Day 117 Tuesday May 7 Leaving Cape Town

by Henry

Final post

After breakfast, we re-organized for final packing. We were able to condense everything into one duffel bag and one bike box each. We pre-arranged for a 2:30 PM van ride to the airport. Our flight departs today at 5:45 PM.

With the limited time left in the morning, we took a walk around the Victoria & Albert waterfront near our hotel. There is a seal resting at the end of the dock.

Many cities have erected a waterfront Ferris wheel; Cape Town is no exception.

The waterfront was very inviting with many inlets to accommodate hundreds of boats. Tourists filled the walkways.

Right next to our hotel, this former grain silo had been converted to a hotel (on the left), and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (on the right).

The architect for the museum possessed a unique vision on how to repurpose the silos. It required complex 3-dimensional thinking to envision how cutting out concrete inside the silos would create this intriguing space to house an art museum.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. We returned to the hotel, loaded up our bike boxes and luggage, and headed to the airport.

View of Cape Town as we departed. It is a remarkably modern, multicultural, cosmopolitan city surrounded by beautiful waters and mountains. It is very  westernized, and what I would call “easy Africa”, compared to other places we visited on the continent. However, no one can discount the ghettos or shantytowns (called “townships” by locals), a lingering scar from apartheid.

This is the end of the road for our 4-month odyssey. It has been a privilege to see Africa this way. First and foremost, we are grateful to have completed the Tour safely. Africa remains an extremely poor continent with major challenges hindering its development. We were saddened to encounter all those African children who really won’t have any prospects or opportunities for a better life. As always, we will return to our small corner of the world with a better understanding of how those less fortunate than us manage to share and carve a life out on this planet. it will take some time for me to re-sync to the rhythms of life in America.