinner with Alison

District Six:

In 1966 when I was a senior in high school, District Six, a vibrant mixed community of  60,000 freed slaves, merchants, artisans, laborers and immigrants was declared a White Group Area in Cape Town, South Africa by the  White Afrikaans (Dutch). 60,000  non-European South African people were forcibly relocated to Townships and the entire suburb was razed to the ground by bulldozers.  

Today, Bob and I visited  the museum dedicated to those 60,000 people.  We spent 3 hours looking at photographs, reading testimonials by former residents who gave their accounts of how The Group Areas Act of the apartheid government tore their community apart. It was hard to understand the hatred and fear that made people make such laws and treat people so unfairly for year after year after year.  

 Apartheid policies (apartheid means ‘being apart’ in the Afrikaans language ) governed South Africa from 1948 until 1994 and affected every facet of life, including where people lived, with the Group Act assigning separate and inferior areas to non-whites. 

After three hours of reading and absorbing as much as we could in the Museum, we were exhausted and rather shell-shocked emotionally, but much more informed about what actually went on in South Africa for all those years and why Nelson Mandela is such a hero and won the Nobel Peace Prize along with De Klerk in 1993 and why Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for bringing the protest against apartheid to an international level. 

P.S. In 1967, Professor Christian Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant in Cape Town. I do remember that news.

From the museum area, we drove down to the wharf and walked around and had some lunch. Later in the evening, we met Alison for dinner. We ate at an all-organic Grill. Most of the food you find in restaurants in Cape Town is organic. My watermelon salad with organic goat cheese crumbles, rocket lettuce, a hint of fresh mint and oregano leaves and a touch of honey/mustard dressing was one of the most delicious salads I’ve ever tasted! My main course of fresh prawns wasn’t too shabby either. Yummy!

Day 8: Beach Day: Our last full day in Cape Town! 

We got up and went to Knead, a great breakfast place for free-range eggs and streaky bacon with organic rocket/tomato/mushrooms and homemade bread! From there, we drove to Clifton (where the rich and famous own humongous homes overlooking the Ocean) and Camps Bay, a very nice beach community. We walked the beach, watching families enjoying the holidays and later stopped in a cafe for a coffee before driving up and over the mountain back to our place. No matter where you drive in Cape Town, you have a fabulous view! For the rest of the lovely sunny, warm day, we sat on our patio taking in our last day of the fantastic views of Table Mountain. 

Adios blog readers! We depart South Africa tomorrow. Join us again around January 14th for the next installment of Castawaykuopus's adventures. 

Where in the world will Mary and Bob journey to in 2012? Stay tuned...