Before I settle back into 'real life', I want to write a few words about South Africa. Now we went there mainly because it was at the end of a journey so very far away. With a little information and encouragement from Shelagh we extended our stay in the Cape region to a full 12 days. This was a great decision - it should have been a week longer (or a month - but then we really would start to miss home - and reality and winter and friends most of all!) Anyways if you have not travelled a lot this is a great starting region and if you have travelled it is a great region as well. We loved our 'sheltered' two weeks in the Cape region.
The food is great, the wine is great - and cheap, the accommodation is excellent (even the budget and backpacker is super), the scenery spectacular - the raging Atlantic breakers, the mountains, the vinyards and arid interior, the interesting plants and trees and beautiful flowers, the beautiful color and formation of the rocks, the up and down nature of the small 'mountainous' passes. It all combines for a wonderful holiday destination and good weather tops it off. We had warm and sunny weather most of the time though a few rainy days. We went from gortex to short sleeves. Weather is so important when thinking of holidays - since so much of the time is spent in the great outdoors.
South Africa has made huge strides since the end of apartheid. However there are lots of obstacles and problems to surmount including unemployment corruption, 500 police officers dead this year, housing and integration (the townships may be improving but people prefer to live where they have always lived and would appear to make improvements there rather than move. This means blacks are quite far from the centre, colored in another areas, Indians another and whites in the prime areas), education and training and opportunities for more people. Entreprenurial skills seem to be a definite asset here. Vigilance and care as to where and when you go are a forgone conclusion. The people that we met (mostly white people running the restaurants and hotels) seemed positive about South Africa and could not remember or seemed to erase the past misdeeds of the country from the present conversation. Of course, they appeared open-minded but then of course we never met the other people whom we sometimes heard about with their racist attitudes. We did hear several times that the unskilled black South African is a poor worker with a poor attitude compared to the thousands of refugees from Zimbabwe and the Congo. South Africa seems to be letting in all of these refugees. We even met a black with a good business (our tour guide to the township) that was concerned about the opportunities that some of these immigrating people had found instead of the black South African. I must say that there seemed to be openness and lots of criticism in the newspaper. South Africa has huge social issues but there is evidence that they are trying. We need to remember that we visited the extreme south where lots of wealthy whites live. 85% of the population of South Africa is black and 15% white, approximately. We also saw blacks and whites and others working the same jobs in the grocery stores and gas stations. Usually the restaurants and small guest houses were owned and managed by whites but the staff was mixed. We saw huge changes from 25 years ago when we visited for a short holiday.
(In Zambia we also saw lots of changes. The blacks were much more confident and doing quite well economically. We were not given preferential treatment or noticed like we were 25 years ago.)
So I hope that we will go back to South Africa and see another portion but still include the Cape and surrounding area for a return visit. Highly recommended! and then add a game reserve or two!
