One of Dennis' good friends had a business contact in South Africa, and they offered to take us sightseeing on Saturday. Francois and Marianne were lovely. Their native language was Afrikaan, but they spoke excellent English. They were the perfect hosts, giving us tips on Africa and pointing out interesting spots along the way – the lighthouse where they got engaged, the Twelve Apostles, a castle in the hillside, and an ostrich farm. Francois hunts antelope and ostrich, and he brought some dried kudu and dried ostrich for us to try. It wasn't half bad (and no it doesn’t taste like chicken).
We first heard the term “Xenophobia” from Francois and Marianne. Oxford defines it as an "intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries". I would define it as "the result of poverty". Even though unemployment levels have decreased over the past few years, they are still running around 25%. High poverty levels have caused contempt toward immigrants from other African countries who have started businesses or taken jobs that native South Africans feel are rightfully theirs. Arson and violence resulted in 88 deaths across South Africa. It is a very sad situation. The day we left home, the U.S. issued a travel advisory due to violence in South Africa. We were not aware of this, and it's probably just as well. However, we never felt scared or uncomfortable. In fact, unlike many countries, Africans actually seem to like Americans.
Since it was Saturday, we passed several local craftsmen on the side of the road, including a man selling purses, rugs and other items made out of the hides of zebra, and antelope. However, the most popular hide was the nguni cow hides which were white with sporadic black spots or white with sporadic brown spots. Who would have thought!
We bought an ostrich egg painted with pictures of the Big 5 (the 5 most dangerous animals hunted in South Africa - Lion, Leopard, Cape Buffalo, Rhino and Elephant). Ostrich eggs are so strong that an adult can stand on them without breaking them. They have to be strong to endure a 300 pound ostrich sitting on them during incubation.
Our destination was the Cape of Good Hope which would involve about a 4 hour trip south of Capetown. We passed fishing villages, a local parade, and even a baboon sitting on the side of the road watching the traffic pass by. There wasn't much traffic until we reached the Cape of Good Hope National Park. We all took turns getting our picture taken in front of the lighthouse, “Southernmost point of Africa” sign, and beach. One of the highlights I didn't want to miss were the JackAss penguins (so named because of the “Hee-Haw” sound they make) so we had to hurry to make it to Simons Town before it was dark. We were rewarded with at hundreds of penguins including babies with fluffy fur.
(I don’t know what a baby penguin is called and I'm not sure if it's called fur or feathers). After taking a million pictures we headed back to our home away from home, Table Bay Hotel. We had an excellent seafood dinner at Xios. Another big day tomorrow!
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