Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens and World of Birds. Cape Town.

I travelled to Cape Town in August 2014 with my teenage son. He moved back to boarding school in the UK the year before and we'd never got round to taking him to CT when he lived here. Having made a 27 hour journey by train, the last thing he wanted to do was get on a bus and tour the City. He did come out with me on the 2nd day and the 3rd day we hired a car and drove to Hermanus to whale watch and see the penguins at Betty's Bay on route.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are located at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town and is one of nine National gardens with five of the six different biomes in South Africa. Founded in 1913 to preserve the unique flora.

I visited on a very wet and windy day. I bought a two day pass with City Sightseeing on the Hop on Hop Off bus. Kirstenbosch was my first stop so I took a photo of the time table at each stop. Unfortunately I confused the photos and ended up waiting an hour at World of Birds.

The newly opened Centenary Tree canopy Walkway or Boomslang, meaning tree snake, is 130 m long and 12 m above the ground, and has wheel chair access is a fab way to view the scenery.

Kirstenbosch contains many plants, including my favourites the Protea, the national flower of South Africa and the Strelitizia regainae 'Mandela's Gold' or more commonly known as the Yellow Bird of Paradise. It symbolises liberty, magnificence and good perspective.  


Returning to the entrance, I'd just missed a bus, so I opted for a walk round the gift shop and a coffee.

Hopping back on the bus, my next stop was World of Birds, it was still raining and the attraction did have some shelter from the rain with the trees. I was overwhelmed by the smell and wasn't too impressed with the hygiene and the layout. Also there were peculiar combinations of birds in the enclosures and chickens seemed to feature in large numbers. 

There was also a monkey enclosure and other animals. However I didn't want to go in there, again due to the smell. There was a large school group in at the same time and the air was filled with teachers yelling at the kids and blowing whistles. 

I walked round to reach the exit to discover I'd misread the timetable for the bus and waited for 30 minutes in the bus shelter, it's not somewhere I'd be visiting again in a hurry.

Cup cakes, Witch Doctors and Goats

Sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s just one of many things that occurs at the Viva Foundation located in the Alaskan Informal Settlement in Mamelodi.

For the vulnerable children and orphan family day, 100s of people come for their free blankets and food. The kids play, have their faces painted and the adults receive educational advice, this year in the form of RapePrevention, then to signal the end of the day, cup cakes are handed out at the gate to ensure everyone goes home.

My first event at Viva was in 2012 and the distribution of the Christmas gifts from Santa Shoebox and let me tell you, it was chaotic, a woman approaches me and states she is 17 and would like a box she was easily in her late 70s and I’ve since found out she is in her 80’s. Something weird and wonderful happens in Mamelodi at least once a year and 2013 was the Arts festival that runs every year, in fact you can get involved for #67 minutes for Mandela if you have an artistic streak in you or you can come make tea and food for the artists, in fact just come, it’s fun.

March 2013 I took my son  and we painted shacks and then spent the night under canvas, we didn’t sleep much, it wasn’t fear that kept us awake it was the choir at 1am, the drums banging to save a soul at 2.30am, the goats fighting, the cockerals crowing and the bloody taxis at 4.30am announcing with a toot of the horn ‘we are here to collect you for work’

2104 is the Witch Doctor who I met last month, he was tying up a goat on the side of the road to put in his boot, so I approached him and asked him what he was doing. Once he realised I wasn’t there to interfere he told me about his apprentice and how they would hide the goat and how the apprentice would have to locate it, using his new powers he’d learnt, then the goat would be slaughtered as an offering and the apprentice would become a Witch Doctor. I didn’t ask any further questions.

On Friday this week a group of us and teachers from Viva are going to Bushbuckridge near Kruger for the weekend, to turn a building into a school, we’ve collected kitchen utensils, clothing, educational supplies, toys for the children and always welcome donations of any kind so please get in touch if you can help out.

We are paying our own transport, food and accommodation costs for this project.

Freedom Park, Pretoria

I had to drive through pretoria on Friday and saw the sign for Freedom Park. I've seen it many times on my travels during the last 3 years, but had yet to visit. A friend on Facebook commented that I am the only person she knows that has ever visited.

My whole visit was summed up by a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

'When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land'

It cost me R90 to visit the museum and wander round at my own speed and included a guided tour of the gardens of remembrance. I was the only visitor there on Friday.

I did however encounter the following people who were exceptionally friendly and knowledgable, I also thought there were too many people and a lot of their interaction probably wasn't necessary.

I was booked in at the gate and told to drive 200 yds up the hill to park, he radioed ahead to say I was coming. The guy at the parking then directed me to park in a certain bay, despite everywhere being emptied, he then radioed ahead 200 yes to a woman who was stood by reception, who then escorted me into the building to buy my tickets, I was then escorted back via the same process and radio to my car and round the corner, up the hill to another parking area, where my guide met me to start the tour, which lasted approximately 60 minutes. We encountered 2 more security people and Pastor Francine and 2 men in prayer.

Again the whole process was repeated back to reception, escorted up the lift, encountered 3 security guards and finally back to the car.

1 visitor = 11 members of staff

Freedom Park

 Eternal Flame

 Names of all those who dies in the struggle for Freedom

 Memorial for 1st and 2nd World War and Anglo-Boer War

 Bushveld and Highveld Bioms 

 Housing today same as housing then

Goodbye Mandela

Before leaving Cape Town I signed the book of remembrance.

 

'Thank you for the opportunity to live freely and safely in South Africa for the past 3 years'

 

 

I was disappointed that Soweto exceeded my expectations...

or bullet holes of Soweto....or walking in Mandela's footsteps.

A colleagues of my hubby offered to take us into Soweto to show us where he was born and raised.

We met him at the services on the N1 and he hoped behind the wheel of our car and drove to Soccer City. Such an iconic/familiar sight of the World Cup 2010.

We drove round the outside of the building, stopped for a few pictures then drove into Orlando East to the Hector Peterson museum.

Hector Peterson was a 13 year old boy who was shot and killed on June 16th 1976 in the Soweto uprising, after the government tried to enforce all teaching in schools to be in Afrikkans. Hector's body was carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo (an 18-year-old school boy and a photographer, Sam Nzima, snapped the picture of them along with their sister, which came to symbolise the people's struggles.

Inside the museum there is a quote from the children's mother saying that her son was not an icon in life, therefore should not be an icon in death.
I left the museum struggling to hold back the tears, any child identified of school age was a possible target and kids as young as 6 were shot by snipers.
Obviously as in any war/battle/conflict there are two sides to every story, but this was the people of Soweto's.

We then drove to a Catholic church, Regina Mundi, despite faith, this was the church where all the funerals of the Soweto uprising were held, it is also where the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings were held between 1995 to 1998, presided over by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The church was often used for anti-apartheid activities that were banned in South Africa at the time.

The church seats 2,000 people with room for a further 5,000 standing.

During the Soweto uprising, students sought refuge there, but were stormed by the police after tear gas was thrown inside and fired bullets in the church. No one was killed although many were injured and the tour guide was more than happy to point out the bullet holes in the ceiling.

The stain glass windows depict the uprising and the death of Hector Peterson and the church houses a painting of the Black Madonna by Larry Scully in 1973. I'm sure the guide does this with everyone, but he placed me where Mandela stood.

Next stop...Nelson Mandelas house

WOW....going back to the title of my blog, I wasn't disappointed with the house, the street or even Soweto, I had a set of expectations that were much lower. Have you ever been to the Louvre? Seen the Mona Lisa? People tell you it's a small painting and until you see it you can't explain how small you thought it would be...it's the same with Las Vegas, it's big, but until you actually get there, what you imagine as being big, is nothing on how actually big Vegas is. It was exactly like that for me in Soweto so called as it is a South West Township. But Soweto isn't a township any more, the roads are tarmac, their are huge Malls, markets, petrol stations, car washes, banks, in fact there are parts of the UK that Soweto would put in the shade. The houses, yes houses, were smart, tidy, freshly painted, flowers in the garden, it was safe, felt safe as we drove, parked the car. My expectations of Soweto were low and they needn't have been.

Hubbies colleague took us to his Grans house, he told us she couldn't read and write and was determined that her children and grandchildren would have an education and they did including her grandson with a degree and a successful career in finance. He drove us to his Mothers house, she was away on holiday and her maid was looking after the house for the week.

I will be going back to Soweto, I want to go to a match in Orlando and at Soccer City. I shall be taking family and friends there to do the tour (all sign posted) we will have lunch there and do some shopping.

Soweto was a lovely place to be.