The conference dinner that I mentioned was a lot of fun. Lots of interesting conversation about linguistics, travel, etc. Probably not the best dinner to bring a non-linguistically involved spouse to!
The next two days of the conference went really well, it was all very sociable with everyone going out every lunch and every evening. A very wonderful pub in the town served a fantastic ostrich salad and a bucket of beer. I kid you not. The jug of beer is out. A red bucket filled with ice was delivered to our table, with six stubbies of the ale of choice nestled inside for the grand price of 50 rand ($10 AU). Also tried some other local favourites at different times, the Cape Malay curries are very good.
Ran out of clean clothes by the Saturday and in the dorm room in the half dark packed a daypack with dirty laundry and took it to the university laundry and paid for them to do it for me. When I went to pick it up in my lunch break was very surprised when the lady handed it back to me with the words "Your camera is in there too". The camera must have been in the bottom of the bag. Ooops. Wasn't I the lucky little traveler?
On the Monday, after the conference finished we had an excursion to the !Khwa ttu reserve, which has been set up by and for the Khoi and San peoples who are indigenous to this region. They have a cultural centre there and a one teacher school for their kids. The kids did a magnificent song and dance performance for us. Then we sat on hay bales on the back of tractor trailers and went to the top of a hill with a view of the ocean where they served us a huge cold lunch. The land had been farmed but was quite poor for farming so they are trying to replant native plants and have reintroduced some small game (antelopes, etc). Had some great conversations with the guides who are justifiably proud of the land they have reclaimed themselves.
We attended a lecture after that about language initiatives in the region and then hopped back on the bus for the hour and a half drive back to Stellenbosch. Large sign on the side of the road. "No hooting. Ostriches getting laid".
Today, met up with two other conference goers and we all caught the train back to Cape Town. I walked back to my old hostel and moved in. Went out for a walk and had so many people asking me for money along the way that I went back to my hostel feeling v. depressed. It didn't seem to make me feel any better whether I'd given them anything or not. The problems of poverty here are so huge, it feels like anything you might do is so small. Even if you worked there your whole life it would just be a drop in a bucket.
I have had a cold since Friday (several days of sore throat followed by dripping nose and watery eyes) so I lay down on my bed and had a nap, which made me feel marginally better. Tonight I am going to go out to a bar and have something to eat, possibly with fellow backpackers, and then tomorrow I will be boarding my plane again to come home. I am ready to go home for this time. Probably this feeling is enhanced by my current fluey misery.
Being here has been so amazing though, I will definitely be coming back to Africa (with husband in tow) in the future.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Table Mountain
You've all seen it in pictures, now I have traipsed all over the top of it. After going out Wednesday night to the Zula bar with a Belgium girl and an Israeli girl and listening to Bob Marley blaring from the DJ, I got up and put on my hiking shoes. Caught a 'rikki' to the mountain. A 'rikki' is a minibus with an odd shaped roof and two bench seats running down the sides in the back. These thoroughly unsafe vehicles fly around the town and will take you anywhere for 16 rand. Bargain.
So, Table Mountain and a queue several hundred metres long waiting for cable car tickets. Not being too excited at the prospect of climbing up the incredibly steep slopes, I waited in line and got my ticket. It was well worth it. The cable cars are round with transparent sides and a rotating floor, so as you ascend the mountain you get a 360 degree view. Soooo cool. At the top there were heaps of tourists, a cafe, shop, public phones and a cocktail bar. None of which are actually visible from the city. After walking for a while I had stepped off the 15 minute tourist walk with wheelchair access and was walking on my own along narrow rocky pathways. Took a wrong turn and ended up on the 2 hour walk, rather than the 45 minute one I had planned on. Still, it was spectacular, and scarily close to the edge at times, clambering along rocks while the sheer drop and the amazing view below takes your breath away.
Back down the cable car, packed my bags and walked to the train station. I bought a first class ticket for the trip to stellenbosch. I normally prefer to travel with the masses, but thought that perhaps the masses wouldn't appreciate my backpack taking up heaps of room in the carriage. The ticket was only 12 rand anyway ($2.40). So my trip was boring, except when I saw half a dozen zebras in a paddock and nearly jumped up and yelled "Look! Zebras" at the thoroughly unimpressed locals.
Got off at Stellenbosch, and after a five minute walk was at my youth hostel. Stellenbosch is a very Afrikaans city, very pretty and obviously wealthy. Had pizza and put the finishing touches on my presentation for Friday (Until 11pm). Slept in a dorm room, waking every hour because I knew I had an early start at the conference.
Ran into quite a few familiar faces at the conference this morning, people from other conferences. That was nice. After lunch it was my turn up the front. The presentation went well, the powerpoint worked and lots of people wanted to ask me questions. The other presentations were very interesting and I've been having lots of interesting conversations. Waiting now at the internet cafe, because the conference dinner is tonight and I have time to kill.
So, Table Mountain and a queue several hundred metres long waiting for cable car tickets. Not being too excited at the prospect of climbing up the incredibly steep slopes, I waited in line and got my ticket. It was well worth it. The cable cars are round with transparent sides and a rotating floor, so as you ascend the mountain you get a 360 degree view. Soooo cool. At the top there were heaps of tourists, a cafe, shop, public phones and a cocktail bar. None of which are actually visible from the city. After walking for a while I had stepped off the 15 minute tourist walk with wheelchair access and was walking on my own along narrow rocky pathways. Took a wrong turn and ended up on the 2 hour walk, rather than the 45 minute one I had planned on. Still, it was spectacular, and scarily close to the edge at times, clambering along rocks while the sheer drop and the amazing view below takes your breath away.
Back down the cable car, packed my bags and walked to the train station. I bought a first class ticket for the trip to stellenbosch. I normally prefer to travel with the masses, but thought that perhaps the masses wouldn't appreciate my backpack taking up heaps of room in the carriage. The ticket was only 12 rand anyway ($2.40). So my trip was boring, except when I saw half a dozen zebras in a paddock and nearly jumped up and yelled "Look! Zebras" at the thoroughly unimpressed locals.
Got off at Stellenbosch, and after a five minute walk was at my youth hostel. Stellenbosch is a very Afrikaans city, very pretty and obviously wealthy. Had pizza and put the finishing touches on my presentation for Friday (Until 11pm). Slept in a dorm room, waking every hour because I knew I had an early start at the conference.
Ran into quite a few familiar faces at the conference this morning, people from other conferences. That was nice. After lunch it was my turn up the front. The presentation went well, the powerpoint worked and lots of people wanted to ask me questions. The other presentations were very interesting and I've been having lots of interesting conversations. Waiting now at the internet cafe, because the conference dinner is tonight and I have time to kill.
Zuid Afrika
Finally I am back at an internet cafe and I have some time to kill.
Well, where was I?
Aah. Day 3.
I walked down to the waterfront and bought my ticket for the 10am ferry to Robben Island. Former prison of black and coloured political prisoners in Apartheid South Africa. Including Nelson Mandela for a period of 18 years who was there from the sixties till the eighties. The ferry we traveled across on was the same ferry used to transport prisoners' wives to the island prison, so that they could visit their husbands. At the island we boarded a bus and toured the island, visiting a small jail that was set up to contain just one person, Robert Sobukwe, who the authorities considered such a threat that they had him there in solitary confinement for years, and passed laws in parliament, just to govern him. A contemporary of Mandela's, in the 1960's there were pass laws, requiring all black South Africans to carry identification cards, which showed where they were and were not allowed to go. If you were caught without one, you were immediately sent to jail for three months. Sobukwe rallied black South Africans to all walk into police stations on the same day, without their pass cards, and demand to be arrested. Unable to arrest so many people, the administration was thrown into chaos, and their solution was to make sure that this man never spoke to anyone again.
We also saw WW2 guns on the island, which had been placed there, but never fired in battle. There is a whole village there now, where ex-political prisoners live in harmony with ex-wardens. Don't ask me how that happened.
Then we were taken to a limestone quarry where the prisoners laboured, and were shown a cave which the prisoners had used for a toilet. In Nelson Mandela's toilet the political prisoners taught each other about politics, they called it the university.
Then on a tour to the prison cells, where our guide, who was a political prisoner himself for 5 years in the 1980s told us what life had been like as a prisoner. We saw Nelson Mandela's cell and on the way out I saw a bird, which had flown into a cell, stuck there and flying repeatedly into the window. An interesting symbolism there, I think.
Well, where was I?
Aah. Day 3.
I walked down to the waterfront and bought my ticket for the 10am ferry to Robben Island. Former prison of black and coloured political prisoners in Apartheid South Africa. Including Nelson Mandela for a period of 18 years who was there from the sixties till the eighties. The ferry we traveled across on was the same ferry used to transport prisoners' wives to the island prison, so that they could visit their husbands. At the island we boarded a bus and toured the island, visiting a small jail that was set up to contain just one person, Robert Sobukwe, who the authorities considered such a threat that they had him there in solitary confinement for years, and passed laws in parliament, just to govern him. A contemporary of Mandela's, in the 1960's there were pass laws, requiring all black South Africans to carry identification cards, which showed where they were and were not allowed to go. If you were caught without one, you were immediately sent to jail for three months. Sobukwe rallied black South Africans to all walk into police stations on the same day, without their pass cards, and demand to be arrested. Unable to arrest so many people, the administration was thrown into chaos, and their solution was to make sure that this man never spoke to anyone again.
We also saw WW2 guns on the island, which had been placed there, but never fired in battle. There is a whole village there now, where ex-political prisoners live in harmony with ex-wardens. Don't ask me how that happened.
Then we were taken to a limestone quarry where the prisoners laboured, and were shown a cave which the prisoners had used for a toilet. In Nelson Mandela's toilet the political prisoners taught each other about politics, they called it the university.
Then on a tour to the prison cells, where our guide, who was a political prisoner himself for 5 years in the 1980s told us what life had been like as a prisoner. We saw Nelson Mandela's cell and on the way out I saw a bird, which had flown into a cell, stuck there and flying repeatedly into the window. An interesting symbolism there, I think.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
South Africa
Writing in a state of Jet lagged and post hike tiredness. Sorry if it doesn't make much sense. Nevertheless I'm determined to stay up and write rather than fall asleep again at 8pm like I did last night (which resulted in my waking up at 4am).
Back to the beginning. I am here in South Africa for a grand total of 10 days, in order to attend a conference on endangered languages in Stellenbosch. I flew out of Melbourne Sunday afternoon 5pm. 7 hours later I arrived in Singapore (9pm). Spent about 5 hours sleeping in an armchair at the airport then went to board my flight to Cape Town, via Johannesburg. To my surprise their were a large number of Chinese businessmen also boarding the flight. We were all handed our customs declarations form to fill out in the waiting room, before boarding the flight. The businessmen were sitting next to me and I could hear that they were engaged in a heated discussion about the difference between surname and firstname, because of course, their first names are their surnames and their last names are their given names. As it didn't seem any closer to being resolved I went over and offered my translation services.
After a moment of blank astonishment, they showed me their forms and we got it all sorted out. I sat back down and chatted to a Chinese gentleman who was very intrigued as to the hows and whys of my knowledge of Chinese. Boarded the flight and was seated next to a Singaporean woman and her little boy, so no more conversation. Relaxed and watched a few movies and tried to catch some sleep on the 10 hour flight to Johannesburg.
The sun came up as we flew over the Indian Ocean. Then over the South African mainland. There was quite a bit of farmland that we flew over, and I was bemused to notice that a lot of the fields were perfectly circular. I finally figured out that they had a watering system that was fixed in the centre of the circular field and rotated around, accounting for the perfectly round circles of green. We didn't get to get off the plane in Johannesburg, so I sat and watched the airport staff unloading luggage and postal and other products they were transporting. Included with the boxes were quite a number of cardboard boxes that were clearly marked "Live Fish- Urgent" I still haven't quite figured out whether they had fish tanks in the cardboard boxes being thrown carelessly off the plane.
The approach to Cape Town was very different. There were rocky mountains in the region surrounding the city, which were quite spectacular from the plane. It took an hour to clear passport control and the huge queues, after which I got a backpacker bus to my youth hostel the 'cat and moose' in a bustling section of the city. The bus first drove past a shanty town, a huge area filled to bust with houses constructed out of corrugated iron and about the size of a caravan. No sooner were they past then we came upon the large mansions with security fences and swimming pools. Pretty striking.
It was midday when I arrived, (10pm Monday night Australia time). The "Cat and Moose" was very pleasant with a large sunny courtyard in the middle, where I dozed and chatted to backpackers for the remainder of the afternoon.
This morning I went on a tour. There were about 10 of us in a minibus. We went out to a fishing village, and got on a boat to see some seals. Yes. My first African animals to see were seals! Hmmm. Oddly enough, on the boat I ran into the Chinese gentleman I met in Singapore, and he has invited me to visit him in Hangzhou. Then we went to another village and saw ..................(Drum roll).... Penguins. Not the fairy penguins you see on Phillip Island though. These ones are known as African, or Jackass, penguins, due to the donkey like braying that they do. Very weird. Apparently a pair of them moved into the area about 20 years ago and now there are a few thousand. They've had to put up fences confining them to the beach because apparently they started venturing into peoples homes and taking a dip in their swimming pools.
From their we drove to the original object of our journey: the Cape of Good Hope. It is set in a national park and we had lunch near the ranger's station. One of the rangers came up to have a chat to me. In the space of 5 minutes, this elderly black man had ascertained that I was from Australia, told me that the 'fynbos' which that region is very famous for, is even more extensive in Australia (I think he meant what we call 'scrub'), how many species there are (In S.A. as well as in Aus.), discussed the separation of the continents, the political situation in South Africa, including economic immigrants from Zimbabwe and South Africans who migrated out after the end of Apartheid but now want to come back. Kind of reminded me of Scott's Dad, Eddie. Bit of a storyteller.
Then, on to Cape Point (which houses the lighthouse) and the Cape of Good Hope next to it, which is the most south-westerly point of Africa apparently. We had quite a hike around there. It was really spectacular country, lots of rocks, scrub, cliffs, white beaches and two oceans running into each other. I saw some Dassies (largish guinea pigs) eating scrub and a few lizards. We climbed down off the Cape and rejoined our minibus. As we drove off, we came across four ostriches hanging out on the beach, which was pretty cool. Oh and we saw some bontebok in the far distance earlier on.
I didn't join in the cycling this afternoon, because my body decided it had had enough. Got back to the hostel at 6 pm, showered, and went out for sushi. One thing that really surprised me about this place is how much it reminds me of Australia. The countryside, anyway. Obviously the black population is much much huger than in Aus, and income differences are more evident.
Can't think of an elegant way to end this post, so think I'll just go to bed. Night Night.
Back to the beginning. I am here in South Africa for a grand total of 10 days, in order to attend a conference on endangered languages in Stellenbosch. I flew out of Melbourne Sunday afternoon 5pm. 7 hours later I arrived in Singapore (9pm). Spent about 5 hours sleeping in an armchair at the airport then went to board my flight to Cape Town, via Johannesburg. To my surprise their were a large number of Chinese businessmen also boarding the flight. We were all handed our customs declarations form to fill out in the waiting room, before boarding the flight. The businessmen were sitting next to me and I could hear that they were engaged in a heated discussion about the difference between surname and firstname, because of course, their first names are their surnames and their last names are their given names. As it didn't seem any closer to being resolved I went over and offered my translation services.
After a moment of blank astonishment, they showed me their forms and we got it all sorted out. I sat back down and chatted to a Chinese gentleman who was very intrigued as to the hows and whys of my knowledge of Chinese. Boarded the flight and was seated next to a Singaporean woman and her little boy, so no more conversation. Relaxed and watched a few movies and tried to catch some sleep on the 10 hour flight to Johannesburg.
The sun came up as we flew over the Indian Ocean. Then over the South African mainland. There was quite a bit of farmland that we flew over, and I was bemused to notice that a lot of the fields were perfectly circular. I finally figured out that they had a watering system that was fixed in the centre of the circular field and rotated around, accounting for the perfectly round circles of green. We didn't get to get off the plane in Johannesburg, so I sat and watched the airport staff unloading luggage and postal and other products they were transporting. Included with the boxes were quite a number of cardboard boxes that were clearly marked "Live Fish- Urgent" I still haven't quite figured out whether they had fish tanks in the cardboard boxes being thrown carelessly off the plane.
The approach to Cape Town was very different. There were rocky mountains in the region surrounding the city, which were quite spectacular from the plane. It took an hour to clear passport control and the huge queues, after which I got a backpacker bus to my youth hostel the 'cat and moose' in a bustling section of the city. The bus first drove past a shanty town, a huge area filled to bust with houses constructed out of corrugated iron and about the size of a caravan. No sooner were they past then we came upon the large mansions with security fences and swimming pools. Pretty striking.
It was midday when I arrived, (10pm Monday night Australia time). The "Cat and Moose" was very pleasant with a large sunny courtyard in the middle, where I dozed and chatted to backpackers for the remainder of the afternoon.
This morning I went on a tour. There were about 10 of us in a minibus. We went out to a fishing village, and got on a boat to see some seals. Yes. My first African animals to see were seals! Hmmm. Oddly enough, on the boat I ran into the Chinese gentleman I met in Singapore, and he has invited me to visit him in Hangzhou. Then we went to another village and saw ..................(Drum roll).... Penguins. Not the fairy penguins you see on Phillip Island though. These ones are known as African, or Jackass, penguins, due to the donkey like braying that they do. Very weird. Apparently a pair of them moved into the area about 20 years ago and now there are a few thousand. They've had to put up fences confining them to the beach because apparently they started venturing into peoples homes and taking a dip in their swimming pools.
From their we drove to the original object of our journey: the Cape of Good Hope. It is set in a national park and we had lunch near the ranger's station. One of the rangers came up to have a chat to me. In the space of 5 minutes, this elderly black man had ascertained that I was from Australia, told me that the 'fynbos' which that region is very famous for, is even more extensive in Australia (I think he meant what we call 'scrub'), how many species there are (In S.A. as well as in Aus.), discussed the separation of the continents, the political situation in South Africa, including economic immigrants from Zimbabwe and South Africans who migrated out after the end of Apartheid but now want to come back. Kind of reminded me of Scott's Dad, Eddie. Bit of a storyteller.
Then, on to Cape Point (which houses the lighthouse) and the Cape of Good Hope next to it, which is the most south-westerly point of Africa apparently. We had quite a hike around there. It was really spectacular country, lots of rocks, scrub, cliffs, white beaches and two oceans running into each other. I saw some Dassies (largish guinea pigs) eating scrub and a few lizards. We climbed down off the Cape and rejoined our minibus. As we drove off, we came across four ostriches hanging out on the beach, which was pretty cool. Oh and we saw some bontebok in the far distance earlier on.
I didn't join in the cycling this afternoon, because my body decided it had had enough. Got back to the hostel at 6 pm, showered, and went out for sushi. One thing that really surprised me about this place is how much it reminds me of Australia. The countryside, anyway. Obviously the black population is much much huger than in Aus, and income differences are more evident.
Can't think of an elegant way to end this post, so think I'll just go to bed. Night Night.
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