I spent today exploring the V+A Waterfront. This was the first part of Cape Town to be settled and claims to be the oldest working harbour in the southern hemisphere. The Victoria and Alfred (Victoria’s son) docks were busy during Cape Town’s role as a centre for gold and diamond exports from South Africa in the late nineteenth century. In the 1990s, the area was redeveloped. One working dry dock for ship repairs remains, but the remaining shipping activity is now entirely pleasures cruises. The warehouses have been converted to shops, restaurants, offices and a conference centre.

The conversion was very successful. The area was beautiful, with the spectacular backdrop of Table Mountain.

The souvenir shops sold lots of interesting articles. My favourite place was the African Trading Post. Its ground floor housed traditional souvenirs, plus some unusual ones – like Zimbabwe bank notes. The highest denomination I found was for fifty trillion Zimbabwe dollars.

Its three upper floors were given over to increasingly exuberant carvings and sculptures, with finally a museum on the top floor.

The Waterfront has lots of open-air restaurants and cafés. Recognising that shopping might be stressful for men, one place had set up a day care centre for husbands where wives could leave their partners before going round the countless shops.  

The area also had statues of famous people…….

……..and a popular large scale chess set.

There were security guards everywhere, meaning the atmosphere was more relaxed than the rest of Cape Town. People gathered to enjoy a range of high quality street performers, including an excellent young people’s choir. My shopping completed, I headed back to my flat, and then later went out for dinner in the City Bowl area at the Sea Breeze restaurant, where I had a tasty fish curry.

Sadly that was my last day of my brief tour around South Africa before my flight back to London. It was a country I had liked a lot, with its beautiful scenery, great food and friendly people. These more than made up for the night-time insecurity and need to be constantly vigilant in Cape Town. I will be back, probably returning to Cape Town but heading further east next time, as far as Durban.

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