Leave Part 3: Bloemfontein Part 1

My trip to Bloemfontein was made by air on the efficient and cheap internal airline service in South Africa. My five flights inside the country cost me a grand total of $700. It costs almost that much to fly from Kingston, ON to Toronto, a distance of 300km. Instead I was comfortably ensconced on a 737 and offered a free sandwich and drink - take heed Air Canada!

After a short flight I arrived at the very small Bloemfontein (hereafter shortened to Bloem) just as towering thunderclouds moved across the veldt. For in flying from Cape Town my trip had undergone two changes. I was now in the flat central plains of South Africa, and it was starting to get rainy. Little had I known when booking my trip that the summer is the rainy season in South Africa - perhaps I should have read that part of the guide book more closely. It did not really get in my way and in fact it made some of my off road adventures a little more exciting. I picked up my rental vehicle - a Toyota Hilux 4x4, and headed into town. I had invested in South African maps for my GPS and was grateful for them now as it guided me flawlessly to the inn at which I was staying. I had chosen to stay at The Hobbit Boutique Hotel based on the recommendation in the Lonely Planet guide book. I had not known until I read it that Bloem was the birthplace of JRR Tolkein, of Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fame. Now he left when he was 2 and never returned, but that does not stop the proprietors of the Hobbit Inn from capitalizing on their famous toddler. The place unites two older (1921) houses in a residential neighbourhood and has a certain hobbitty feel to its winding corridors and wood pannelled rooms. The bedrooms in the Hobbit Hotel are named after characters in the Tolkein oeuvre; I was lodged in the Samwise Gamgee room, a large well appointed room with a bed that probably would be too high for an actual hobbit. One curious aspect of rooming in the Samwise room was that I was required to make breakfast for whomever was lodged in the Frodo Baggins room! That was taking this Tolkein thing a bit far!

My first day was spent around Bloem as I wanted to see the sights there including the museum. I also had to track down some monuments to the British and Canadians. My first trip was to the tourist information centre where my intent was to take the hop-on-hop-off tour bus I had seen advertised in a flyer at my hotel. On arrival at the info centre the nice lady told me that the bus only ran during the World Cup - 8 months ago. So no luck, I was forced to drive around town. I did pick up a map indicating that the Canadian monument was nearby so I set off guided by the GPS voice. It turned out that the Seaforth Highlanders monument and the Canadian monument were in the same park, on opposite sides of the fence belonging to the Bloemfontein Zoo. I let you guess on which side the Canadian one sat. After paying my way into the zoo I began to look for a way around to the memorial. Now zoos are not one of my favorite places (see my blog post on the Bamako, Mali zoo in my other travel blog - Hot to Mali). They always seem sad and full of neurotic animals itching for freedom and to bite your face. It was the same here. There were of course the obligatory monkeys in cages and the big cats. But especially in South Africa, where not 50 km from the zoo you could see lions and elephants, it seemed awfully lazy to cage them up for our amusement within easy reach of a McDonalds.

I did find the Canadian memorial, standing next to the zebras. Its construction was funded by the Imperial Order, Daughters of the Empire or IODE, for short. These ladies also paid for all the Canadian headstones I would later see on the battlefields. A fine bunch of ladies whose organization exists to this day - though I'm not sure what they do now there's no Empire to be an Imperial Order for. The memorial is a quite attractive obelisk with the names of the missing engraved on its four sides.

After wandering the public district of Bloem I headed to the Boer War Museum. This is a very impressive building, with gardens surrounding, on the outskirts of town. The grounds contain the memorial to the thousands of women and children interned by the British during the latter half of the war in concentration camps. Thousands died of sickness in these camps that were created to isolate the population from the Boer guerillas. Around the monument are three statues that depict aspects of the Boer experience. Departure, deportation and bitter enders refusing to surrender. In side the museum has some amazing epic paintings of the war and all the paraphanalia one could want.

After my day in Bloem I walked to a neighbourhood restaurant and had a great bottle of South frican wine...and some food of some sort. Tomorrow - Kimberly and the early battles to relieve its siege.

Leave Part 2: Stellenbosch

In travelling to Stellenbosch, a mere 20 km or so from Cape Town I had several options. I could have taken a taxi, but that seemed both extravagant and timid. Extravagant because of the cost, and timid because it would be very safe and easy with no chance of being lost or mugged, or both lost and mugged. Not that I'm looking for ways to get lost and/or mugged, but solo travel needs a little confusion/fear to keep it interesting. So taxis were out. I could have rented a car, but I planned on visiting wineries, and although drunk driving has a long a storied history in South Africa, I did not want to join the list of stats. So that left some form of public transit. Buses were too confusing, and I'd have my gi-normous camo suitcase with me - a definite hindrance on a bus. So I opted for the train. Now guide books are full of compliments for the main commuter line of the Cape Town train system that goes into the southern suburbs. Not the train I would need to take. Of other trains the guide books used terms such as "Yeesh!" "If you must" and "we warned you." Undeterred I bought a ticket to Stellenbosch for 13 Rand (almost $2, first class, of course) and schlepped off to find the platform - and failed. My train was not posted, and as the departure time approached I became paranoid that my train was at one of the other 15 platforms in the station. So I patrolled back and forth while checking the display that seemed to have listed trains to non-existent destinations: Narnia? I went back to the ticket booth and asked which platform I should wait at, as it was now a mere 10 minutes till my train was to depart. The lady at the booth told me what she had several times before and I headed back to the original platform, where a train had magically appeared and was about to leave. I rushed onto the last car and the doors shut behind me.

Now I don't want to criticize the South African railway authority, but there are a couple of things they need to look into. First lights in the train cars - you should have those. It was daytime and all so it was not as if I was hurtling along in the dark, mainly because we were not hurtling. The train took two hours to travel the 20 km to Stellenbosch. Many stops, all unmarked and unannounced. I did have a system map on which to rely, so I counted stops and noted that if the train did not make a particular turn I would end up going many kms out of my way, and would have to fall back on that extravagant and timid means of transportation discussed above.

But the train did pull into Stellenbosch station after which I walked to my B&B - The Oude Meul (Old Mill). The owner met me and let me in to a very comfortable room in this centrally located B&B. The only other guests were from that exotic local of Barrie, Ontario - I asked them if they had zebras there. It was still early on my first day so I walked around the old Dutch part of the town and booked my wine tour for the next day. That night I ate at the Wijnhuis, an amazing restaurant in the centre of town. I had a great selection of wines, but more importantly the best Insalata Caprese I've ever eaten. Those of you who know of my Italian travels will recognize what a momentous moment that was. I use the Caprese as my barometer for restaurants. Good Caprese = Good restaurant. The reigning champion was Da Marina in Enna, Sicily. To knock them off the Wijnhuis had to do something amazing as the salad is very simple but so demanding. It is just sliced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil drizzled with oil (olive of course) and balsamic vinegar. Though simple there are many ways to mess it up - and I've had them all. Cold tomatoes, whipped mozzarella (Olivea in Kingston - for shame), non-buffala mozzarella is a common fault; unfresh basil and tasteless vinaigrette are others. But that night in Stellenbosch the stars aligned and a new king of Caprese was crowned. But I digress...

The next morning I toured the town museum, which is actually a series of old houses from different periods of the towns history. Strating in the 17th century, you walk through the houses that are made up in period furniture and artifacts. Each house also has a guide in period dress who explains the period to you (the historical period I mean, not the punctuation mark).

After that trip through the ages I was ready to meet my wine tour. A minibus picked me up and took me to a hostel where we met the rest of the group. It was a very international crowd: three Argentinian guys, a Japanese man, two Dutch girls, two German girls and a pair of Australian women- and me. The Aussies were teachers beginning a six week bus tour of Africa that would take them to Namibia, Botswana, Tanzania, and Mozambique before returning to South Africa - I was exhausted just listening to them. We started off at the beautiful Tocana winery and our guide - one of those, never grew up 40 somethings living the good life in the sun types, explained the wines to us. We visited three more wineries and had lunch in Franceshoek, the French Huguenot town in the region - real baguettes! I did experience one challenge unique to being on leave from Afghanistan. Since I was going back there I could not bring any wine with me. So any wine I bought I would have to drink/share along the way. I usually bring back several bottles when I travel to Italy or France, but this time I kept having to fight the urge to buy at each winery. After the trip around the wineries the Aussie teachers and I went to dinner and sampled more of Stellenbosch's finest - I think it was three bottles, I could be wrong.

The next morning came rather fuzzily and later than normal as I had one last morning in Stellenbosch to while away. A relaxing coffee and croissant while reading the paper passed the time and I was soon on my way to the airport for the next stop in my travel - Bloemfontein.

Leave Part 1: Cape Town

I have been back in Afghanistan for about a month now and thought it was about time I caught y'all up on my leave in South Africa. After leaving Trier via Frankfurt I was on my way south, but first had to stop over in London. It saved me a few bucks and I was able to pick up a couple of South African plug adaptors - they have their own unique outlets in SA. I also had dinner in Gordon Ramsey's restaurant at Heathrow's Terminal 5. It is called Plane Food and the fish I had there was very good. This was also the first day I was allowed to drink like an adult so I had a very nice half bottle of Viognier.

That left only the flight to Cape Town - all 11.5 hours of it. It was a Boeing 777, so it was comfortable enough. I had an aisle seat and an amiable seatmate. I watched 5 movies on the way down - I can't sleep on planes. Soon we were landing at the airport in Cape Town and the adventure began.

I chose to stay right downtown on Strand Street so I would not need a car. I checked in and headed out to see the sights. I wandered into Greenmarket Square and sat down for a glass of chilled South African wine with lunch. Now those of you who are Dragoons should avert their eyes at this point as I decided to have springbok salad for lunch. Springboks, for those of you that aren't Dragoons, are small antelope-like animals that are native to South Africa. The springbok was chosen by the Royal Canadian Dragoons for their regimental crest - hence the warning. It was in fact delicious and I highly recommend eating Canadian regimental hat badge animals, though as the beaver features heavily on many Canadian badges perhaps caution on that front is in order. Back to Cape Town. It is a very beautiful city sited between Table Mountain and the sea. Temperate all year round (compared with the interior) it has amazing beaches and is a short drive from the famous wine regions of the Cape. The rest of that first day was spent wandering the pedestrian mall along St Georges Street and the Company Gardens. These were vegetable gardens set up by the Dutch East Indies Company to supply their ships during stopovers. They are now a magnificent urban garden in the heart of the city.

I decided to take one of those hop-on-hop-off bus tours on one of my days in town as it would hit all the major sites. It dropped me at the cable car that goes to the top of Table Mountain and after waiting in line for a long while I made it to the top. The views were spectacular; you could almost see down to the Cape of Good Hope. I did not see any of the famous dassies, which are big guinea pig like animals whose closest relative is the elephant - according to the guide books. That day was topped off by a walk round the Victoria and Alfred waterfront, a recently-restored shopping and restaurant area. I also met a friend of a friend who is also in the battlefield tour business and in the Army Reserve. He gave me some good tips on touring the Boer War battlefields and invited me to attend the military part of the opening of the South African parliament, scheduled for the next day. The only catch was I had to wear a suit. So the next day it was off to Woolworth's. I did not hold out much hope as I am hard to fit, but lo and behold an off the rack tan summer suit was mine for a mere $140. Later that day I met up with the military contingent at the Castle. The Fort, or Castle as Cape Towners call it, was built by the Dutch in the late 17th century and is now very much like the Citadel in Quebec City. It is a historical site and the armoury for two Reserve units: the Cape Town Rifles (Duke of Edinburgh's Own) and the Cape Town Highlanders.

The next day I walked to other parts of the city including B0-Kap and District 6. Bo-Kap is the old Cape Malay district and the centre of Muslim culture in Cape Town. It is known for its colourful houses and the very lively parade that occurs every January 2nd. That was the only day the slaves had off during the year so they made the most of it and partied hearty. An unusual aspect of the parade are the minstrel bands that take part. The story is that the CSS Alabama, a Confederate commerce raider of the US Civil War, docked in Cape Town in the early 1860's and the black musicians on board held concerts for the locals. This has morphed into the minstrel bands of today. District 6 has a sadder history as this is a part of Cape Town that was levelled during the apartheid era to make room for white families. What had been a culturally diverse area became a wasteland - the only buildings not knocked down were the churches. Even today most of the area is undeveloped and grassy lots dominate. On the edge of the district is the District 6 Museum that tries to tell the history of the destruction of the neighbourhood through the stories of its former residents.

My last day of tourism in Cape Town was spent visiting Robben Island. This is prison island on which Nelson Mandela was held for much of his 28 years in jail. It is visited by millions of people every year so to avoid the crowds I took the early boat - 0900 hrs - and spent the morning there. Once the 20 minute ferry ride is over (much like the Wolfe Island ferry - which is avery fine ferry - but faster and more comfy with fewer trailers of cattle) you arrive at the dock and are driven around the island to see the various sites. Other famous South Africans in the struggle against apartheid were held there at various times, but the main draw is Nelson Mandela's cell. Once at the prison the guides are changed and a former prisoner takes us through the cells. Our guide served 14 years on Robben Island for agitating against apartheid. Mandela's cell is very small and is the only one with furniture. From a gunner viewpoint he island also has several very cool 9.2" coastal guns that are being restored for vistits in the future. My morning on the island was followed by an afternoon shopping at the waterfront.

All too soon my time in Cape Town was at an end and I was off to the wine country - Stellenbosch.