Cape Town, the city that has everything!

My mountain, my city, my home. Wherever I am living in the world, Cape Town will always be my home. There is something about that mountain that attracts me like a magnet. I've already told my children, when I die, my ashes are to be scattered on the top of Table Mountain. Cape Town is The City at the foot of Africa, it's light iluminates the whole continent. Cape Town is what makes me remain a proud South African, a proud Capetonian, someone who'll continue to support the Stormers Rugby Team even when they have a bad season. If you have not got the message yet, it's quite simple. I love Cape Town. I know if you visit there, you'll love Cape Town as well.

Cape Town on the Cape Peninsula, the bottom-most tip of South Africa, has a long and eventful history.  Prehistoric people first left their mark here more than 600,000 years ago and traces of the tools of these Early Stone Age hunter-gatherers have been found. The Strandlopers were an offshoot of the San (or Bushmen) hunter-gatherers who relied on the seashore for most of their food.  Their name literaly means beachwalkers.  About 2000 years ago, the Khoikhoi (Hottentots) migrated from the north, displacing the San, bringing with them their herds of cattle and sheep. It was the Khoikhoi who were the dominant tribe when the Europeans sailed into Table Bay.

In 1487 the Portuguese explorer Bartolomew Dias set sail from Portugal to find a sea route to the riches of the East. With a fleet of three ships he sailed down the west coast of Africa, but before reaching the Cape he was caught in a storm and driven from the shore. He named the Cape Cabo Tormentosa or "Cape of Storms", but later changed it to Cabo de Boa Esperanca, the "Cape of Good Hope", to please the king of Portugal, as rounding the Cape provided hope of a sea route to the East.  Fransisco d'Almeida then followed and stopped off at the Cape to trade with the KhoiKhoi but they killed him, so the Portuguese decided the Cape was too dangerous to use as a refreshment station.  In 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail from Portugal, rounded the Cape and reached India, making him the first person to open the sea route from Europe to the East and proving that rounding the Cape of Good Hope did indeed provide hope of reaching the riches of the East. However, they built their refreshment station further up the coast at Mossel Bay, rather than at Cape Town.

On April 6, 1652, the Dutchman, Jan van Riebeeck, arrived with three ships and stepped ashore at Table Bay with the task of establishing a refreshment station for the Dutch East India Company and their ships that sailed the route to the Dutch East Indies. At first a fort was built and later replaced with the the castle, which still stands to day.  By the time van Riebeeck left after 10 years, there were four streets, large farms and the name 'Cape Town' was established. The French Huguenots arrived in the Cape in 1688 after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in France and brought vines with them and started vineyards.  Malay slaves were also brought over from Indonesia to work in the houses and gardens. In the 1780s Cape Town enjoyed a 'boom' decade. French troops were stationed in Cape Town 1781 - 1784 to defend the Cape from British attack. The French troops built fortifications around the town, and their wages helped to boost the economy.This mix of nationalities gave Cape Town  a cosmopolitan feel and it became a bustling centre. 

The Dutch rule lasted until 1795, when the Netherlands was invaded by the French and Prince William of Orange fled to England and asked the British to look after the Cape for him.  Nobody of course, thought of telling the Free Burgers at Cape Town, as the Dutch Settlers had called themselves, that the british had been asked to look after their city, so when the British tried to land at Muizenberg, the Dutch tried to defend their territory.  The Battle of Muizenberg didn't last very long and was almost over before it began. This was the first British Occupation of the Cape which lasted until the Dutch, who were now known as the Batavian Republic, asked them to leave in 1802. 

The Batavian Republic then tried unsucessfully to manage the Cape.  However, the British quite fancied the Cape, fell in love with the magnificent mountain and safe harbour, when storms weren't raging, and decided to hell with the Dutch, they wanted it for themselves.  They re-occupied it in 1806 and this time they arrived uninvited.  They attacked and defeated the Dutch settlers in the Battle of Blaauwberg.    

When the British arrived in 1795, Cape Town was a small 'Company Town'. By 1910 when South Africa became a Union, Cape Town was an imperial capital of 200,000 people.  With the end of slavery, the British developed the term 'coloured'  for non-Europeans.  Prejudice and racism were on the increase and discriminatory policies were put in place by the British, to control the rapidly growing population.  Cape Town housed the seat of parliament and asserted herself as the cultural centre of the Union of South Africa and became known as the Mother City.

By 1946 there were 500 000 people living in Cape Town of which only half were white and of European descent.  Cape Town was the only city then that still had racially-mixed areas and has always been looked at as the heart of liberalism amongst the white population.  With increasing migration, conditions of absolute poverty developed in the inner-city and in shanty towns on the outskirts of the city, which were called squatter camps. Poverty and discrimination led to crime, social breakdown and the spread of disease in the poorest areas.

In 1948, things changed completely. The government enforced apartheid ruthlessly. Large areas of Cape Town were designated 'white suburbs' and coloured and black communities were forced to leave and settle on the Cape Flats which was marshy and very sandy in places.  As if that wasn't enough, Black people had to carry a pass giving them permission to stay in Cape Town and were forced to leave if they did not have a job.  Women were not allowed to accompany their husbands if their husbands came from the designated black homelands like the Transkei.  In Cape Town, the government claimed that the Blacks had no historic right to the land as they'd only arrived there in the late eighteen hundreds, so they were only allowed to stay on a temporary basis.  South Africa left the Commonwealth and became a republic in 1961.

Capetonians were the most outspoken against Apartheid and it can be argued that the first changes started in the Mother City.  Mixed race couples in Cape Town were seen publicly before other centres.  Church leaders based in Cape Town, including Desmond Tutu, started calling for an end to apartheid and galvanised Capetonians of all races to march down the streets in protest.  In September 1989, white Capetonians voted resoundingly against the government.

The best way to get to Cape Town is to fly.  Cape Town International Airport is very modern so you don't have to worry that you'll be landing on a dirt track with warthogs and elephants running free and wild on the runway.  Alternatively, you can fly to Durban, hire a car and spend a few days driving to Cape Town aloing some magnificent coastline.  You can also fly to Johannesburg, hire a car and drive down, but I don't recommend that as you'll be driving through the Karoo which is semi-desert and you get excited every couple of hours when you see a sheep or a windmill.  You can also take an overnight train trip froim Johannesburg to Cape Town which is quite pleasant if you like train trips.  However, with so many airlines flying to Cape Town it is the easiest way to get there, and really, there's no excuse for anybody not to make the trip to Cape Town.

Here are some of the airlines that fly to Cape Town: 

British Airways (BA)

Malaysia Airlines

Air France

South African Airways

Delta

Northwest Airlines

Emirates

SAS

Iberia

Kulula

Qatar Airways

TAP

1time

Turkish Airlines

Swiss

Mango

Air Mauritius

Air Berlin

bmi

Interlink Airlines

American Airlines

Air Namibia

Cathay Pacific

Lufthansa

KLM.com

Singapore Airlines

Afriqiyah Airways

Virgin Atlantic

Finnair

Whether you are a history-buff, adventure-junkie, wine fundi or just want to relax, Cape Town has something just for you.  You hear stories about crime, just take proper precautions.  Don't leave an open handbag on a car seat next to you with the window open.  Wherever you find cities with ghettos and slums and outlying shanty towns, you'll have people trying to make a living from crime.  Cape Town, and South Africa, is not unique is this respect.  Don't walk down dark alleys by yourself.  It stands to reason.

I decided to show you visually, some of the many attractions of Cape Town.