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Letter to Cape Town

DEAR Cape Town,

Well, that was a wonderful few days. Thank you for our lovely holiday. It was packed with incident and good times with good friends.

Sad that it was so short and that we were unable to see all the other great friends we have in the Western Cape (including the good people at Fin24 – next time, guys, I promise!), or do some of the exciting things we had thought of doing.

But it’s not often that I get to travel this country as a simple tourist – even when, for many years, I travelled extensively as a travel journalist, I was working and so things tended to be laid on for me, like hire cars paid for by my media client.

This time, my husband and I did not have that luxury; we didn’t even have one of the ubiquitous offers we normally take advantage of: an airline offering ‘fly-one-drive-one’ or a hotel giving discounted car hire with a booking.

So we cheerfully decided to do it all on shank’s pony and public transport. “Cape Town’s got the best public transport in South Africa,” we told each other. And you do, really you do. On the whole, it was a fabulous experience, and I wish other major cities would go and do likewise.

But speaking strictly as a tourist, I have a few quibbles.

First of all, I looked at the routes and stupidly didn’t carefully read the entire website for MyCiTi, so I wasn’t aware that you can’t buy a card on the bus. And the driver of the bus I stopped didn’t know that you can buy cards at ‘participating retailers’; he told me I’d have to go to the Civic Centre to do that, which gave me heart failure – it’s a long walk from Seapoint!

Secondly, the website tells you that you can indeed buy from those ‘participating retailers’, and it usefully gives you their names and addresses and phone numbers.

But it would certainly be more convenient if you could do a deal with someone ubiquitous, like Spar or all the service stations – we found that you could get stranded, being low on funds and needing a top-up, but not having the list of places like Jade Hair Studio and Ashanti and Aquatic Pet City handy.

We don’t all carry tablets with us wherever we go to consult the lists, after all. Indeed, I know some not-so-elderly people who don’t even have access to the interwebs on their cellphones, horrors! And while in Cape Town, I met a German family who had bought very simple little cellphones on arrival, just to keep in touch with each other, and those had no internet access, either.

So, just a suggestion, okay?

Second thought: maybe it was our timing, but when we used the red double-decker tourist service – brilliant idea, that – most of our companions on the bus, and on all the other buses we passed, were highly identifiable as Brits.

If they weren’t the colour of ripe Brie, they were a painful shade of cerise; they wore neatly matching holiday outfits in tasteful checks and florals; and when I offered advice on how to find a place and told them I’d remind them when their stop came up, they said things like: “Thank you luv, you’re a real loifesaver!”

So why don’t you have shelters and seats at every red-and-blue stop? Well, at least shelter of some kind: I felt sorry for these poor old ducks starting their day with a twenty-minute wait in the blinding sun, their crisp floral shorts and pastel shirts wilting already.

On the day we decided to use the train, we queued for tickets, only to have all the windows slammed shut and be told to “Go away!” We were highly impressed at the attitude of the people manning the info kiosk at the station, who snapped, “That’s unacceptable!” and immediately leapt into action. Nothing they could do, however; the staff had gone on strike.

Which worked out to our benefit, mind you: we were told to buy a ticket on the train, and then never saw a conductor. Lots of security, but no conductor. So we freeloaded to Kalk Bay.

I knew the trains were not quite what they used to be, and was actually pleasantly surprised. My quibble is, the coaches are covered in graffiti which has covered much of the window glass.

One of my reasons for opting for a train trip was that last stretch from Muizenberg to Kalk Bay, surely one of the most beautiful train rides on earth as you thunder along right next to the sea, but I could barely see it through the pane of seaweedy green and yellow paint – it would be a good idea to clean the windows at least.

Oh, and one last thing: I could have used a sign at the Two Oceans Aquarium, saying ‘Caution: children on the rampage over weekends’.

Oh, all right, I’m being crotchety. But it is a bit rattling to settle down to watch the sharks and yellowtails peacefully circle, and have a swarm of under-fives utter screams as piercing as only an under-five’s scream can get while they use the amphitheatre-style seats as a jungle gym all around you.

But as for the rest: top marks, Cape Town. We had a superb time. Thanks a lot.

 - Fin24

*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own.
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