After visiting Reunion and Madagascar, our cruise wended its way west until we made landfall in South Africa. We called in at a number of ports with the longest stay being in Cape Town. As before, I'll mainly do historical stuff. I'll also just say up front, that it is a real tragedy that towns and cities in South Africa is essentially a no go area for tourists on foot due to the high level of street crime, and as we generally like to walk around places instead getting a taxi from one 'safe' area to another, that rather coloured our experience. Anyway...
Mossel Bay (mussel bay), a few hundred miles east of Capetown on the southern coast, and site of the first Portuguese settlement. There is a fabulous museum with a number of different buildings scattered around the site. There are also a lot of very good vineyards nearby. Ahem.
Centrepiece of the museum is a reproduction Caravel, based on the one which landed here in 1485. I find it astonishing that people could travel such vast distances in such tiny ships, and with no decent maps.
The ship museum was stuffed with things including these nice reproduction outfits, navigation instruments etc
And lots of old maps, showing the evolution of western knowledge of the globe. This one is from the sixteenth century and apart from missing out Australia, it is pretty accurate.
Part of the complex were the 'Munroe Cottages', built in the early nineteenth century by British/Scottish settlers. They have thatched roofs and wouldn't look out of place in the northwest corner of Scotland.
I really enjoyed visiting Mossel Bay, and unusually, it was one of the few places you could walk around and not have to get a taxi from one 'safe' place to another.
I'm not going to bother with anything about Durban, Port Elisabeth or Richards Bay. We mainly went for the safaris. so didn't see much historical stuff although we did do a city tour of Durban and went to the Botanical Gardens which were very pleasant.
Last stop was Cape Town, which also has a huge crime problem, but some parts of the city centre and waterfront are relatively safe.
This made me laugh, a 'pirate ship' for harbour cruises. It is just like the one in Bridlington. I suspect there is one in every port.
There was a French frigate moored in the harbour. The crew were rolling up the awning over the helicopter deck.
A very interesting ship was moored behind our ship. This is a nautical diamond mining ship. They mainly operate off the coast of Namibia and essentially strip mine the ocean floor looking for diamonds. I never even knew such a thing existed.
We did manage to get out and about to see some sights, being ferried from one safe place to another.
First up was Signal Hill, just above the harbour and with great views of Table Mountain. Originally this had a ships mast and cross trees to hang signal flags off it. There is also (still) a 12pm signal gun which goes off every day.
Right in the centre of Capetown near the main railway station is the Castle of Good Hope. A fabulous star fort, originally built by the Dutch but later taken over by the British. It has a moat, separate bastions and is set up as a large museum.
Originally it fronted onto the sea, but since then land along the coastline has been reclaimed.
It is huge, this is just one of the courtyards. The buildings are a very pleasing honey/ochre colour.
Unlike my Irregular fort, the embrasures are properly sighted to fire along the bastion walls.
The other courtyard, the Dutch style is fairly obvious. Most of the buildings had three levels, horses on the ground floor, stores on the 1st floor and accommodation on the top floor with gantries to haul supplies up to the first floor. All very Amsterdam. The large archways are rooms for storing carriages.
As it was so close to sea level, the fort had a flooding problem and the powder magazine had to be moved from its original location. It has two fresh water wells though, fed from Table Mountain.
There is a very nice representation of the original view from the front of the fort. Now there is a large road and multiple railway lines!
A model of the original layout of the fort.
And later when it was rebuilt and extended. You an see the original shoreline in the top left.
There are various uniforms in the military museum.
Seventeenth Century Dutch infantryman.
A Pandour.
And some very smart British! I love the coat colour on this mannequin.
Mortar man with a smart leopard print hat.
And some sort of Dragoon I believe.
There were quite a few models of Dutch warships.
And various types of musket.
And some more.
The old Governors rooms are very well preserved. Despite the stifling heat, they were actually (relatively) cool and airy.
A box bed. I first saw one of these in Amsterdam. How on earth you are supposed to sleep in it, I don't know. I guess you get used to anything.
There is a nice memorial to significant nineteenth century African figures.
King Cetshwayo.
There is an interesting reproduction of the an etching of the original Dutch colony, and you can see the limited extent of the land compared to the modern city. Unfortunately I think the image has been reversed at some point as the Signal Hill and the Lions Head are on the right side of the bay, not the left, and Table Mountain is also the wrong way round.
And as we were in South Africa, yes we did see some animals....
A lone male. He was pretty big.
White Rhino! Fabulous, we saw quite a few of these. They have been saved from being hunted to extinction by being corralled in game reserves.
Zebra
Giraffe
And everyones favourite, Pumba or Warthog. These were very unafraid in the more dense bush, but in more open savannah parks were very nervous as they are easy meat for Cheetahs in the open. We did see some Cheetah, Water Buffalo, Hippos etc too but no Lions I'm afraid.
That was a nice way to round things off, but I don't think we'll be back. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice webpages has more stuff on crime in South Africa than a whole bunch of deeply dodgy other places put together. You do wonder how much of it is self reinforcing - no-one walks as it is dangerous, but it is dangerous as no-one walks etc. Judging by a despairing thread from Cape Town which popped up on Reddit about how to stop your garden taps being stolen, I think it probably is an actual concern. A real shame as the scenery, climate and wildlife were fabulous.
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