exploring and discovering - by car

People drive everywhere here.

The one thing i missed all week was the freedom to step outside and walk anywhere.

Here, one must take into account the safety issue, the impracticality of walking several kilometres just to get to the nearest ATM.

It is very nice, if not a bit strange, to be so completely dependent on a car again.

Despite having just bought a top of the line GPS car system in Hong Kong with the hopes of making navigation easier in South Africa, we found out upon arrival that the component is only compatible with the China maps!

How typically Chinese, to only allow customers to use it in China, where every other unit is universal.

And so, many hours were wasted phoning the Garmin offices in Johanessburg, London, the States, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In the end, it never worked and we'll have to return it.

That said, we got to know Cape Town's streets fairly well, and going back will be that much easier since we had to depend on the old-fashioned method of navigating with maps and atlas.

While Matt was at his Energy Summit conference, I took a day trip up to the West Coast National Park.

While I was enjoying the peacefulness of the Park and the barren landscape, the next thing i know I almost run right into an ostrich standing in the middle of the road!!

I've never seen an ostrich this close up before, much less practically run one down!

For the rest of the day, I found them a common sight and found great amusement in their behaviour and character.

Today, Matt and I joined a township tour of Langa.

It was a great experience to see how many Capetonians live.

At first we were apprehensive about going on a tour of a poor neighbourhood, afraid that it would be zoo-like.

However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Our tour guide was actually from Langa himself and offered enormous insight into the political and economic situation of "the problem".

We visited several community initiatives whereby locals could get trained in a skill (ie. gardening, pottery, computers) and have a better chance at finding a job.

See pic of a yet-to-be-glazed 2010 World Cup beer mug!