The king of kitch, Vladimir Tretchikoff, lived and died in Cape Town. His reproductions are apparently so popular that they only come second to Picasso. Who knew? Although born in Russia and a sometime resident in Malaysia, Tretchikoff made South Africa his home. As have many others.
Cape Town is a haven for swallows. People who follow the sun. They live in Europe for the European summers and return to South Africa for our summers. How about this company that recruits German immigrants in Cape Town Arbeiten in Kapstadt? They have billboards in German dotted around the city.
This has had an impact on Cape Town. German butchers are a dime a dozen. We have French schools and American schools to name just two. We also have plenty North African immigrants. They tend to be looking for a new life rather than a sunnier life. Here is an interesting link to the history and role of Jewish immigrants in South Africa – Jewish history in South Africa. The Jewish, Chinese and Portuguese immigrants go back many decades. Newer immigrants are German, Congolese and Somalis.
Cape Town in particular has less of an African feel and demographic make-up than the rest of South Africa. It’s a lot more cosmopolitan. Our yoga class for example has a few Brits, two French nationals, plenty of Germans, an Angolan, a Swede, a Belgian, a new bloke with an accent called Anatoli and us. A whole two South Africans. Even the running club socials require a German end of the table and a South African end so we don’t shout in different languages over each other.
Another interesting facet to Cape Town is the political scenario. The rest of South Africa is run by the ANC which is predominantly black and African. Cape Town is run by the DA which has a white, Jewish female leader. Even black townships such as Langa vote DA. It’s a lot less black and white here. I love the dynamic and open minded mix of people that inhabit our city. We are known as the hippy city. The San Francisco of South Africa. We are also the pink capital of Africa.
I spoke in a previous post about who South Africans are in terms of history and culture. I thought in this post I would share some statistics. I love Nationmaster for stats. They have all sorts of data, like who drinks the most beer or who lives the longest. So here are a few stats you might find interesting.
1. South Africa is the 25th most populated country out of a list of 241 countries. We have around 50 million people. Bottom of the list are the Pitcairn Islands with a whole 48 folk and top of the list is China with a lot of people. Germany comes in at number 16 and Canada is in 38th position.
2. We are 98th on the list for our ability to reproduce with 2.43 children per woman. Compare that to Mali where the average woman has 7.34 children in her lifetime and the Netherlands where she will have 1.98 children.
3. Only 2.33% of our population are immigrants versus 12.31% in Germany and 100% in the Vatican City.
4. France is the most visited country in the world with 67 310 000 arrivals recorded in the Nationmaster stats. Rwanda is the last place people want to visit with only 1000 visitors in the same time period and is at 152nd place. South Africa comes in at 22nd place with 5 557 000 visitors. Compare that to Thailand with 7 356 000 tourists and India with 2 374 000 arrivals in the same period. Monaco got 259 000 and Seychelles had 130 000 visitors. I suspect Soccer Cup will bump SA up a little when the next lot of number crunching happens.
5. We are not the world’s best drivers but we’re certainly not the worst. Statistics are measured in numbers pro rata per million people. The top four countries where you are most likely to die in a car accident are Belize, El Salvador, South Korea and Kuwait. South Africa clocks in at position 24 after the USA and Mexico. The UK, Hungary and Peru are the safest places to drive or be a pedestrian. Worth remembering next time a taxi swerves in front of you and you get the mutters.
South Africa has plenty unique fauna and flora. Since the vegetation varies vastly from one region to the next, each region has it’s own specialties.
On the east coast moving down from Mozambique through Swaziland along to Natal, it is lush, humid, warm and tropical. Moving inland from Natal toward Lesotho is a mountainous area and the breathtaking Drakensberg or Dragons mountains.
Further inland is the lowveld or low ground and the highveld or high ground. A mix of savanna and grasslands.
The Garden Route is about 200 kilometres of dense vegetation, lakes and lagoons along the south eastern coast. The west coast of South Africa is much more rugged. As it heads up toward Namibia it becomes bleaker and dryer. Names like Skeleton Coast give a clue. Inland from the west is the Karoo which is desert land.
There is a huge amount to see and do in South Africa. This link South African animals is great for plenty info on wildlife, nature reserves and a whole lot more. Since we run a guest house, we often find visitors have not anticipated the scope of all that encompasses South Africa. People often allow themselves only one day in Cape Town and end up disappointed at how much they have to miss out. Obviously it would be great to have infinite time to travel. That is not possible. But I would say for Cape Town, allow a minimum of three days to take in the best bits.
Since I am always on about full moons, sunsets and stars, I thought you might like this link to a 360′ panoramic view taken from Lions Head on a full moon night. Click 360′ panoramic view from Lion’s Head and then scroll up, down, left or right. How cool is that view?
Photo courtesy Bing free photos
Go to – My Holidays and Trips – at the top of this page to read about other places we have visited. Or just click on – this link.
A friend suggested I talk about day excursions in Cape Town. The key tourist attractions in Cape Town include Robben Island, Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Point, The V and A Waterfront and Constantia Vineyards. See here for more on them Cape Town Tourism
A walking tour of either the city and Gardens area or the seafront and Waterfront area is a great way to explore the city. You can make use of a guide. Book at one of the tourism offices Tourism information offices. But how about a do-it-yourself walking tour? Blow the money you save on a fabulous meal instead.
For a city centre tour and map, visit the National Geographic website for their walking tour. See here walking tour 1. For the Waterfront area tour try this link walking tour 2 to get some ideas as to what you can see.
Just a word on beggars. Each time money is given to a beggar, they learn that begging is a viable way to make money. There can be no dignity in having to beg. Giving money might momentarily appease the giver but it keeps beggars trapped in a miserable life. If you really want to make a difference, rather give money to an organisation like The Homestead. They provide safe homes, try to rehabilitate and educate street children. Another great organisation that helps volunteers to make a difference is Aviva.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Cross
Table Mountain was on fire again this weekend. There are fires every year on at least one of our many mountains. And we have many mountains. Because Table Mountain is right bang slap in the middle of our city, the city of Cape Town is built around the mountain, the fires can come really close to our homes. Evacuations are not unheard of. Similarly winter rains bring mudslides to houses on the slopes.
There are more photos taken at night from homes on Seth Rotherham’s blog Table Mountain on fire What causes these fires? Arson, careless smokers and bottles or the magnifying of glass in the sun may set the mountain alight. Our summer months are hot and dry and the vegetation becomes highly flammable. The casualties can be human life, certainly rodents, insects, juvenile mammals and bird eggs perish in these fires.
Yet our famous mountain fynbos requires fire to survive. Germination in some species is dependent on smoke from fires. Other plants need fire to split seed pods allowing seeds to disperse. So while on the one hand, fires are a necessary evil, do be aware that prosecution will ensure if anyone is found to actually cause a fire. A British tourist was extradited to face charges in South Africa some years back. See here for more 2006 Table Mountain fire
