Of all the places in the world that the modern traveller might find themselves, there are few that are as simultaneously awe-inspiring and freighted with the burden of history as South Africa. Even today, a visitor might find themselves told of a dozen different countries, from an Edenic paradise filled with foliage, wonderful vistas, majestic mountains and unparalleled wildlife, to a nightmarish place stuffed with shanty town housing, where the risk of crime is ludicrously high and where lingering racial tensions still lead to violent outbreaks.
While the scaremongering of the latter still, unfortunately, has some basis in fact, there’s little chance that the average visitor will find themselves bothered by any difficulty on their visit. When I recently visited Cape Town, the most irksome thing that happened was a few over-eager ‘baggage handlers’ at the airport who seized my bags, carried them a few metres and then demanded what I was later assured was a ludicrous fee for doing so. I didn’t mind especially, given that it only came to about GBP 2.
Cape Town itself is Africa’s most popular destination, and it isn’t at all hard to see why. Staying at the superbly comfortable and classy Table Bay hotel, with many of the rooms offering panoramic views over the V & A Waterfront and Table Mountain, one is well equipped for a journey into the unknown. Make sure that you have dinner at the excellent fine-dining Atlantic Grill restaurant, which offers stunning South African cuisine matched with equally excellent wines.
Within a short journey from the hotel there are sights such as the mountain itself, which entirely dominates the city geographically, but also the delightful weekly farmers’ market at the Old Biscuit Mill, serving a weird and entirely wonderful array of produce, or the winelands of nearby Constantia Valley, where the River Cafe serves exceptional food and wine at far from bank-breaking prices.
Yet, for all this, the most awe-inspiring spectacle of them all is the view over the upmarket resort of Camps Bay from the mountains above. Looking out over the expanses of deep blue sea, beautiful sandy beaches and the seemingly never-ending mountains themselves, I was reminded of Wordsworth’s lines from ‘Tintern Abbey’:
‘And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man’
There can, I think, be no higher praise. If for any reason you have yet to visit Cape Town and the surrounding areas, then your life will be a happier and more fulfilled one for a journey there.
If for some reason you fancy a complete change of scene and pace before or after, the infamous Sun City resort, located about two hours from Johannesburg, offers an experience best described as ‘Las Vegas, African style’. The main hotel, The Palace Of The Lost City, offers decor and an ambience that some might find stimulating and fresh, while others might prefer slightly more sedate comforts. However there’s no denying the talking-point aspects of the setting, nor the excellence of the main restaurant, Villa Del Palazzo, which specialises in modern Italian cuisine. A wonderful opportunity, if you get a chance, is to have a safari through the nearby Pilanesberg Park, where, if you’re lucky, you can see wildlife ranging from elephants and rhinos to baboons and zebras, all at far closer quarters than you’d ever see in a zoo.
Enjoy four nights accommodation at The Table Bay Hotel with flights from GBP 1,099 per person, including flights with South African Airways from London Heathrow. Valid for travel between 1 May and 15 June 2011. To book call 0871 703 4240 or visit www.travelbag.co.uk.
A night at the Palace of the Lost City at Sun City starts from GBP 400 per room per night on a B&B basis. www.suninternational.com
