A few years ago, somewhere in the Eastern Cape, I discovered a penchant for adventure. Mini-adventures: ones that could be squeezed in between the dull drone of lectures and the glittery promises of Friday nights.
Paired with the good fortune of living in a country like South Africa, with adventure sewn into its fabric, I found that an Eat, Pray, Love journey didn’t require a trust fund or even a savings plan.
So in every place that I’ve been to, I have done my best to go on as many everyday adventures as I can. And in Cape Town, you are never in short supply of places to explore.
My most recent adventure was a simple one: a midday walk through the Bo-Kaap, an inner-city neighbourhood. Its multi-coloured houses are as much a landmark in Cape Town as the mountain.
I went with my fellow Cape Town Flowstars, a boyfriend named Dale, a baby named Zidan, and a pram, not named anything because that would be weird.
We joined the City Sightseeing Walking Tour in Greenmarket Square and, together with tourists from Germany, Australia, Malaysia and the UK, set off to learn more about the historic neighbourhood that sits on the doorstep of the city bowl.
The Bo-Kaap is home to Biesmiellah, one of the best restaurants in the city to enjoy Cape Malay cuisine, as well as the first and oldest mosque in South Africa. (Eat, check; Pray, check.)
But for me the tour was more of a rare opportunity to wander the streets, to laugh with Zidan, to stand on a hill and look out over the city and Table Mountain, and to truly enjoy the bubble of tranquility that exists only a short walk up Wale Street.
We took pictures, of course, assigned pram-pushing duties in turns, and joked about the seasoned Capetonian’s ability to cross even the busiest of streets in the quickest, though-not-always-safest, manner.
And then we returned to 74 Shortmarket Street (Flow Cape Town’s HQ), hot, sweaty, and a little sore (some of us are extremely unfit, and by some of us, I mean, the pram) but in high spirits, smiling, and at peace. (Love, check.)
It was an adventure American novellist Elizabeth Gilbert would envy.
You can read more about our adventure on the City Sightseeing blog.
