Trip Report:
Two Weeks in South Africa, January 1999
Richard's Version
Day 7
Thursday, 1/14-
We slept in a bit this morning, and had a big breakfast at the hotel (not much dinner last night). We caught a shuttle (after a 45 minute wait) with a little old woman who was out looking for biltong (we recommended a place and she told us the next day that she found what she was looking for). We were dropped on Adderly Street in the city center and walked to the Company Gardens to see them at a more leisurely pace. This time we found a wonderful little aviary with one section full of colorful songbirds singing up a storm, one section with huge curly feathered pigeons, and one with a few odd ducks. Alison practically had to drag me away.
Our next stop was the nice little rose garden. As we were sniffing roses we noticed a couple of women setting a live capture trap. Further investigation found the little stray cat they were trying to catch. We had heard the local humane society would capture strays, fix and release them, so we went up to chat. This wasn't quite the case here. The one woman said her sister regularly fed this cat, but that it was apparently ill, so she and her (ancient) mother were trying to catch it. She said she had trapped some 60 cats there. The biggest problem was catching rats by accident (this was perfectly punctuated by a rat running out of the bushes pursued by a huge gray tomcat). We wished them luck and continued our walk, pausing to snap a picture of a gorgeous art deco apartment building that overlooks the gardens. We saw another cat that strolled right up, bumped my leg, then continued on its way. We also saw a person being mugged by squirrels.
We made our way to Long Street, which is chock full o' bookstores, antique shops, bars and hostels. It was quite a rowdy place (which may or may not explain the man in a doorway with an assault rifle. We turned the corner quickly!). After cruising a couple of bookstores (a tradition for us) we were about to head to the Waterfront for lunch, but we only made it a couple of blocks when we stumbled into the Church Street Antiques Market. Very dangerous! Luckily, we were hungry and it was starting to rain, so rather than shopping we stopped for a nice lunch at the Cafe Mozart. There was only one antique shop that was really dangerous, and that was because it was full of old scientific instruments! I really wanted the beautiful large wooden box camera, but at 3000 Rands it was too much for me. The 300 rand hand cranked centrifuge almost got me though.
Next on the plan was reconnecting with the collective- we stopped at an Internet Cafe and checked our various email accounts! I had to send one work related as well. We ended up sending about a dozen e-postcards of the 'wish you were here' type, just for the novelty. Since we were thinking of friends and family, we went down to the Waterfront for some souvenir/gift shopping. We kind of got sidetracked by the Two Oceans Aquarium though. The aquarium was very nice, with exhibits from shoreline to deep sea. We got to see a feeding at the predator tank (poor little crabs!), and almost fell asleep watching the kelp forest sway. Then shopping, shopping, shopping. For dinner we had seafood at Quay 4. I had broiled prawns (heads and all). Alison wouldn't touch them, but had a very nice piece of butterfish. We waited an hour for the WAC bus, and when if finally came it flew right past us. Luckily Adolfo Dominguez, one of the participants in my symposium, was the only passenger on the bus and he saw us. He made the bus driver come back for us. Hurray! We fell asleep quickly.
Day: 1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 -
11 -
12 -
13 -
14 -
15 -
Notes/Resources
Back to Richard's Home Page
Last Updated 19 February, 1999
Send Comments to: rlindstrom@earthlink.net