Beyond the View: Reflections from Cape Town

Travel can be a delight. Encountering the unexpected, the new, leads you to rethink the old and come away with shifts in perspective. A place like Cape Town with its very diverse cultural and historical past, provides a multitude of opportunities.

And there were some unexpected reminders of family - a sign to say that Singapore was 9661km away and then an impressive lifeboat too!

The tourist bucket list for Cape Town starts with a trip up the iconic Table Mountain. And it did not disappoint. We decided on taking the cable car, as the hike up looked too tricky. The first surprise came when the floor of the cable car rotated as we ascended! Quite unnerving for those of us not that happy with heights!. The views though were magnificent as anticipated. What was unexpected was the walk at the top around the plateau. The terrain was rocky, with a beautiful range of flora, somewhat reminscent of Dartmoor! And to find a cafe, shop and loos was also surprising, leading to wondering how they built it all on the top of a mountain. Human ingenuity is amazing. If only it could always be used for the benefit of humanity and the environment that sustains us.

A visit to Robben Island is also a must for any tourist to Cape Town. I had some knowledge about the history of South Africa's apatheid era but standing in one of the prison blocks listening to a man who had been a political prisoner there for many years, was powerful. As was seeing the cell where Nelson Mandela lived for 18 years of his 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activism. Man's inhumanity to man never ceases to shock.

The third 'must' is going to Boulder Bay to see the African penguins. The first pair arrived in 1983, and now there are thousands in the colony, sheltered from the wind by large granite boulders and with a good supply of food in the nearby ocean. It was fun to watch them, but as a photographer I was equally fascinated by the colours of the boulders, the white sand and the turquoise waters.

But it was depressing to learn that the penguins are now endangered through commercial over-fishing, climate breakdown and ocean pollution. 60,000 people visit Boulder's Bay each year to have an up-close encounter with the penguins. How many reflect on how their lifestyle is impacting upon the very survival of such iconic species?

I mulled on this as we made the journey back along the coast via Chapman's Peak. We were treated to spectacular views of where the land meets the sea at the end of Africa:

It is easy to be carried along by beautiful scenery and iconic places. Yet time spent in Cape Town’s Waterfront makes inequality and over-consumption hard to ignore. Vast shopping malls showcase global brands, while rows of stalls sell souvenirs to passing tourists. The contrast feels especially stark in South Africa, the most unequal country in the world, where the top 10% hold 80% of the wealth and unemployment sits at around 30%. Globally, 0.001%, just 60, 000 people, hold three times the wealth of the poorest half of humanity.

Being here forces me to think about my own position. In the UK, I would not consider myself wealthy, yet on a global scale I am among the richest 1%. It is an uncomfortable truth, easily masked by everyday concerns about rising prices and financial pressure. Half of the world’s population owns less than 10% of its total wealth, and that imbalance is felt not only in statistics, but in the spaces we move through and the choices we make. I am fortunate to be able to travel the world if I choose, but flying to and from South Africa alone cancels out the environmental care I try to practise through recycling, wearing pre-loved clothes, and eating a vegetarian diet. It leaves me wondering how responsibility should be measured—by intention, by impact, or by what we are unwilling to give up. In Cape Town, the choice is more development, while there are messages everywhere about the shortage of water. The wildlife is left on the margins.

One of the benefits though of travelling is having new cultural encounters that force you to think of things from a different pespective. A visit to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA) did this for me. The building itself is like a cathedral inside having been created from a decommissioned hollowed-out concrete grain silo and elevator tower. I was fascinated by the way the light came through the oval windows:

The exhibitions inside were also fascinating. Spring is Rebellious: The Art and Life of Albie Sachs provided further insights into the Apartheid era, while Sala, the permanent exhibition, had 'Off-the-Air' by Mouna Korray, a Tunisian artist. A series of self-portraits, but draped in a white sheet in different landscapes, to illustrate confinement and freedom. Very powerful story-telling, as I also interpreted the images as being a refugee ignored. I noted the irony of my order of a chocolate brownie and coffee reflected the excesses being critiqued.

The beach at Camp's Bay provided a wonderful space for reflection at the end of our busy days. I realised that if I travelled south, the next land mass was Antarctica, while if I went west it would be Argentina. The power of the Atlantic ocean was reflected in the huge waves that rolled up the beach, with the wind whipping up the fine sand.

Too tricky for me to swim in. But there was a tidal pool, which to my surprise was full of fish, and cormorants came to catch them beside me as I swam! A pair of geese brought their goslings to feed on the seaweed at the water's edge. Such little encounters with wildlife leave deep impressions. And maybe give some hope?

South Africa: 30 years after apartheid, what has changed? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/27/south-africa-30-years-after-apartheid-what-has-changed

For all my environmental principles and values, I acknowledge that the flights to and from South Africa were enough to bust my carbon footprint target for the year. You can check yours here, and there are ideas for how to reduce the impact of flying here. Yes, I could donate to an offset scheme, but I prefer to be proactive in reducing my carbon footprint rather than trying to 'cancel out' the damage. Being informed helps in the decision making, for example, my personal Earth overshoot day is April 14th, but would be May 10th if I stopped travelling by air. You can check yours here.

#southafricanencounters; #capetownimpressions;