The following are an ignorant person's tales and impressions of wandering around Cape Town. Alas, I do not have a camera, so I could not snap photos of the interesting sites but here are my ignorant first impressions of the former District 6, Woodstock and Athlone . Woodstock would 'seem' safer since it's obviously not part of the Cape Flats and it's closer to the City Centre, so I would have to say I prefer it over Athlone.
Last Sunday was the day of my long constitutional. I woke up around 7:30 or 8, went to the grocery store/supermarket (Pick and Pay in Observatory), made lunch (a Cape Chutney soup with pita), and, after reading some more articles (about all sorts of things, from racism and Ethiopian-Israelis to Ethiopia, Khoikhoi victories over the Portuguese in 1510 to race relations in the US), went for a nearly 3 hour-long walk in the afternoon. Leaving Mowbray around noon, I walked through Woodstock to the City Centre. I noticed immediately how I liked Woodstock more than Observatory or Mowbray, for being closer to the City Centre, featuring more of an ‘urban’ feel in some ways, and for the preponderance of vacant lots and decaying houses. Parts of it reminded me of Chicago or certain areas of NYC, and I should’ve brought more cash on me to eat takeaway somewhere. Anywho, Main Road and another large street, Albert Road, had lots of restaurants, corner stores/bodegas, hair salons and barbershops, and some nice parks, particularly Trafalgar.I will have to return to this area and check out good restaurants next time, especially with people who know the area. The residential side streets and other areas were also interesting, reminding one of Bo Kaap’s colorful homes and Muslim residents. Moreover, since it was Sunday, people were relaxed and strolling the streets, sitting in front of their homes, and children were skating, playing, and laughing while laundry was outside, drying. The people I encountered mostly ignored me, probably immediately guessing I am not from the neighborhood. In fact, the only people I can recall talking to me were mendicants on the streets, asking for change.
After walking past the District 6 Museum and buying apple mint-flavored water from a corner store, I began a long trek homeward. The remains of District 6 are truly nothing, nothing but vacant and unused land and crumbling infrastructure from adjacent residential areas of the City Centre. I surely looked exhausted or possibly even drunk when I dropped the cap of my water and nearly fell over, causing this South African Black police to stare at me for a few minutes. In Woodstock more so than the areas closer to the City Centre, one could see homeless people sleeping in the vacant expanses of land, sometimes in trash and rubble, but c’est la vie, I guess. Truly a fascinating city, Cape Town, lots of poverty, homelessness, religious diversity, multicolored houses, Cape Dutch agriculture, little parks, etc. My return to Mowbray through Woodstock was less interesting for the most part, except for side streets where neighborhood life was on display. Upon returning home, exhausted, covered in sweat, and hungry, I finished a delicious granadilla fruit yoghurt, rested, and then cooked “chana masala” without masala spice. It turned out okay, nothing special. I used thyme with the rice to add some flavor, too, which worked out well.
I went for a very long walk yesterday evening, too. I walked around Liesbeeck Parkway for a while, then turned down a main street to walk through another part of Mowbray, past Rondebosch Village (what looked like a gated community), saw beggars on the avenues, carrying signs, as well as people trying to sell fruit and vegetables, a Red Cross Memorial Hospital, people jogging and biking, etc. I really need to learn to take my old American cellular phone with me to capture some pictures, especially when I go to places in the Cape Flats or interesting neighborhoods like Woodstock. The walk was overall, far less aesthetically pleasing than Woodstock, but there were some ‘nice’ vacant lots of undeveloped land, broad streets, lots of driving cars, a Woolworth’s grocery store and lots of mini-buses going by. I decided to keep walking all the way to Athlone, but I, alas, did not want to spend too much time there since the sun was setting and I was walking alone. But I did feel like I was nearing the airport and the Cape Flats, where most of the townships are located, I believe (or at least the large, famous ones like Khayelitsha and many were headed toward “Coloured townships.” Also, a lot of the Coloured people were Muslims, which is always nice to see. Of the memorable landmarks or sites, the vast lot of undeveloped land, the large hospital, walking by the Black River, lots of Muslims, and a "Specs for Africa" eyeglass store. Oh, and some man selling mangoes or some other fruit on a busy street left his cart in the street when no traffic was coming and the wind blew it away. That was quite amusing and led to a pedestrian across the street laughing hysterically. Anyway, Athlone deserves another visit, especially to it's "City Centre" and other areas.
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