Cape Town: My dream visit by the sea

South Africa is celebrating 30 years of independence. She is halfway Kenya’s.

I visited the country a decade ago when the echoes of freedom were still reverberating. Now reality has sank in, independence was not enough. Nation building is a harder task.

The country enjoyed immense goodwill under Nelson Mandela. It did not matter if one was white, black, coloured or an immigrant. They all felt at home in the rainbow nation. When I found two portraits of Mandela in a BnB owned by an mzungu, it was clear Mandela was beloved by everyone.

His successors, it seems, did not enjoy the same goodwill, both at the local level and globally. After Thambo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma almost ended the South African dream by fanning tribal nationalism.

What I saw now is a quieter South Africa. It has settled like other countries after their independence. Social classes did not go away overnight. The legacy of apartheid lives, but based on your earning power. Every African country dreamed of equality, but economic reality is different. Three hundred years of inequality in SA can’t be sorted in 30 years. It’s work in progress.

Our big policy shifts such as SHIF, new university funding model and bottom-up economics are about equality. We should reflect more on equity.

The fact that South Africa’s ruling party, ANC, lost majority last year shows how far the political pendulum has turned. It got into a coalition with the Democratic Alliance, and it seems to be working. In Western Cape, the Democratic Alliance won power. Are coalitions going to be the norm in SA? Could that revive the rainbow nation dream with everyone feeling included?

Will that stall reforms with horse trading and race to be included in the winning team—what we are doing in Kenya?

Enough on politics. On my last leg of the visit to SA, it was time to get out of the city, Cape Town, and see the countryside.

Destination was Hawston, about 110km east of Cape Town. It’s a scenic drive through Sr Lowry pass up the Hottentots Mountains. Vineyards catch your attention just after Somerset West town. After Gabouw, a small old town, we drove through apple land with familiar signboards such as Tru-Cape and Kromco.

Big farmlands

The first thing that strikes you is lack of small holdings that characterise Kenyan rural areas. You occasionally come across small towns, some shanties. I was told this is mostly for workers in the fruit farms.

This region looks like Kenya before independence with huge farmlands on rolling hills. If you drive through Nyandarua to Laikipia or Uasin Gishu, minus small holdings, you are in South Africa! No wonder Boers settled in these counties; they have must have felt at home.

I noted new vineyards. Climate change is making grape growing possible in new areas, not just in SA but Europe and Canada.

We got to Hawston, a small town by the sea. It’s by a beautiful beach. It was once active with fishing, a landing jetty is testimony to that. Whales come to calf around Hawston because of the warm waters. I didn’t see any.  

Most Hawston citizens are coloureds. I was told they were forcefully brought there when apartheid was institutionalised.

Our destination was a small house about two kilometres from Hawston. The house has a history, built in 1850 and once owned by General Jan Smuts. Remember his exploits in WW I in Taita-Taveta? Then a strange connection to Karen in Nairobi. His staff car used in 1916 lies in Karen owned by the Hughes family.

The beach is rocky, very unusual but shelters the house and its environs from the sea. The sunset by the rocky beach was something to behold with a silhouette of the rocks and the birds nesting there. The night silence was interrupted by seals yelling.

The next day was full of expectations. We drove to Kleimond. The small town was visible across the bay at night. It was about 30 minutes’ drive along the sea with mountains in the background.

The attraction there was penguins. They have a small colony living side by side with Egyptian geese. Artificial nests by the shoreline aim to increase their numbers.

Their neighbours are cormorants, very endangered. They nest on rocks too. I did not know Africa has its penguins, though much smaller than Antarctica penguins.

We visited Hermanus town, a few minutalso es’ drive from Hawston. It’s an old whaling station, but now a thriving retirement home. A visit to a golf course nearby left no doubt, the town is good for retirees.

Back to Hawston, we took a 45-minute walk along the rocky beach before 8pm sunset. Destination? A dead whale. It was about 30 feet long. I did not mind the stench! To prove that visit, I brought home a few of its teeth, a lasting connection to the sea and its life.

The next morning and my last day at Hawston was more exciting. We took an hour of canoeing by the beach among the rocks to see seals and kelp, a sea weed. The agile mammals rested on the rocks or swam nearby, as if making fun of us. I felt a sense of fulfillment; I have seen penguins, whales and seals in the documentaries. I finally saw them live.  I realised why tourism is not about to die.

After seals, the rest of day was left for wineries. They are big businesses with long history. Only Nelson Mandela competes with South African wineries.

We visited two between Hawston and Cape Town. One was Spookfontein, established in 1847. Wine tasting is fun but you pay for that. The fee is waived if you buy a bottle of wine. We took lunch there, paying for tasting (85 rand). Most wineries have restaurants and are popular for hosting functions. Do our tea farms do the same?

The next winery was Paul Cluiver, established in 1896. We tasted wine and bought some Riesling, not very common like Merlot, Shiraz or Sauvignon cabaret. Wines are named after grape types.

My trip was over. South Africa has changed, but it’s a place to visit. There is something romantic and fascinating about the southern tip of the continent. I hope to return, visit the Cape of Good Hope and a Bantustan.