Traverse 12 | Page 95

families. We decided to take a top deck tour around Cape Town and its surround- ing districts which was well worth it. The tour took us along the Main Road past very large houses with security fences and barbed wire, onto Long Beach with its great wide beach and white sand. Then along the very popular Chapman’s Peak Drive pass- ing Hout Bay and Camps Bay where expensive hotels and residences over- look the ocean. The next day we walked the few kilometres to Bo-Kaap, people warned us to be careful walking around, but we had no trouble at all. It is predominantly a Muslim quarter where a lot of the houses are painted in bright colours, this suburb dates back a long time to when slaves were brought in from Malaysia, Indonesia and various African countries, it is also the home of the oldest mosque in South Africa. Thanks to the agent who, in 24 hours had done all the paperwork and organised the mandatory cus- toms inspection for us, all we had to do was come up with the payment. Our first run was out to the Cape of Good Hope the South Western Point of the African continent. Riding out through the suburbs you can’t help but notice the run-down public housing, the gap between rich and poor seems to be vast yet, some white South Africans I spoke to were very keen to leave and immigrate to Australia. The scenery along the coast was spectacular as we made our way to the Cape. The coastline is rugged and rocky with lots of tourists enjoying the views. The next day we took the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain and enjoyed the surrounding views, we walked around to the different view- points and took a long walk along the ridge. Just an incredible mountain to be on. We found Cape Town to be a per- TRAVERSE 95