Radiac's South African Adventure, Part 7
African Adventure Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Today we flew to Cape Town. The teacher from last night gave us a lift to the airport, and I had an uneventful flight, apart from being asked to swap seats yet again so that a girl could sit next to her boyfriend. Almost every flight I have ever had I have been asked to do that - and I bet you if when I get on a plane with my girlfriend and we're separated by a row, nobody will swap for us. Still, it made them happy and cost me nothing, so who cares.
After we landed, we picked up a funny little blue car that smells of wet dog, drove to the hotel called 'Cape Castle', and checked in. They had us down as Mr and Mrs Woodward-Terry, and, confused by the fact that we ordered a twin room, had pushed the beds together to make a kind of double bed, which was both amusing and extremely disturbing. So we swapped a bedside table over, and all is well.
Once we had sorted out our stuff, we walked to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. Yes, walked. In the dark.
Paul is fearless, but mostly because he doesn't see the things to be fearful of; he has walked around Newtown (a poor suburb of Johannesburg, somewhere between Sandton and Soweto) on his own and someone tried to mug him, and then he was apparently going to go into Soweto on his own, before someone at his school told him that this was suicidal and that he should get a guide to take him into the safe bits. So, we walked to the Waterfront, in the dark, with me constantly saying "We're going to die!" and him repeating "We'll be fine!". We made it there alive, ate some food, and somehow made it back without incident. Once back at the hotel I went to my book and read out the passage that says "Although it's tempting, don't walk between the city and the Waterfront - muggings are common". Next time, I'm making him drive.
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