Capetonian compagnons

Flight to Cape Town

Thursday morning we left Pretoria, to fly to Cape Town, which is 1,308 km away from Johannesburg.

The flight went pretty smoothly except that we had to pay for our lunches and there was a kid who was constantly coughing and kicking the back of my seat. When we got closer to Cape Town we went in between the mountains! It was so pretty!

When we landed we had to figure out how to get to the parking lot because dad’s war buddy, Waal, was picking us up from there.

Other than coming to Capetown to organise documents, exploring the country, meeting friends, one of our reasons to fly to Cape Town was the 101 reunion at Langebaan, for those of you who don’t know when dad was in the army he was part of a special batalion, the 101 Batalion, which specialized in fighting from moving vehicals, unique to SA, called casspirs.

On the drive from the airport to de Waal’s house, we saw a lot of informal settlements, next to the formal government housing, basically making a ginormous favela.

Gordon’s Bay

After a quick drive we arrived at Waal & Michele’s house, which has a great view of the bay. We got shown to our room/ the guest cottage, which also looked amazing. We dropped off our bags and then immediately got swept upstairs to the main house and into greetings and chatting. Chris was also there, and more people arrived.

Their house is decorated with all sorts of small decorations, and there was a real owl sitting on the wall in the backyard.

Last time I saw Michele, I was 3 years old and she had given me a necklace that I wore the whole time until it broke beyond repair, and I got presents this time too, a huge puzzel, a hand cream, some soap bars, a tinted lip gloss, and a bright purplish pink nail polish.

It’s really funny to watch dad and Michele talk to each other because she takes little digs at him almost trying to start an argument but dad doesn’t bend. They’re like siblings, they’ve known each other for a really long time, though. Luckily dad was so engaged in his conversations he didn’t mind the new nail polish and lip gloss ;-).

Lots of talking, oh and they have a heated pool, braai ing sheep sausage and chops. I loved the sausage🤤.

I left after dinner cause I was tired from the flight and had enough of adult conversation. It was pretty late in any case.

Michele likes feeding the tarentale or guinea fowl. These are very pretty birds, but not uncommon in Africa, and not very bright. They are like South Africa’s wild chickens.

Langebaan – 101 reunion

The next morning dad and Chris had to go and put new batteries in the car. When they finally came back we put all our stuff in the car and then we still had to take a huge detour to grab our caravan that we would be staying in for the next 2 nights.

From there we drove to Schaftplaas, Langebaan. The venue was an old farm house/barn and outside on one side there was the caravans and tents, the other side was a outdoor gathering area with a fire place to braai, they had all sorts of decorations like old carriages and farm tools.

Most guys camped, we stayed in a caravan.

101’s history

The unit was formed in January 1976 as 1 Owambo Battalion. It was a motorized infantry quick-reaction unit of the South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) operating under South African command during the South African Border War.

The reunion was very well organised. 66 people came, of which 60 were veterans. The other 6 were a son, some wives, and me and mom.

As for food, on the first night we had Potjiekos. The second night we had sheep Spitbraai. And breakfast was super fancy too, a whole buffet laid out with all you can eat. And the breakfast on the last day was burger and a flavored yougurt and juice.

Meet n Greet with Koevoete

Presentation the leader of the Koevoete did like a presentation about koevoete and de waal also added a couple of words and there was a gifting of wines, and the signing of an official plaque to show that they can finally meet and greet. They were 2 different motorised units that used specific vehicles (Casspir) but had different areas, different tasks, and different background in the same war. They used to clash with one another.

We came back to our venue and were very happy with 101 set-up. There was more braaiing and early evening 2 people spoke about things they had been involved in. It was interesting.

Every night they’d make a fire to keep us all warm outside. And I had a little visitor in our caravan to keep me company when I was tired of adult conversation.

I’ve heard some of dad’s army friends’ names before when I overhear stories. Meeting them was an interesting and sometimes unexpected experience. Because the stories took place 40 years ago and none of them looked as I expected, although with some guys you could still see that they used to be very naughty. All of them were very friendly though.

One guy invited me and mom to feed the horses with him. It was really fun to see the carrots disappear between the huge teeth. The 2 white horses were super greedy. And the other 2 brown ones had a hard time getting any.

Stellenbosch

From the reunion we drove back with Dan to Durbanville to drop off the caravan, and then on to Stellenbosch.

Some fun facts about Stellenbosch:

it is the Second Oldest Town, Founded in 1679 by Governor Simon van der Stel, making it the second-oldest European settlement in South Africa after Cape Town.
called the City of Oaks (Eikestad), Named after its founder (Van der Stel’s forest), it earned its famous nickname because Simon van der Stel planted vast numbers of oak trees along its streets and homesteads.
host to Stellenbosch University, so it is very much a university town.
is the Wine Capital, It is the heart of the South African wine industry, featuring the country’s first official wine route (established in 1971) and over 150–200 surrounding wine estates producing renowned varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, and Chenin Blanc.
Innovation & Banking: It hosts Technopark Stellenbosch, a major technology and business hub that serves as the headquarters for companies like Capitec Bank.

The next night we stayed with Dan and Mariane in their house in Stellenbosch, really nice house, like wow! Look at my room!!! Dan is another one of dad’s friends from way back.

The next day after having !croissant sandwiches! for breakfast, and mom having an appointment, we went off to walk around the town. Turns out this is where dad studied law but then used his knowledge to be naughty within the law’s boundaries.

He showed us the law faculty, library, dorm house, and some shops and pubs he knows from that time.

We found a proper “bosluis tot a ferrari” shop called Oom Samie se Winkel. It is quite popular because it is very old it was founded in 1904. They had every type of souvenir trinket imaginable. Inculding dried fish?!? Boy that was stinky!🤢

Then we had lunch at Decameron, which is an Italian restaurant that dad used to waiter at. He even got offered shares in the business because the owner liked him that much. But then dad gave a piece of his mind to a guy who was being rude. And well, dad and the owner realized it wasn’t the best idea to continue a career in restauranteering…

We enjoyed walking around Stellenbosch because it is a pretty town. There were many art galleries. We liked this art gallery with metal statues, and more metal statues in the street. From there we took an Uber to Cape Town.

Cape town

Cape Town is known as South Africa’s Mother City. It has a rich history stretching from ancient indigenous roots to European colonization and modern democracy. From what I saw of Cape town it seemed pretty okay, it’s a city, we walked everywhere as usual, but had to be on guard at all times because we had been checked out a couple of times, not to mention the whole place reeked of weed.

We were only staying for 3 nights which was too short to see everything, so we will have to come back!

Green Market Square

So before you all ask, no the square is not green… it’s basically a huge square used as a market place, but all the stalls were run by desperate black craftsalesmen. You just glance at something too long and they start asking like “we have this style and this style” “it cost …rands”(always very expensive) and then you start walking away and they’re like “Sir! Ma’am! how much do you want to pay for it, please, tell me, com’on please”. The thing is most of them were selling the same stuff!

Long Street

Longstreet used to be known for being full of bookshops and other interesting shops when mom and dad were in SA, but now they’re all gone, replaced by hair dressers and Curio shops.

Castle of Good Hope

Dad and I went to the Castle of Good Hope, it was huge!

And painted yellow and was like a maze. I don’t even know how we managed to get out! There’s the ancient kitchen.

But also a torture chamber and I’m a little depressed. They didn’t have all the methods on display just chains from the ceiling and a nine tailed whip.

I learned a bit about the history:

In 1652, the Dutch East India Company (DEIC) settled on the shores of Table Bay to establish a refreshment base for ships on the way from Europe to East Asia and to maintain its monopoly over the Spice Trade. Built by the DEIC between 1666 and 1679, the Castle of Good Hope is the oldest existing colonial building in South Africa. It replaced an older fort called the Fort de Goede Hoop, which was constructed from clay and timber and built by Jan van Riebeeck, the first Commander of the Cape.

In 1664, tensions between Britain and the Netherlands rose amid rumours of war. That same year, Commander Zacharias Wagenaer, successor to Jan van Riebeeck, was instructed by Commissioner Isbrand Goske to build a pentagonal fortress out of stone. The first stone was laid on 2 January 1666. Work was interrupted frequently because the DEIC was reluctant to spend money on the project.

On 26 April 1679, the five bastions were named after the main titles of William III of Orange-Nassau: Leerdam to the west, with Buuren, Katzenellenbogen, Nassau, and Oranje clockwise from it.

During the Second Boer War (1899–1902), part of the castle was used as a prison, and the former cells remain to this day.

The Castle acted as local headquarters for the South African Army in the Western Cape, and today houses the Castle Military Museum and ceremonial facilities for the traditional Cape Regiments. The Castle is also the home of the Cape Town Highlanders Regiment, a mechanised infantry unit.

In one of the rooms converted to a museum they were displaying manikinsdressed up in very colourful clothes, turns out it’s about the Cape Carnival/Kaapse Klopse, its roots trace back to colonial times in the mid-19th century when enslaved people in the Cape were given January 2nd off work to celebrate and socialize.

Cape Town Royal Yacht Club

We also went to the yacht club because we wanted to check it out incase we ever do sail around the Cape, and because dad wanted to meet up with another friend.

The yacht club looked quite large but it’s not like we went walking around so I don’t know, but it was nice to sit in the sun while drinking a cold drink.

Mom’s friend Sharain

One night one of mom’s old work friends came over for dinner.

Mom and Sharain spent the entire time catching up on life and work for the past 20 years, They last saw each other in Amsterdam before I was born! While dad was making food, and managed to burn the rice. Meanwhile I was trying to finish Michele’s puzzle, which I had already started during the reunion.