Origins

After being picked up in Pretoria by our Afrikaans guide Mr. Gert we drove about 45 minutes to the UNESCO site:  Cradle of Humankind.  The museum is housed above several limestone caves where bones of our earliest ancestors have been found.  In the field in front of the museum are about 100 life-size bronze sculptures by various artists of men and women considered instrumental to the “Long Walk to Freedom”, title of Mandela’s autobiography.  The sculptures at the back of the group start with several tribal leaders/warriors that resisted European colonization and occupation like Shaka Zulu, dressed in his traditional skins.  Later sculptures include Dr. Martin Luther King, Fidel Castro, the white leader of the communist party (I don’t remember his name) and Bilko.  Finally, leading the procession of these lifelike characterizations was Mandela in a suit, his fist raised, and his endearing smile. They said they will add up to 400 more sculptures in the future.

Shaka Zulu

Robin with Freedom Fighter

Field of Freedom Fighters 

Madeba and Winnie. 

Like many limestone caves, these labyrinths extend for hundreds of miles under the semi-desert dotted with shrubs and Acacia trees.  The entrances that were discovered before enlarging for tourist access were just holes in the ground surrounded by shrubs creating great hazards historically and today.  There are stalagmites and stalactites, underground rivers and lakes, explored by spelunkers in the twentieth century.  In one cave piles of hominid bones were found.  Based on the lack of access and random dispersal of the bones, archeologists determined that the hole above ground was used for burials.  The ancient hominids deposited bodies into the dark pit that was impossible for them to enter.  The other site we explored had a fascinating story how a complete 3.5 million y.o. skeleton was discovered.  

Entrance to Cradle of Humankind

One Caves cross section

In the 1960s during the initial exploration of the cave a bone was found and ended up in a drawer in a university collection.  There was no interpretation of the bone, only the cave location where it was found.  Years later a professor of archeology scanning through the drawers immediately identified that is was not an animal bone, but a bone from a small humanoid foot.  With the cave location identified and help of the locals, they found the access hole and within four hours found the stub end of another bone protruding from the compressed matrix of rock.  The professor knew that the rest of the skeleton had to be buried within that matrix.  Decades of patient excavations, in a dark cave, with small trowels, brushes and chisels they removed the rock from the skeleton.  The full skeleton is now called Little Foot, and is only half a million years younger than the small portion of skull of the oldest humanoid ancestor, Lucy, which was found in Ethiopia.  The archeologist concluded that Little Foot was roaming the bush, did not see the opening and fell in.  It was not a burial site as there were no other bones with it, and the skeleton was not directly below the opening.  The assumption is the young boy initially survived the fall, moved around at the base of the shaft, but could not get out.  He lay down to die.  Over millions of years sand and gravel fell on him and compressed into his rock tomb.  

This is NOT littlefoot, but another skeleton 

Besides exploring two of the caves in hard hats and lantern, including crawling almost on our bellies through narrow channels, we spent several hours at the Museum.  This fabulous museum not only traces our ancestors with actual skeletons and replicas of our family tree, but also puts them in context with the origins of the universe, plate tectonics, and the development of life on earth.

Our Relatives

One of my favorite exhibits, which some of you may have seen before, is compressing that context onto a 24 hour clock.  

00:00 -  Big Bang

16:33 -  Earth forms

18:12  -  First life forms on earth

23:40 -  Dinosaurs roam the earth

23:59:00 -  Earliest hominids appear

23:59:59 -  Homo Sapiens appear

23:59:59.73 -  Neanderthals die out

23:59:59.96 -  Mesopotamia civilization appears.

23:59:59.98 -  Birth of Christ.

24:00:00.00 -  Now

A few hundredths of a second before Now from the Big Bang, our entire human civilization and recorded history has taken place.  This includes developed agriculture to ensure food supply, designed cities to trade and specialize; created religions (some may say revealed) to provide common values, calm fears and provide hope; created the arts to inspire; invented the industrial revolution to be more efficient; and pursued war to solve differences; etc.

This exhibit supports my a-theist convictions and science based approach to our origins.  But a problem that used to be unresolved for me was what existed before the Big Bang or is beyond our universe.  My friends that believe in a higher “creator” often answered that since God is infinite, the alpha and the omega, s/he existed before the Big Bang.  Faith and supernatural explanations didn’t satisfy my quest, but did offer an insight to a potential answer. 

Infinity is a difficult concept to comprehend because space is smooth and time linear for all human existence.  Einstein was the first to challenge these assumptions.  His theories have repeatedly been proven correct, even theories he himself doubted.  Combined with a theory of the cosmos that we may live in a multi-verse, instead of a uni-verse, was a solution to my quandary.  

To understand a multi-verse, consider that in the 1500s when a ship left the shore navigators could only see to the horizon.  Depending on the height of the crows nest that distance may be only 20 - 50 miles of the open ocean.  If another ship was 500 miles away and neither approached within each other’s horizon, both would conclude that nothing else exists in their universe of the ocean.  Likewise, our horizon is only the light we can see from 14.5 billion years ago and thus conclude we are the only universe.  But what if there are multiple universes beyond our light horizon; each in its own phase of Big Bangs, expansions, and collapses - back and forward in time, in space that curves back on itself. No beginning and no end. The Circle of the Cosmos - infinitely.  

After the Cradle of Humankind, we were dropped off at our hotel in Jo’burg.  We had only one day here, but made the most of it by seeing SoWeTo, Constitution Hill, and the Apartheid Museum.  To be described in the next post.

It’s not Black and White

We arrived back in Capetown at 10:00 am, but check-in for the Blue Train to Pretoria wasn’t until 2:30 pm.  So I arranged a tour of Capetown’s District Six and townships.  Life in South Africa is still highly segregated, no longer by legal fiat, but by economic and social structures.  The country has the highest income inequality of any country on earth; and that separates the whites and blacks geographically.  The blacks live in townships, mostly because they can’t afford white neighborhoods, but also the middle class blacks stay in townships for cultural and tax reasons.  Before we judge too harshly, the United States is the richest country on earth and is in the top third (or bottom) of income inequality.  Said differently, 2/3rds of all countries have a more equal distribution of wealth than the United States, from Norway (always the Scandinavians) to Ukraine.  

I’ll discuss “townships” more thoroughly after our tour of SoWeTo in Jo’burg.  For now I’ll mention District Six.  The confluence of Apartheid and Urban Renewal of the 60s created disastrous results for a black community in Capetown.  During our architectural education in the 70s and early 80s the profession and educators began researching the results of architecture/urban planning ideas and visions of the 40s and 50s.  French architect Le Corbusier was among those who embraced the potential of modern architecture and urban planning to create “a machine for living”.  Combined with decay in the urban core, “great migration” populations of blacks from the south that needed housing, and desire for “city beautiful” programs many cities embraced Urban Renewal as a way to solve these problems.  Cabrini Green in Chicago, Pruit Igo in Saint Louis, and the plan to demolish Pike Place Market in Seattle were all examples of this solution in the US. Coupled with South Africa’s policies that black and whites could not live in the same communities resulted in the demolition of District Six.  

Photo Mock up of Former District Six Streetscape

Museum visitors on District Six Map

Former typical sign in District Six

District Six was a vibrant, low income, cosmopolitan, mixed race but mostly black and colored, neighborhood where people lived, loved and labored.  The government forcibly relocated all 60,000 residents of this community to segregated townships elsewhere, and then bulldozed the entire neighborhood.  Because the clear intent was to destroy a community of color to benefit only the white population, and there was increasing international attention on South Africa’s policy of Apartheid, no developer every touched the opportunity.  Since then it remains a reminder of Apartheid policies.  While many of the original displaced people want to return, the entire area adjacent to downtown Capetown remains a fenced field of weeds.  All that remains of District Six are photographs, street signs, and written memories in a museum located in an abandoned church that used to serve the community.

After our tour we were dropped off at the train station in a separate lounge for Blue Train passengers, served champagne and a light snack, and waited for our departure.  The Blue Train is a remnant of Cecil Rhodes’ late nineteenth century vision for a train from Capetown to Cairo.  Alas, the train only got as far as Dar es Salam in Tanganyika (the country before it combined with Zanzibar to create Tanzania).  Rhodes was a British mining magnate (formed De Beers Diamond Co. in Kimberly, SA), prime minister of the Cape Colony, and statesman who created the commonwealth countries of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (present day Zambia and Zimbabwe).  He was knighted by Queen Victoria and established the Rhodes Scholarship.  He was also a racist believing the Anglo/Saxons were a superior race to all others, and encouraged the colonialisation by whites, and even Chinese to replace blacks on the continent.

The Blue Train is old world style transportation similar to the Orient Express.  The interior was designed by Trish Wilson, an interior consultant we used on a number of hospitality projects (she was married a white South African). The cabins are beautifully paneled in beech wood, the logo is emblazoned on all the coaches, cushions, linens, and lights.

The outside of our coach

Our cabin had an en suite bathroom with a sofa, chair and table in the salon during the day.  Dinner is a formal affair with men in tie and jacket, and women in formal wear.  (They lent me a jacket as I told them on the reservation that I refused to take one for two nights of a six week trip.)  During dinner we were entertained by a Jazz Saxophonist.

Lounge Entertainment

While at dinner the staff folded down our cabin table, and overlaid the sofa with a double bed pulled down from the paneled wall, fluffed with a down comforter and pillows.  Every six cabins shared a butler from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm.  The only use we made of the butler beyond the scheduled turn down service was Robin ordered cappuccino delivered each morning at 6:30.  Heaven!  “When mama ain’t happy......”

Our Cabin - the bed folded down from the panel behind the sofa.

Bill working on the Blog 

Our first overnight train experience was the Ghan (named after the Afghanistan camel herders in Australia) from Alice Springs to Darwin.  After traveling modestly or in camps for several weeks, we liked the unscheduled time to reflect, read, and relax (while Robin worked) before the next immersion.  The Ghan was only over one night as a test.  The Blue train was over two nights; and we are convinced we like the rhythm of the rails.  Trans Siberia here we come!

One of the observations we reflected on after two weeks in South Africa was when Robin commented that she was feeling uncomfortable that all the wait staff in South Africa, including the Blue Train, were black.  She felt she was in a scene from the movie Help, and didn’t like the white/black divide.  Another was an inherent bias I had that all blacks must feel the same about the poor blacks in the shanties.  Both these thoughts were challenged during our train ride by conversations with staff.  We also experienced much more willingness for blacks and whites to talk about race than we do in the US.  Whether because of Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation commission or political correctness in US  liberal circles to not talk about uncomfortable differences; I don’t know.

At dinner one of our wait staff, Israel, a black middle aged man with wry humor and disarming smile, told us when he grew up on a farm during Apartheid and first saw a white person he hid.  Because of their white skin he thought they must be angels and were there to take him away.  We laughed together as I told him some of my Chicago stories.  

Our travel choices typically include staying at locally owned guest houses or lodges that hire staff from, and return the profits to, the community.  Combined with our conversations to understand cultural perspectives of the local population, from an uneducated boatmen at a remote border crossing in Senegal, or a white Africaan taxi driver, or the black wait staff on a luxury train, elevates a holiday vacation or tourist activity to Travel as a Political Act.

We had one excursion off the train at Kimberly, site of one of the worlds largest diamond mines and Rhodes’ fortune.  Along with the discovery of gold, this was the reason for Jo’burg’s existence.  There is blog story just for this stop, but time is running out. 

De Beers Museum Sign 

The Big Hole (after digging as deep as they could
They started making tunnels)  

As we traveled through the countryside of South Africa we kept our blinds open day and night to watch the landscape pass, the sun set, and the moon to illuminate our surroundings.  When we awoke on our third day the train crawled though the outlying townships of Jo’burg and their train stations.  It’s was very disconcerting to wake up lying in bed with your spouse, covered by fluffy white down comforters, and four feet away have black township commuters staring at you through the large cabin window. We shut the blind until after breakfast.

We arrived in Pretoria, capital of South Africa, at 10:00 am and were taken to The Cradle of Humankind midway to our hotel in Jo’burg.   To be discussed in the next post.  

Western Cape - Part 2

On Friday May 3rd, we rented a car in Capetown to drive one way through the wine country and along the Garden Route to the town of Wilderness located  on the eastern edge of the Western Cape, about 1/3 along the southern coast of Africa.

I took the first leg, and drove through Stellenbosch to our guesthouse in Franschhoek, about an hour away.  Stellenbosch is the more famous town in the Cape Wine area as it was the second settlement by the Dutch after Capetown.  But Franschhoek (meaning French Corner in Dutch) is a small cultural village (food, wine, music, art, etc) and without a doubt the most spectacular vineyard setting I’ve even seen - whether France, Italy, Australia, Washington, Oregon, or California.

View of Franschhoek wine country from lunch

We were advised when planning the trip that you shouldn’t drink and drive in the country because “you don’t want to be in a South African jail.”  We also agreed before the trip that no one wanted to be a designated driver.  So Thom arranged for a wine tour of Franschhoek appellation on day one and Stellenbosch the next.  After checking into our lovely rooms at Lavender Farms (the name captures the setting) we were picked up by Melissa for lunch and a day tour of this wine region.  

Lavender Farms Guest House

After initially being impressed with a wonderful Chenin Blanc from Cedarbrook we soon concluded the style of SA wines is not to our liking.  Almost all the wines had an alcohol or antiseptic finish.  They are also known for Pinotage, their own varietal of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut grapes (Cinsaut was known as Hermitage in SA at the time thus the name).  But, alas, that wasn’t our fav either.  Never the less we had a wonderful time visiting these old Dutch wineries in a fabulous setting.

Dutch Winery from 1692

Tasting with Thom Robin and Robin

On the morning of our second day Robin was getting itchy twitch having not run or exercised in several weeks.  Our wine guide told us of Park Run, an international running group that schedules weekly runs in nearby parks in many locations around the world.  So we all got up early to meet the group at a winery in Franschhoek where a local volunteers facilitated the run.  While the Robins ran their 5k, Thom and I got them coffee for their reward.  When mama ain’t happy, ain’t no body happy.  

Start of Park Run

The day after our Stellenbosch tour we headed off for Cape Agulhas, the continents southern most point, and the separation of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  Originally named Cabo de Agulhas (cape of needles) by the Portuguese; either because the compass showed no variation between true and magnetic north, or the sharp rocks which sunk many a ship off shore.  It is geographically important, but visually it’s not as impressive as Cape of Good Hope.  But had to do it.

Africa’s Southern most point at Cape Agulhas

After visiting Cape Agulhas we drove back north and stayed in Swellendam in a sweet, grass roofed, guesthouse run by David and Maura, several generations of British residents.  Not much to say about Swellendam beyond a place to break up the drive, but David and Maura provided another insight into the struggles of SA. They are in their 60s and love SA and vowed not to leave.  However, they have encouraged all their kids to emigrate because of on going corruption, first by M’beki and then Zuma.  Also, they are concerned by the growing political power of the EFF party to challenge the ANC (African National Congress) who’s been in power since the end of Apartheid.  David says the party initials must stand for Everything For Free based on the unrealistic promises they make to the majority blacks.  David and Maura’s concern is that EFF wants to follow Zimbabwe’s policies under Mugabe that allows black Africans to expropriate white’s land with no compensation, and give them 2 hours to leave the premises or be killed.  “We don’t want to kill all the whites - yet” is the leaders comments.  Generations ago the whites took the land from the blacks and developed racist policies to keep them down.  They also spent centuries developing the economy, investing, and creating a personal lively hood.  The guesthouse is David and Maura’s asset for retirement.  Mandela is surely turning over in his grave.  It’s complicated.  

Swellendam Guesthouse 

Statue of Mandela at House Arrest where he was set free
Black family was there to recognize him and asked me to take their picture

From Swellendam, we drove the Garden Route to the town of Wilderness.  It’s mostly rolling farm land in between, and not particularly “garden-like”.  We spent three nights in Wilderness, which seems to be a second home or retirement destination for the whites of SA.  On the ocean side the town looks like a Southern California beach community.   Very contemporary architecture with lots of glass facing the relentless rolling sea.  But on the land side, it felt more like a military compound.  Most developments were gated and walled off with barbed wire.  In the hills above the town you could see black and colored townships and shanties for the workers that service the community. Despite this disparity, all black South Africans we met were extremely friendly, even when not a transaction. But, more on that later.

Our view at Wilderness 

Plattenburg, our furthest east point on the Garden Route

After Wilderness, we and our friends split.  They flew from George, about 30 minutes from Wilderness, to Jo’burg and the start of their safari in Sabi Sands Private Reserve next to Kruger, before heading home through Hong Kong.  We flew back to Capetown to take the Blue Train to Pretoria and The Cradle of Humankind.  

Eratta:  Thank you fellow travelers and readers for noting that Penguins also exist in Australia and New Zealand.  I stand corrected.  They exist on every continent and most islands surrounding the southern ocean.  The Galapagos are the furthest north they are found.  

The Western Cape - Part 1

Our second full day in Cape Town I was still struggling. But nothing like those who inhabited Robbin Island, our first tour in the morning.  Nelson Mandela spend 18 of his 27 years in prison on this island during Apartheid, along with many ANC and other “illegal” organizations fighting against minority white rule in a majority Black Country.  I’ll explain how this came about after our Apartheid Museum visit in Johannesburg next week.  This racist history is only 25 years ago and the country’s still evolving and a work in progress.  I won’t discuss current politics and race relations until one of my last posts because I find my analysis, emotions, and thoughts whipsawn as we meet more people, white, black and colored, that provide another perspective into the situation. To say the least, it’s very complicated.

The past is still so present in this country that former prisoners of Robbin island are the tour guides and give personal anecdotes of life on the island.  It’s very moving; the human spirit is inspiring; and at the same time human behavior toward our fellow species is appalling.  More to discuss later.

Security around Robbin Island 

Former Prisoner for 7 years, and our Guide

Photo of Prisoners breaking rocks. 

Same courtyard today

Mandela’s solitary cell for years

After Robbin Island we returned to the Victoria and Alfred waterfront and walked around.  In our guide books when I read about this new development I thought some fool misspelled the name as it must be Victoria and Albert, the Queens Consort.  Alas, Victoria’s son was Alfred and he was a major figure in British South Africa.  I also was a little hesitant to spend much time here as it was a tourist destination.  They have a Great Wheel like Seattle, London and many other cities appealing to the masses.  The development had all the typical tourist attractions like restaurants, boat tours, aquarium, etc.  But the development was pretty well done, clean and safe.  It integrated its working waterfront into the amenities with a sense of a new South Africa.

Old Colonial Dutch waterfront building 

New development along the working waterfront 

Later the four of us went to Woodstock for lunch.  This former industrial area, and then slum is a gentrifying area of Cape Town where Michele Obama had lunch at a salad bar.  He choice looked great, but we were past the noon hour and most selections were gone.  So we found another excellent restaurant in a redevelopment of an old warehouse that was still mostly vacant - ahead of the curve.  

Hip salad bar in Woodstock visited by M Obama

Warehouse converted into restaurant and shopping - still mostly vacant 

Thom and Johnson had a different agenda for the afternoon than us so we separated.  We like to explore cities on foot so we walked the two miles from Woodstock back to the CBD of Capetown.  It presented a very different picture of the city than our privileged tour of the peninsula, Table Mountain, V and A waterfront, and guided tour of Robbin Island.  It reminded us of the Bronx. Real people going to and fro with their daily life:  coming from school, finishing or starting work, catching buses or “taxis” back to the townships and general milling around.  However, before we left for South Africa Robin was constantly advised by a friend that lived in Cape Town “don’t walk there, you’ll be killed for $5.00.”  Our walk was both a reminder of that advice as some places seemed threatening, and a confirmation of our impressions to date that South Africans are VERY friendly.  Both probably true - it’s complex.

Woodstock

After returning to the CBD we walked to BoKaap, one of the original settlements in Cape Town by coloreds.  In Apartheid South Africa people were officially labeled by their race:  White, Blacks (non-mixed Africans), colored (intermarried Africans, and other non-whites).  Later they separated out Asians from coloreds.  BoKaap was settled by Malay who were imported as workers.  It was late afternoon as we walked BoKaap and Robin wanted me to see some of the back streets she saw with Thom and Johnson on the morning of my sick day.  As we started down the cobblestoned back streets in the gloaming, a nice Malay woman advised we go back to the main thoroughfare as it was getting unsafe in the evening.  

BoKaap 

We returned to our hotel, Cloud 9, via Long street. The street has an interesting architectural feel.  Two and three story buildings that reminded us of New Orleans with the wrought iron balconies, colorful graffiti painted walls, hawkers, and a milling population that looks very suspicious.  Most pickpockets in Capetown work this street of tourists (I’m getting to be an expert now - after the horse is out of the barn.)

Long street and New Orleans Architecture 

Long Street 

Tomorrow we rent a car and drive the wine country and Garden route for five days.  It will be more of a European trip than an Africa trip.  That will be in Western Cape Part 2.

Down! In Capetown

I forgot to mention the weekend we were in Saint Louie, before Thom and Robin headed out, there was an International Jazz Festival with a few major headliners like Herbie Hancock.  People from Europe flew in for the concerts and the arts community.  Many restaurants and bars had performances to accompany dining.  So my previous descriptions didn’t capture the pockets of the music and art scene buried in the dust, grime, and crime.

In addition to attending a couple of performances, I bought a 4’ x 4’ painting by Zeus!  Hope Holt likes it.

Jazz singer in Saint Louie

Zeus and his art

Robin Holt arrived in Capetown on the morning of April 29 after 18 hours from Vienna to Capetown via a layover in London.  Thom, Robin Johnson (hereafter called Johnson to differentiate from Robin Holt) and I arrived that evening after 12 hours from Dakar through Jo’burg.  I started feeling kind of punky and went to bed after skipping dinner with the group.

On the 30th I was down and out: high fever, chills, body aches, and a nagging dry cough.  I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning so Thom, Johnson and Robin went out to walk around the ‘hood. By the afternoon I agreed to see a Dr because the clinic was just a block from the hotel.  After being interviewed I confessed I didn’t take the malaria meds for Senegal (neither did Thom or Johnson). The Dr admonished me, but also agreed the incubation period seemed way to short to be that.  Never the less I had to get a blood test for malaria (but you can’t prove a negative on the test).  I also had spots on my throat that seemed the likely cause.  The best I could conclude is that three days before, at the Jamm hotel in Saint Louie, I didn’t see bottled water in the room and drank from the tap.  When I asked Yves the next day he said the water wasn’t good, and there was bottled water in a cabinet I didn’t see.  The Dr said I should take the Azithromyacin antibiotics I carried with me.  I powered through dinner with the group that night, but quickly crashed again.  Totally without energy. 

The next morning I had arranged a driver and car to take the four of us south along the Cape Peninsula to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point, neither of which is the Southern most point of the continent nor the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. But Cape of Good Hope has the geographic reputation because it is the SW most point of the continent and it was the most difficult transit rounding the tip of Africa.  Sailors called it Cape of Storms. It was clear for us, but even then, the crashing waves were impressive.  I was still feeling stormy inside.

Cape of Good Hope 

When we started our trip around the peninsula the Cape fog was in.  Our hotel room had a great view of Lions Head, but we couldn’t see it, and Table Mountain was totally covered in clouds.  We wondered if we’d even see Table mountain, let alone hike or ride the tram to the summit.  But as we passed Camp Bay about a half hour outside of Capetown we broke into the clear. 

Fog over the Atlantic  

On the way we stopped at the Boulders to see one of the few places outside of Antarctica that has penguins; the others are Chile, Argentina, and in the Galapagos, Ecuador.  Oddly, these penguins didn’t migrate from the closest land in Antarctica, but from South America across the Atlantic. 

The African Penguin 

It is truly a spectacular setting with the city nestled in The Bowl surrounded by the mountains.  The tram to the summit closed at 5:00 pm and the last tram down was at 6:00 pm.  It was 4:45 and we asked our driver to drop us off at the ticket office.  Without a line we got one of the last trams up.  It is a stunning and iconic view.  

View of the Cape Peninsula from Table Mountain 

Sunset on Table Mountain 

Cape Town from Table Mountain 

Cape Town in the Bowl. 

Still feeling punky, the next day we explored Capetown and Robbin Island.