South Africa Peninsula Tour March 2009

     Our day trip of the S. African peninsula followed the route of the Cape Argus bike ride – one of the largest in the world with 35,000 participants in a 100 mile loop.  Our driver, Donnie, an Africaner, was a veritable font of knowledge with a different version of S. African history than I had ever read about: “S. African history is divided into 5 periods – 1) Before the white man; 2) Dutch for 150 years; 3) British for 150 years; 4) Apartheid; 5) Democracy. The Dutch didn’t force any black people inland because there were only the Hottentots(yellow people).”
     We saw Robbins Island where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated; took a Seal Island cruise to see hundreds of Cape fur seals and Black Cormorants lounging on the rocks by Sentinel Point; and learned that S. Africa’s largest exports are cars and military arms to the U.S.