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