"Some nice pictures..." a South Africa Travel Page by Pieter11

Cederbergen

The westside of South Africa really is a spectacular area to travel through. I entered the country in the very north, at the end of the Namibian desert, and the further I went to the south, the greener the landscape got. In the area of Cederbergen you will see beautiful green hills, covered with millions of colourful flowers, like these "Goudsblommen".

While the center of Cape Town is a very neat and pleasant place to walk through, the city is completely surrounded by so called Townships: the area's where the black people were forced to live during the Apartheid. Today there is no forcement anymore, but still these very poor and enormously big area's are the domain where most of the black people live.

THE symbol of Cape Town of course is the Table Mountain. Unlike what you are made to believe the shape of the mountain is not special at all. The south of Namibia and the west of South Africa is full of these kind of mountains. But of course it IS special that this Table Mountain is located right in the middle of a city of this size. From the water you have a stunning view of the city at its bottom.

The most important excursion everybody should make when visiting Cape Town. Robben Island always has been a symbol of white domination during the Apartheid regime, with Nelson Mandela as the most famous victim. Luckily nowadays it is a symbol of hope and development: no more political prisoners, no more humiliation and visitors who are free to take the boat back to Cape Town whenever they want.

The citycentre of Cape Town is very different from the townships around it or from terrible Robben Island. The centre of the city is where you can find lots of historical building that were built in the times of Dutch and later Brittish regime. But the centre is also the place where you can find colourful markets and a great nightlife area called The Waterfront.

For Dutchmen South Africa stays a special place to visit because of the Dutch history there. Besides the fact that a large part of the South Africans still speak "Afrikaans", a language very similar to Dutch, there also are some physical remiders of that period. One of them are the Company Gardens, or "Compagnie Tuinen" in Afrikaans. This is the place where the first Dutch settlers started to grow their own vegetables and fruits to survive. Later they turned it into the botanical gardens you can still see today.