08.25 I can hear the birds sing and the ceiling fan swing. We have plans to visit a restaurant which prepares and serve meat from the wild animals of Africa. We’ve read about it in the travel litterature we brought with us. It is supposed to be located down in the harbour area. Like yesterday we are in Durban, South Africa, or to be more precise in room 10 at Tekweni Backpackers.

09.31 We are back at Caffé al Bacio, It is time for breakfast. Christer and I will have coffee while Roberth settles with tea. Roberth and I will be having scones and Christer a croissant.

Christer outside our hostel in Durban, Tekweni Backpackers.

We walked past the Greyville Race Course.

We´re walking towards the central parts of Durban. You can see the name change of the streets in this photo.

11.03 On foot we´ve reached the more central areas of Durban. Our part of the city is called Morningside and is a bit off from the centre. Although some sources claim that Durban is one of the most dangerous for tourists we´ve actually walked here. There is no match between the street names in our books and the ones here in real life. The streets are getting new names. They sometimes use signs with both names and sometimes just the new one. On our way here we´ve passed a race track, a golf course and streets packed with people of Indian and African origin.

11.19 "I don’t know where you’re going and I don’t know why", was heard from Marie Fredriksson in the loudspeakers as we entered Buster’s diner. She´s the lead singer in the Swedish band Roxette. We are about to calm down and to find a new direction. Well, I guess we will get ourselves something to drink as well. The diner is situated at the ground floor of Riviera Hotel at 127 Victoria Embankment.

Victoria Embankment, Durban.

Roberth on Smith Street.

12.59 We’ve done more walking after a visit to the city hall where we saw statues dressed in real headgear. Yes, headgear. Someone had for some reason placed small caps on the statues. We’ve also seen the Vasco da Gama Monument Clock. It commemorates the 400 year anniversary of Mr da Gama’s visit to this area in 1497. We are currently in a cool room just next to a café for some internet surfing. It is a really warm day, +27°C.

13.41 We had, as mentioned earlier, plans for a special restaurant for our lunch, the one which offered meat from different African animals. The restaurant we had plans for has ceased to exist. We have instead gone up to the 32nd floor in the John Ross House. Here we are seated at Roma Revolving Restaurant (http://www.roma.co.za). My friends have ordered pasta and I will go for crocodile, yes crocodile! It isn't cheap but will I ever again get the chance to try it? The very restaurant revolves, ever so slow, around. It is always a new view. It feels strange to have been seated by the desserts, passed the bar and a while later the toilets. Will we remember the way out from here?

Roma Revolving Restaurant.

This eastward view gave us important information about where we should walk later on.

View towards Durban Marina.

14.19 Roberth just said that he thinks that this is a nice revolving restaurant. The food was great, the portions huge and we are pleased. Crocodile was tasty. It tasted like shellfish. I´ve got the marina to my left and the dessert cart to my right I am way too pleased and lazy for any of them.

14.40 One other great thing with our restaurant was the fact that we were able to determine the distance and direction to our next stop. We had to pass through a, according to the guidebook “dangerous area” which is best to avoid, to get there. I guess that goes for evenings and nights. Three rough men in broad daylight ought to make it past some crossings to hopefully reach the beach alive.

Peter and Roberth on South Beach, Durban.

15.26 We made it and have reached the uShaka Marine World (http://www.ushakamarineworld.co.za), a big park by the beach. Here is a huge aquarium with sharks and other sea creatures, an amusement Water Park and much more. We are about to watch the dolphin show which takes place at the dolphin stadium. We’ve just seen some penguins too.

An artificial river is great fun for the visitors at uShaka Marine World.

Penguins at uShaka Sea World.

16.32 It was a long and amazing show. The dolphins had their own stage names and all took part in a play accompanied by mighty background music. We’ve moved inside an old wreck. It is plenty of aquariums here. It is so soothing to watch fishes. Here are also some stingrays, different kinds of sharks, turtles and much more. The aquarium is one of the five largest in the world. You can also get a close encounter with the sharks by being lowered into the aquarium in a steel cage.

17.24 We left the marine world behind glass and the different species of fish and went to dip our feet in the Indian Ocean and took some pictures. We also went out on a pier and looked at some amazing pieces of art made out of sand, truly impressing! Now we are going by taxi with a female driver. We are on our way home. It has been a long day and it is far from over.

The dolphin stadium at uShaka Sea World.

It´s very difficult to take a good photo of jumping dolphins.

Roberth in front of one of the aquariums at uShaka Marine World.

A fish of considerable size.

17.56 As I mentioned we have seen a lot today. One thing which we haven’t seen is the old railway station. It has a roof which can stand five metres of snow. The question is how come? Well, the blueprints of the roof of the station here in Durban were mixed up with the ones of the railway station in Toronto. So what happened to the station in Toronto? Well, the roof caved in at the first snow fall.

20.14 We will be having dinner tonight as well. It will be eaten at Bangkok Wok at 116 Florida Road. We will be drinking Kupferberger Auslese. It was Christer´s time to choose wine. We are about to order food now.

21.14 We ordered different chicken dishes. It was really tasty. No huge portions but just what we needed. Now we are about to relax and do some packing before our final night together. Durban has been really pleasant but as always in South Africa tricky to see everything if you don´t have a car. One can catch a taxi sometimes. We didn’t see any of the dangers. The security is better than before here but common sense makes it through most things.

Art made out of sand on the beach in Durban.

Sunset in Durban.

Thursday 6th of August

07.30 The wind is rattling the leaves in the trees outside. I’ve had a good night´s sleep and feel prepared to head southwest. Christer and I are on our way to our southernmost point of the trip. Roberth is about to go back to where his trip started. We are going to fly to Cape Town.

08.51 We’ve checked out and are waiting for the taxi we asked the good people here to get us. There is a call from inside. What has happened? Ok, the taxi is here. Our room has been simple, plain, enough, a typical hostel room.

09.25 We had a pleasant ride to the airport. The guy driving us there didn’t drive a taxi. It was more a kind of a private transport arranged by the staff. The guy, who had grown up in Durban, told us some things about the city’s climate and that the streets of the city were given names from persons no one had heard of.

09.44 We´ve got some filter coffee coming up. We are at House of Coffee at Durban International Airport. Our luggage is checked in. A person with a jacket on which back it says KZN Gang is sitting some tables away.

10.38 We are boarded and seated. We are flying with Kulula Air to Cape Town. It does say British Airways on the plane though. The companies are working together so nothing odd in that. The simple explanation is that British Airways call themselves Kulula on the South African low fare market.

Roberth is prepared to go west.

We´re on our way to land in Cape Town.

11.27 The first officer of the flight said hello in different languages and introduced himself as the white Zulu. A lady in the cabin staff has informed us that the steward Geoffrey was one of the last ten competitors in this year’s Idol South Africa. She also joked about that he will sing for us later. They are offering Coke, in can, not in grams. Kulula is a company with a sense of humour, cool!

13.31 The first officer kept on in the funny style as we had landed. He told us that people travelling to Pretoria were in trouble. This since we just had touched down in Cape Town. The co-pilot is supposed to be called Kurt Cobain, can it really be true? He rounded it all up with” Don’t drink and drive. Do like us, smoke and fly!” We’ve just been taken care of by Roberth’s local friend Jacques and a lady. Jacques will take us to our next home here in Cape Town. There was a camera team waiting as we arrived. They weren’t waiting for us.

We said goodbye and wished Jacques and Roberth a happy trip!

Peter has found our new home.

14.34 A big thank you to Jacques who took us all the way to our hostel. It took some driving and turning through Cape Town´s narrow streets to get us here. Roberth has stepped out. Well, it is actually me and Christer who have done so. We stepped out from Jacques’ car. Jacques and Roberth will travel on to new horizons before Roberth’s journey home. He has a ticket from Cape Town. Christer and I will be flying home from Johannesburg. The two of us just checked in at Cape Town Backpackers (http://www.capetownbackpackers.com). Here we have plans to spend two nights. We are at 81 New Church Street. It is hilly here and several narrow streets. The mighty Table Mountain is always in the background.

READ ABOUT THE REST OF ROBERTH´S TRIP HERE.

15.04 We are waiting for our two Castle beers. We are at the Italian-Portuguese restaurant Beleza in the corner of Kloof Nek Road & Burnside Road. Some food will for sure be great. A young lady is sitting by the table next to us. She is smoking. She just got a cup of, coffee? She just placed a tetra pak on the table, juice, wine, yoghurt? A young man just sat down next to her and began to talk to her. She put out her cigarette, thanks.

One letter is missing!

Our street, New Church Street.

17.27 We finished the meal, paid and strolled around in the neighbourhood. Christer made a phone call from the restaurant and greeted his sister on her 32nd birthday. There are some wonderful views over the different mountain tops here. We are making up plans for this evening and tomorrow. The room is cool and has a scent of a damp stone cellar.

18.34 We had enough of planning and stuff. We need to get out of the room and get ourselves something to eat and drink.

19.29 Songs from Cat Stevens and Chris Rea have been heard from the troubadour. We ordered a glass of wine each. We are at ”The famous butchers grill” at 101 Buitengracht Street. We are going to have rump roast. The restaurant has won a price for its tasty meat. This is going to be great.

21.06 We had 350 grams of totally yummy rump roast, an excellent troubadour called David Berman (we didn’t eat him) and some delicious wine. The cost of it all, with tip, was around US$22. We were followed by a stroller on our way home. A stroller is a harmless person here in Cape Town in need of food, drugs or glue. He was waiting outside of the fancy hotel in which the restaurant was. We said a kindly no to him and began our walk home. He tangled along and touched my small backpack. I gave him a quick, cold glance the first two times and he said he was sorry. I made a quick turn around come the third time and cried out “Please don’t touch me”. He left in a haste. I feel sorry for the strollers but also wonder why they can’t accept a human being´s privacy.

22.13 We’ve just done our washing and are about to turn off the lights. It has been a long day and it is about to come to an end. Tomorrow new events await us, adventures and perhaps more strollers?

There are lots of wonderful views in Cape Town.

Friday 7th of August

09.10 Christer has just entered the shower. We’ve finished our breakfast here in the room. I wonder what Roberth is doing? Within an hour we will walk to the bus stop for the sightseeing bus. We are about to learn more about Cape Town. We are going to buy a two day ticket for the buses which travel between the different tourist sights here.

10.03 We’ve reached the bus stop. There is no space or parking lot for the bus. Are we supposed to jump aboard as it passes or? We are in the corner of Leeuwen and Buitengracht 115. The sun is shining. I have a feeling that this will be a great day.

10.34 The bus was supposed to be here ten minutes ago according to the schedule. All we can do is wait and see. We’ve spotted something big further down Buitengracht. Could it be our bus?

Table Mountain looks perfect on this cloudfree day.

11.04 The bus (red line) got here, stopped and slowly took us up to the next stop at Table Mountain. We are at the lower station of the cableway. It is closed for maintenance/service, but who cares? The view from here is ever so amazing. There is a layer of mist over the city. You can look out over the ocean and up towards the top station of the cableway. There is a snake warning sign in the slope. An information board tells about different hiking trails and the sun is shining. It is dangerous to walk on Table Mountain due to the sudden changes in weather. Many have died although it is so close to the city. We’ve seen several beautiful flowers, with names unknown to us. The area around Cape Town has a lot of unique/endemic plants.

11.30 Our journey continues with a new bus. The ticket we bought makes it possible for us to jump on and off at the stops as we please. It is a perfect solution. It is green and beautiful wherever we look. It is a different climate here compared to the winter-dry eastern parts of the country. This is a so called winter rainfall climate. It is similar to the climate around the Mediterranean.

On the red sightseeing bus you can listen to information in several languages. Just use the headphones.

Cape Town

Information about the Table Mountain hiking trails.

Christer on Table Mountain.

12.05 We got off the bus at Camps Bay Beach. Here we have strolled around in the idyllic vacation area and Christer has donated 20 rand to a small boy’s kidney transplant. We’ve just sat down at Café Caprice. I managed to mix things up as I was about to order. I started with ordering warm milk and after that warm coffee. I don’t think any café in this country offers cold coffee. Was I thinking about Vietnam or? We were served cold coffee at times while visiting Vietnam last year. We just got our carrot cakes now.

Camps Bay

Camps Bay Beach. In the background you can see the peaks of "the twelve apostles".

Christer, Peter and the Atlantic.

12.59 We’ve walked the beach and picked some seashells. The waves were lovely but it isn't wise to dive in. The Atlantic is cold here no matter what time of the year. Only the tough ones make it, tough ones with swimming gear. We, lacking that gear, are standing at bus stop 14 awaiting the bus. There are some screaming seagulls above us and Germans in front of us. They are actually; believe it not, for once not shouting.

13.36 We made our next stop by the Waterfront. We got here in the very same bus which brought us up the Table Mountain. We travelled along a coastline with the most expensive houses in the entire South Africa. Some of them had their own lift straight down to the street and the beach from their luxurious villas along the mountain slopes. We saw yet another arena for the upcoming Soccer World Cup just before we got off. It is situated at Green Point. We’ve looked at statues here at the Waterfront. It is statues of four gentlemen from South Africa who have received the Nobel Peace Prize. It is the ANC leader Albert Luthuli (1960), Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu (1984) and former presidents FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela (1993).

14.30 Waterfront is a kind of restored dock/harbour area with loads of shops and restaurants. It reminds us of Albert Dock in Liverpool which has been restored in a similar way. We went there in 1999. That is ten years ago! Time sure flies. Here at Waterfront we’ve walked around and inside Victoria Wharf, a huge and airy mall. We did some walking there before we decided to sit down at the restaurant Simply Asia. We got a small plaque, disc each as we ordered. It is suppose to vibrate as our food is ready. Christer´s disc just vibrated.

South African Nobel prize winners.

Waterfront, Cape Town.

15.14 Mine soon vibrated as well. We finished our food and are back where we got off. We are waiting for a bus which is supposed to take us to more central parts of the city and later home.

15.38 We are rolling on. We are on the very same bus as we started with earlier today. They will just drive around in the central areas and it feels great to just lean backwards and feel like a genuine tourist.

A photo from the central parts of Cape Town. The street is called Heerengracht.

17.08 Our ride ended by the castle. We walked on from there and have among other things seen the cathedral in which Desmond Tutu was Archbishop. We also saw a car from Switzerland. We did some shopping at the grocery store Spar. Christer just went inside Woolworths food to get some more. He wasn't all pleased with what Spar had to offer. I am sitting by a table together with a tied down dachshund (dog). The both of us are waiting. Damn it, the dachshund dog managed to make the table fall. It is possible to fold in the legs of the table and the dog just did it. I have to go now. The dachshund has taken aim for the store and his owner. The dog is by the way dressed in a national team jersey. It seems to be a fan of the Springboks, the national rugby team.

17.33 I squeezed the leash under one of the legs of my chair. Christer looked a bit surprised as he got out of the store. But I guess it is unusual to put a rugby jersey on a dachshund. I remained seated until the daughter of the dog´s owner arrived. Her arrival was met by much joy from the dog and also from me. We are back in the room. Only a few of the clothes we washed are dry.

Long Street, the main backpacker street in Cape Town.

Peter with unexpected company.

19.31 We’ve done some surfing at an internet café just a block away. It is always great to get updated about latest news.

19.48 We’ve made it to a Portuguese-Mozambican restaurant, Toni’s at 88 Kloof Street. Well, we saw it yesterday as we drove by here with Jacques and we managed to find it by foot. There are plenty of restaurants from all over world here in Cape Town. Whoever get here shall be able to find what he/she prefers.

21.20 We had some great food just next to a fireplace. We finished our food and tasty beer (Laurentina) from Mozambique before we paid for it and went home. We’ve planned the upcoming day and all feels smooth. We are about to pack whatever we have no immediate use of. We will not pack the stuff which is still not dry.

22.44 I can hear a whining. Is it a dog? Is it the dachshund? I hope that it will end soon whatever it might be. We are about to go to sleep. There will be a lot of bus trips tomorrow.