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The last few days of the South African trip were spent in Cape Town before a flight back to Johannesburg to catch the international flights home.

We had a on the hop-on hop-off bus, and over 2 days we got to see most of the things we wanted to do in Cape Town. On the 1st day the weather was a bit average as can be seen by Andrew clothing below.

We definitely were not going to see Table mountain on day 1. The bus did drive up there but all we could see from the top was looking through cloud. The second day it would have been possible to go up the cable car and get a good view, but by then we felt we didn’t need another view of the city.

The walking tour through downtown Cape Town was a great way to see some of the historical buildings. One fact the guide told us was that the buildings were often used in films – substituting for New York of the 1920s etc – and that the revenues from the movie industry contributed 2% of the provincial budget. Not sure if those numbers are correct, but it is certainly important.

We spent quite a bit of time criss-crossing the V&A waterfront area and as it was the weekend we could visit the Oranjezicht City Farm weekend market which was teeming with people.

The Kirstenbosch Gardens were a great way to spend a sunny morning at and we wandered extensively before a nice lunch in the gardens restaurant.

Then it was back on the bus to the Grand Constantia vineyard to sample a few wines

The only negative of the Cape Town stay was the “shower” in our hotel. The hotel, the location, the hosts, the breakfast etc were outstanding. But the hand-held shower in the bathtub beside the bed was not an experience we want to repeat. We took turns showering sitting or kneeling in the bath so as not to spray water around the room, while the other person faced the other way sitting on the bed. In future I have to look closer at the photos of potential hotels. The shower in our last night at the airport hotel in Johannesburg was like returning to luxury

We flew back to Johannesburg the night before our evening departure the next evening. Our flight was delayed about an hour leaving Cape Town and we spent some time observing the dynamics of these 2 characters.

In Johannesburg with a free morning we joined a tour to Soweto. It turned out to be be just us, so we effectively had a private tour. Our guide picked us up in his van and drove us to Soweto. We had a couple of photo ops outside the football stadium from the 2010 World Cup and the city limits of Soweto.

When you think Soweto you don’t necessarily think of the size of it. Estimates of the population are about 2 million people – the official numbers are lower but there are numerous undocumented residents. Within the city there are differing neighbourhoods from the hostels, the township huts without official electricity or running water, through to the wealthy areas with normal suburban houses

Part of the tour was visiting one of the basic townships. Our local resident guide took us through the settlement talking about the ubuntu of the residents – none of them had anything, but they all pulled together to support each other. She took us to the children’s pre-school where the children sang for us and wanted high fives.

The visit to the Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial was a really interesting stop. The museum covered the events of 1976 student uprising where peaceful protests by school children about compulsory Afrikaans in schools ended with lines of police shooting students. This prompted further escalations of general violence and the photo of the dead 13 year old Hector Pietersen intensified International opposition to the Apartheid regime. The line in the ground, seen above from a window in the museum, represents the line of police on this day.

The tour was a good way to use the day before our early evening flight through to Sydney. There we found the perfect airport bar…