Thursday, July 7

Not in the mood to do much writing today. I'm alone in my hostel, all the other tenants having moved on. My WiFi theft didn't work last night so I've been out of touch. Spent much of yesterday on the mountain that looms 1,300m. above the city. I have a few pictures but won't be able to use them till I can get WiFi. Undecided what to do tomorrow. My rent for the hostel runs out so I might just use that as an excuse to move on to Namibia. Disspirited overall.

Since I was in such a gloomy mood today it seemed like the time to do one of my long walks. I decided to try to walk to the big botanical garden. My map showed it as quite distant and up a hill but I figured I'd just keep walking till I got there. I trekked up a sloping road for about two hours. Then I came to a place where the road turned into a highway, first two lanes, then three, finally five. Cars were speeding by me at 60mph+. But I was determined to keep going. When the pathway beside the road petered out I found a drainage ditch which paralleled the road. I trod through this ditch for about a quarter mile hoping the highway would return to being a road forthwith. But, instead, the drainage ditch became more and more impassable. Shrubs grew over the top of the ditch making my way more difficult. Then I came upon evidence of a homeless encampment in the ditch. That scared me. The thought of meeting guys up here above the highway was not something I could face. I sat down to contemplate what I should do.
So back down the hill I went. But this time I headed straight down. I had an idea to continue my walk, but this time in search of the University of Cape Town. I knew it was somewhere in the city below me. It took me another 90 minutes of walking but finally I came upon the campus. I'd read in the Cape Times that the university theater was performing a play by the Chilean dramatist Ariel Dorfman. And there before me was the theater. So I bought a ticket for Friday night.
Then I decided to wander around the campus.

You can see that the campus is very much like UC Berkeley: on a hill overlooking the community is serves. And like most US schools this place loves to coat its buildings in Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). Thus UCT is an ivy league school. \School is out of session so any conclusions I might draw are dubious, but from what I witnessed UCT is about half white and half everyone else. I saw absolutely no mingling of students of different colors--which is in contrast to Cape Town as a whole where there is significant blending of the races. I couldn't get into the library as it was reserved for students. Overall it seemed very much like any comparable school in the US. The one that came most to mind was St. Mary's U in the East Bay. To get back to my hotel I grabbed a minibus. It's interesting to see the different minibus cultures around the world. The Cape Town version is very similar to those in Georgia and Armenia. The bus is operated by a driver and a tout who takes the money and arbitrates or arranges seating. His job is to stuff as many paying customers in the van as the patrons will tolerate. What is unique here is that the tout works much harder than any place I've ever been before. When the van comes near an intersection--of which there are many--he whistles to anyone on the street hoping to attract their attention. If that doesn't avail he jumps out of the van and gets face to face with anyone who looks like a prospect. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what the tout kept shouting till I saw a sign in one van: "Wineburg" (shouted with a South African accent it sounds like some African language). Winebury, I gather, is the nether end of the line.
So today wasn't very touristically productive but I did get in several hours of walking which should add up to some weight loss before this trip is over, at least I hope so.