Goodbye Cape Town
The past month has flown by and it was now time to say goodbye to friends (old and new). On our last day at school we were made to feel very special, recieving more cards than the Girls Aloud fan club and being swamped with hugs and marriage proposals. We made a small thank you speech in the assembely to the 550 kids and gave out lollipops as a Friday treat. Its strange that altough we’ve only been at the school a month we feel we have got to know some of these kids so well and felt both guitly and sad to be leaving them.
We had a lovely farewell meal with Syl and Ray at the Waterfront and have loved seeing them so much. Its also been amazing to spend lots of quality time with Darren and Kirsten (her baby bump growing even more during the time we have been here – 5th Dec is not far away now). Very strange but exciting that they will be parents when we are next in Cape Town.
Bye friends, bye Vrygrond, bye Cape Town. Buenos Aires here we come…
Life in Vrygrond
Just a few snap shots from Vrygrond. We didn’t take many pictures here as it’s not the sort of place to flash a camera around. We passed the fire on the way to school one morning, apparently a woman had caught her husband cheating so had burned all his clothes outside their home. Hell hath no fury…
The video is from sunrise crèche, and shows the amazing contrast between what the kids experience at the creche and in the neighbourhood:
Wine glorious wine
A day off from school and a scorching hot day we headed for the winelands of Cape Town. Making our way from Stellenbosh to Franschoek, the sceneery was stunning and we tasted our way through several wineries, even spoiling ourselves with a cheese board. Chris now thinks he’s the connesiur of South African wines and I’m wondering how we’ll ever go back to the £5.99 bottles we used to buy in Tesco!
False Bay (The Southern Peninsula)
The Southern Peninsula is often overlooked and doesn’t have the best reputation, but after staying there we decided it was one of our favourite areas of Cape Town. We stayed in Muizenburg mainly out of convenince (it’s not too far from the school in Vrygrond), but soon became quite happy with the laid back, surf-orientated lifestyle it had to offer. A short but stunning run along the coast took us through St.James and on to Kalk Bay (now our favourite spot in Cape Town). It has a great selection of boutique shops, cafe’s and restaurants and all with an authentic quirky vibe. Further round the bay Fish Hoek, Simon’s Town and Boulder are all also well worth a visit. False Bay seems to have avoided much of the 70’s concrete development that other areas of Cape Town have fallen victim to… maybe why we liked it so much… that or the breakfast at Olympia Cafe.
Mzoli’s Madness
At the other end of the culinary spectrum from the likes of Jardine, The Codfather and Sevruga, is Mzoli’s. After several recommendations from Captonians we decided it was worth a visit. Situated out of town in the Gugulethu township, Mzoli’s is essentially a roadside butcher come braai (barbeque), which has grown into a massive all-day eating/drinking/dancing extravaganza. There must have been around 300 people either squeezed under the tin roof, or spilling out on to the streets. Nearby houses sell booze as the venue isn’t licenced and you can also use their toilets as well for a small charge (which was quite an experience in itself). The fayre is strictly dead animal, you bring your own salad, sauce, plates and anything else you want. As a group of 10, we must have eaten approximately 1 cow and 3 or 4 chickens for a very reasonable £50. The food was really good, but the best thing about Mzoli’s is the atmosphere; Notting Hill carnival meetsIbizan beach bar…right up our street and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
(Note: Look out for ‘Fish’s Mum’ in the video…)
Table Mountain
Climbing Table Mountain has been on our to-do list since we arrived, and with weekends slipping away we decided to hike after school one afternoon. Daniel and Gideon (Sophie’s very distant sort-of cousins) joined us last Monday so we were lucky to have the company of two experienced guides.We ascended Skeleton Gorge (a back table route, not so popular with tourists, but more challenging) and climbed back down via Nursery Ravine. With the sun setting around 7.30pm in Cape Town at the moment, the last half hour of our descent was under complete darkness (which was a little eerie). Not only were the views from the top truly stunning, but the trails up and down the mountain also provided some great sights, so the walking passed quickly.
(well not really as so many photos were taken!)
My Birthday – part deux
My Birthday continued on Saturday with a long awaited bike ride. We cycled from Noordhoek to Camps Bay via Chapmans Peak (about 35/40 miles), guided by Denver (Son-in-Law of the school’s Deputy Principal) who kindly took us along the route. Capetonians really are lucky when it comes to the outdoors, there are so many great routes, all so accessible – you’re never far from a mountain or costal road.
My Birthday!
The 13th was of course my Birthday, so I woke up to cards, balloons and generally being spoilt. As it was my special day I had control of our itinerary for a short while, so, after a mildly embarrassing day being the birthday boy at school we headed for Sea Point Pavilion to go swimming. By chance I had the pool to myself, which was awesome. Soph then very kindly took me to Jardine, which was easily the best restaurant I’ve been to for a long while. We enjoyed a spectacular 5 course tasting menu with matched wines. The menu was one of the most creative I’ve experienced, with the ‘trio of tea and chocolate’ dessert being a favourite. The wine also went down well and to be quite honest we were a bit pissed – luckily the school let us have a late start the following morning!
Weekend Fun
After an exhausting few days at camp with hyperactive kids, we had a few days relaxing. We drove straight from the camp to Boulder to see the penguins, which are easily my favourite animal/bird by the way (although I prefer rockhopper’s to the african variety found at Boulder, but it was still nice to see them in the wild).
Saturday, we climbed Lions Head…the weather was perfect and we got great views (see pics). The afternoon was spent lazing on the beach (Queens beach for those who know the area) and finished the day off with a fab dinner ‘Ethiopian style’ at Addis de Cape where we ate everything with our fingers ( no great change for Sophie 😉 ).
Chapmans Peak
On a particularly sunny afternoon after school last week, we jumped in the car and headed for Chapmans Peak to take in the sights. The route is widely regarded as one of the best costal drives in the world, hopefully you’ll see why from the pictures. On the way back we stopped at, Hout Bay, Noordhoeuk Beach and finally Kalk Bay harbour for some good ol’ fish and chips.
Camp (not so) Faraway
Last week we spent 3 days on camp with grade 5…I felt like a kid again! The kids were led to think they were setting off on a big adventure which was great as spirits were high. The reality was that Camp Faraway was only a 25mins drive away from Vrygrond. The camp was quite a simple set up but still had all the kids in awe… they LOVED the swimming pool (Chris played lifeguard for the 3 days), some had never even been in a pool before. Another popular activity was the trampoline which I spent hours lining kids up to have their turn. The camp provided great entertainment as well as teaching them really valuable life skills to help them make the right choices in life and make something of themselves. We were really moved by how well the kids got involved with everything from team games to talent shows. Most shocking, but very true to life, were the plays acted out by each group. There was no brief to follow yet each group chose a real-to-life drama of drugs, abuse, alcoholism and crime….not something either of us had encountered at the age of 12!
We need to talk about Kevin
One of the students we’ve been introduced to at Capricorn is Kevin.
Kevin is 10 years old, has no father and two absent brothers (one in prison, and the other on the streets with a drug addiction). Kevin told us that he hadn’t enjoyed his mid-term break as he’d mostly been caring for his mother, who had been unwell. It didn’t seem fair that a 10 year old should be caring for his mother, so with some members of staff we paid Kevin’s mum a visit to see how she was.
First week at school
Driving into Vrygrond in itself is an experience. Our bright blue Kia stands out against the concrete and rust of the township and we try to avoid eye contact with the groups of people hanging round on the streets. The original concrete huts of Vrygrond all have basic amenities (running water, electricity and a flushing toilet ), but the countless tin shacks which have been illegally erected inbetween do not. It’s amazing to see how people have built tin shacks in the tightest of spaces and how some of them are transformed into barbers, tuck shops and of course mobile phone shops!
Settling in
Today we arrived in Cape Town. Picked up a local phone and bright blue hire car and set off for Muizenberg. Every time I come here I cant get over the amazing views of both the beaches and mountains. The flat is right on the beach…. oh OK we’re facing a road at the back but if we go out the main entrance we are on the beach front. There are some really fab cafe’s and we’ve quickly grown to really like it here. We’ve run a few times to Kulk Bay only 2.5 miles along the coast where there is an amazing breakfast spot called Olympia Cafe (Donna, Essex and Toby you will know this well)! In fact they are still doing the same roadworks they were doing nearly 2yrs ago!
Southern Hemisphere Shenanigans... 