Tobias S. Deutschland
In my spare time I love to travel, do a lot of sports and I also like to see what the nightlife has to offer. Therefore I hope to give you a diversified look of all the opportunities you can have in Cape Town and South Africa.
Week 1 (8th – 14th of February)
The week already started pretty well for me, because I received a call that I could finally get a car, after searching for an entire week at every car hire company that exists inCape Town. So, since Tuesday I could go to work and home again whenever I liked – at least more or less . To celebrate my new independence we went from Tamboerskloof – where I am staying – to a backpacker hostel called “33 South” in Observatory, Cape Town‟s most bohemian and culturally rich neighbourhood.
After having a great genuine South African dinner with some people from all over the world we started a jam session and just a few minutes later I found myself with two rattles in my hands, I was supposed to contribute my “German rhythm” to this evening – that‟s what I call intercultural experiences!!! In contrast to that, on Thursday we (“we” means me and some of my roommates – I‟m staying with five students from Germany) went to “Hemisphere”, a stylish club on the 31st floor of ABSA Centre, that offers you a great view of Cape Town at night.
Also my second working week went well. In the marketing department I work with Katja (our marketing manageress), Lisa, Sarah, Patti and Rebecca. Not just because of theteam… but I really like working here. On Tuesday in our marketing meeting the annual plan was set up, and I already got involved in some projects. The next two days I will probably spend translating the descriptions of our new tours in South Africa, so that also our German clients understand what new adventures we will offer to you. Furthermore I am updating the rates on our Spanish website and the guest gallery on the English andGerman one. Just take a look, maybe your recent comment is already online. Tomorrow Katja told me we will talk about a new project I will work on, hopefully next week I will be able to tell you what this is about. The weekend I spent with a group of about 20 people at the beautiful Cape West Coast. Even if we had some engine problems with the car – by the way not my own – already the way there was amazing. Driving along several nature and game reserve you could spot a few zebras, antelopes and even giraffes.
On Saturday we visited the West CoastFossil Park where they show the bones and fossils of giraffes, elephants and other smaller animals that lived 5 millions years ago. Our guide had a good knowledge and remained patient even if not everyone could share his excitement for some 3mm frog bones. The rest of the day we spent at the beach of Paternoster, a beautiful fishermen‟s village with a really nice beach. Before we return to Cape Town on Sunday, we went to Langebaan, where our car finally broke down. In the meantime, until we got a working car – which took about 3 hours – we had enough time to enjoy Langebaan, which also boasts a great beach, from where you can watch kite surfers and have a cold drink in one the nice beach bars.
This was the first week of my blog, if you have any ideas of what I absolutely have to do in Cape Town, comments or questions, feel free to contact me on my blog.
See you next week. Tobias
Week 2 (15th – 21st of February)
Welcome to my second working week here with Jenman African Safaris in Cape Town. I would like to thank you all for your comments and wishes and I am really glad that you liked it.
You probably read Katja‟s comment on my first week, for those who didn‟t:
…Excited to read more about your stay here and don’t be shy! I am sure a lot of other people would really like to know how it is ‘behind’ the scenes at Jenman Safaris…
Since Katja is my boss I probably should fulfil her wish and tell you what it‟s really like to work with Jenman Safaris…
As you can see on the picture the Jenman staff mostly parties in the office‟s backyard instead of working. And relaxing in the pool and having a cool drink is a nice alternative to work. We usually work for a few hours in the mornings waiting until our party starts in the afternoons. That‟s pretty nice because you still have enough time to go to Cape Town‟s bars and clubs after the party is finished. Just have a look at the photo of me and Sarah (she also works in the marketing department) which was taken when I met her at a club called Jade last Thursday.
That‟s more or less the description of typical day here at Jenman African Safaris. Therefore I can only recommend to every intern who wants to party a lot and to sometimes work here in Cape Town…Jenman African Safaris is your place to go!!!
To be honest, that‟s rather what I am dreaming of when I look out of the window and see this beautiful day. Actually work is little stressful at the moment, we all have quite a lot to do, because we will have aMadagascar workshop for our agents on Wednesday and there are so many other things that need to be done. The first picture was taken on our monthly social evening – the theme was Hawaiian and it took place after work last Thursday. We all had a great time and I am really looking forward to our next social evening. The second picture was taken in Jade…but as long as we go to work next day and do our job as well (and great) as always there isn‟t a problem . The new project I am working on is the creation of a website for our guides. This website provides all the information our guides need when they are on our safaris with our clients. They now have access to all the information from wherever they are… This is especially useful when the tours might have to be changed at the last minute. They can log-in to find out important information, contact us and even re-route the safari as fast as possible. With this new website we are able to offer our clients a great safari adventure even if there needs to be some changes.
On Tuesday I experienced how Capetonians react when it rains, and that wasn‟t a positive experience. There was a big mess on the streets (traffic!!!) and it nearly took me twice the time to get to our office. I have to admit it was raining pretty hard, but come on, that‟s probably not the first time it rained in Cape Town.
But the weather became better and better and on Saturday there was the hottest day since my arrival with temperatures exceeding 30°C. Nevertheless we went to Guguletu, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town to have lunch. This “restaurant” called “Mzoli‟s Meat” however is a little bit different to what I have experienced so far. There‟s no menu or waiter, you just enter a butchery and choose the meat you want to have. Then you pay for the meat (we paid ZAR 90- for about 2 kg!!!) and take it to the kitchen that consists of at least eight braai‟s. Until your meat is prepared you take a seat outside, have a beer and get to know some local people who live there. It was really fun, because everyone there is open-minded, interested in where you come from and what you do in Cape Town. It could have been a few degrees cooler there for us Germans, but the delicious meat and the great atmosphere definitely compensated for that.
Sunday I spent the day at Clifton 4th, a really nice beach just a few minutes away from where I am staying. Sunday was extremely windy but at least the sand which covered my entire body protected me from getting sunburn, so I could start this new week inCape Town without having a red face
See you next week.Tobias
Week 3 (22nd – 28th of February)
I have already been in Cape Town for an entire month, but time is running so fast, it feels as if it had only been one week since I arrived here…
On Tuesday we went to Mandela Park Township in Hout Bay to have dinner at “Dinner@Mandelas” – a little tavern run by locals. On our way there we watched a beautiful Cape Town sunset! When we entered the tavern there were already some kids waiting to show us their dances… After a really great South African dinner the township‟s choir performed some songs for us and then it was up to us – we has to show them that Germans can dance, too!! I don‟t know if they were extremely impressed by our moves… but they had a great time dancing with us and we had an awesome time dancing with them.
On Wednesday there was a Madagascarworkshop at the Jenman office. It was a quite stressful day for all of us, because we had so many things to organise. Everyone from the marketing department was involved; I worked as bartender, which was really fun. There were about 40 agents, who watched presentations onMadagascar‟s attractions, air connections, accommodation and of course on the magnificent tours to Madagascar, thatJenman offers. The evening was a big success, the agents received important information on the island and everybody had a good time. At the end of the week I was told that my car was now available and I should come on Friday to exchange the hired car for my actual car…I know, the colour is just amazing.
After that I went to the petrol station to fill up the tank. When I wanted to pay my credit card didn‟t work anymore and I had absolutely no cash money. Now I was standing there with a full tank but no chance to pay for it. Fortunately one of my housemates worked just some blocks away and so she came to “rescue” me (thanks again, Laura ). In the meantime I had a good conversation with the employee, who obviously was pretty amused by my situation.
On Saturday we had a farewell party at our place, because of all my housemates are leaving this week. I am already excited to get to know my new housemates but it won‟t be easy for them to keep up to my former housemates‟ pace. Thank you girls for all the parties and the great time we spent together, see you in Germany, and remember…Chris-Marco is watching you!!! (That‟s the name they gave me for some reasons)
Due to the party on Saturday, my Sunday started rather slowly, so I went to Camp‟s Bay to recover on the beach. Well, this was my plan, and it would have been a pretty good one, if there hadn‟t been several beach vendors walking around and screaming: “Ice-cold water, coke, ice cream!!!” every 20 seconds. Nevertheless in the evening we indulged ourselves by going to Beluga, a fancy restaurant in Green Point to have a farewell dinner.
But now I have to leave office and train for the Old Mutual Two Oceans Trail Run, for which I and some colleagues just signed up. I will keep you informed on our progresses.
See you next week Tobias
Week 4 (1st – 7th of March)
Molweni Ndamkelekile EKAPA, yiveki yesine ndilapha e Jenman. Ndisebenza kakuhle noxa Ndinokubanda kancinci Nemo yezulu yakhona etshisayo kwiqondo elingu 35°C. Kodwa yindlele yayo leyo…
For all those who aren‟t fluent in Xhosa:
Hello and welcome to my forth week here inCape Town and with Jenman. I am still doing fine even if I have a little cold – what really sounds ridiculous considering an outside temperature of 35°C – but that‟s the way it is…
And this cold won‟t hold me back from keeping on training for our trail run. To be honest I just have no choice because this run is taking place on 2nd of April, so there aren‟t even four weeks left to get into shape for an 18km run through Cape Town‟s mountains. But at least I‟m not the only one to do it; Katja, Lisa and Sarah signed up for the 8km and Garth (Jenman‟s managing director) and I are doing the 18km run. This stupid pride… But our weekly running club is highly motivated and we are all looking forward to our next run on Wednesday.
And by the way I don‟t understand a single word of what I wrote in Xhosa, but that‟s what our maid Valentia told me. Sorry if I have insulted my boss or anyone else, but since she‟s an honest and very lovable person, I think I can trust her.
This week my new housemates arrived. The first one was Robert, who is also from Germany. He still is pretty quite, but Nicklas and I we are giving our best to get Robert used to living in Cape Town and going out in Cape Town. Nicklas is from Sweden and has travelled to many places all over the world during the last few years and has proven being a good party mate this weekend. On Saturday, two law students (also from Germany) moved in, but unfortunately I can‟t remember their names, you must excuse me
Friday we went to a braai at a friend‟s house in Rondebosch, which is – according to Google Maps – an 11.2km respectively 14 minutes drive from our place. So much for theory. Thanks to Cape Town‟s rarely existing street signs it almost took us one hour to get there. At the petrol station where we stopped to ask for the correct way, no one had ever heard of the street. That would not even be so bad, if we hadn‟t found out later that our destination was only two streets away from the petrol station. So maybe the city should invest in some additional street signs or at least in free maps for foreigners. But finally we found the place and had a really nice evening.
For Saturday we had booked the ferry to Robben Island, which departed at 15.00. It‟s really worth it to arrive a little bit earlier at the ferry station, to get a seat on the upper deck – where you have a fantastic view at Cape Town‟s skyline…at least that‟s what the people sitting upstairs told us. The tour itself on Robben Island was very interesting, since a former prisoner told us about his time there and the experiences he made. The highlight of the tour was, of course, Nelson Mandela‟s former prison cell, at which everyone could have a quick look and take a photo, before the next tourists did the same. My personal second highlight was to finally see penguins…When I first heard there are penguins living in South Africa I could hardly believe it, but it‟s true. On our way back we ran to the ferry and succeeded in getting a seat on the upper deck. The view is really fantastic but you shouldn‟t forget to take a windbreaker, of course I hadn‟t one
Since Sunday temperatures exceeded 30°C I spent the entire day at Clifton and it was the first time I really appreciated the ice-cold sea.
See you next week Tobias
Week 5 (8th – 14th of March)
After two weeks of moving in and out, all rooms of our house are occupied again. With Franka and Mirjam having arrived last week, we are now seven people living together – of which only one, Nick, is not German. But when he is around we switch to English so that he can understand what we are talking about. In the meantime I have even learnt that the girls that moved in last week are called Nora and Sophie.
On Wednesday I had my first bad experience concerning restaurants in Cape Town. We went to „Active Sushi‟ on Strand Street to have “all you can eat sushi” for ZAR 99. After having waited for at least 1 hour they served us the sushi we had ordered. And apparently they only noticed at this time that they didn‟t have any tuna for us. So the just converted all our orders with tuna into salmon without even asking us or warning us. Instead of apologizing the so called manager tried to persuade us that salmon is much better and more expensive anyway, which is a pretty poor consolation if you wanted to have tuna (like I did!). The salmon sushi however was good, but it was hard to eat “all you can eat sushi” for ZAR 99 considering we all had to wait 20 – 30 minutes after each sushi order!
After this experience we decided to have a braai at our place on Friday with all my housemates and a lot of people we have gotten to know so far. Afterwards we went to Long Street to continue our party… We all had a great night but, the next morning wasn‟t that great – especially with all the dirty dishes, half-empty bottles and the rubbish being spread all over the balcony and our living room from last night
But since the new housemates are still pretty motivated to do the dishes and to clean up – which doesn‟t mean that I didn‟t help at all – everything was done just under an hour and I could spend the rest of the day on the beach. And I should have better stayed there. Instead I went for a run which wasn‟t a good idea after Friday night and not having eaten anything except of an apple. In the evening we went to Tiger Tiger, a club situated in Claremont, but thanks to the favourable prices here one can also afford the longer taxi rides from town. After I wasn‟t let in last time because I was not 23…. this time it was no problem – it‟s always good to know people who put you on the guest list. And the taxi drive was worth it, Tiger Tiger is a nice club and the people there really know how to party.
Next day we wanted to go to Clifton 4th, our favourite beach here. Due to the Cape Argus Cycling Tour (a huge cycling race with 35.000 international participants to raise funds for a good cause) the road was closed. Therefore we had to park a hundred meters up the street and walk to the beach. Since Clifton 2nd was closer to our parking space, we decided to go there instead. And at the beginning it seemed to be a good decision, because there were only few people on the beach. After a while we noticed that there weren‟t too many women on this part of the beach and most of the men wore those tiny speedos. Today I told my colleagues about my beach experiences and we found out the reason for that; according to Wikipedia:”…Fourth beach is the most populated and glamorous venue. […] Second beach attracts gay men…”. However we were with some girls on the beach so we weren‟t really “in danger”, but next time we probably go 4th again.
And now that my bathroom light works again I have discovered another “roommate”. I just hope for him, that he hasn‟t been there for the last two weeks – that‟s how long my light hasn‟t worked.
See you next week Tobias
Week 6 (15th – 22nd of March)
Since the past weekend I have become a big fan of the “Public Holidays Act” – which says that whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday will be a public holiday…Thanks to this rule and the Human Rights Day we could spend a long, sunny weekend here inCape Town at our leisure.
This week I celebrated St. Patrick‟s Day for the first time in my life. And could there be any better place than “the Dubliner”, one of my favourite bars on Long Street? Well, apparently we were not the only ones thinking like this…when we arrived there at 10 o‟clock the bar was already packed and at least 150 people, mainly dressed in green were queuing outside, waiting to get in. But we were fortunate and only a few minutes later we partied with green beer and great live music. And since I was able to catch a Guinness hat, my first St. Patrick‟s Day was a big success and it will definitely not be my last one.
And obviously green beer is much healthier than normal beer, because I felt fine the next day and kept on working on our new lodge descriptions for our Jenman Safaris website. Shortly we will be able to offer our clients detailed and updated descriptions of every accommodation their safari includes. Thus we are able to create tours for our clients that fit their needs even better… and they have all accommodation information on their tour before it even starts.
Katja successfully represented Jenman African Safari at ITB in Berlin (the world‟s largest tourism fair) and is now heading to TUR in Gothenburg, Sweden, to meet clients and suppliers on Scandinavia‟s most important travel fair.
In the meantime I expanded my wildlife experiences by finding a scorpion in our living room. I wanted to put away some towels that were on the floor and suddenly “it” was sitting right next to me…but at least I now have a good excuse to not tidy up anymore.
On Saturday we went to the Neigbourgoods Food Market at Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock. This place offers local products, clothing, diverse food and drinks. I had a great ostrich burger and even if it was the first I had, I‟m pretty sure that it was one of the best. Though the market is a pretty trendy place it still keeps its bohemian character, which creates a nice atmosphere and a very interesting place to visit.
On Sunday we were invited to Karma Lounge in Camps Bay. Since we arrived pretty early we could sit on the balcony and enjoy cool drinks overlooking the beautiful beachfront of Camps Bay. Karma Lounge is a very stylish and a rather upmarket club, which offers great music. The later it was the more crowded it became and from 11pm onwards it was hardly possible to move inside and it took ages for one to get new drinks. Overall, we had a great time there and will definitely go back.
Since Monday was a public holiday we decided to explore Cape Town‟s other beaches. We drove to Llandudno, which is about 20 minutes away from Cape Town and is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the area. And that‟s definitely true, it boasts a white sandy beach surrounded by rocks and luxury villas and crystal clear blue water…The only thing we didn‟t know is, that parking facilities are more than limited and that the beach is not really protected from wind. Unfortunately on Monday it was pretty windy there and after a few minutes my whole body was covered in sand, nevertheless on a windless day Llandudno is the nicest beach I‟ve been to in Cape Town. And just for your info…even a thick layer of sand on your body does not always prevent you from getting burnt.
See you next week Tobias
Week 7 (22nd to 28th of March)
This week I experienced a really confusing situation…. When I wanted to get money at the ATM near work, a cash in transit vehicle looking like a tank stopped in front of the bank. Then three men jumped out, two of them carrying huge machine-guns and positioned themselves in front of the bank just next to the ATM… Instead of standing there they started to walk around while observing the area…and me for some reason. It‟s not really a calming feeling if someone with a machine-gun is standing right behind you but (probably) I‟ve never been safer while getting money before.
On Friday afternoon an overland truck picked us (me and some friends) up to spend the weekend in Cederberg Mountains. At 11, after a 6-hour drive we arrived at our camp, just in time to have a braai and some drinks.
On Saturday morning, when we got up it was drizzling. So we waited for one more hour, but since the rain didn‟t stop we started our hike anyway. The way up there was pretty exhausting, so no one complained about the cool weather; I don‟t even want to imagine what it must be like hiking up there at 30°C. The way to the top was also really adventurous…we had to climb over rocks, crawl through tiny holes and squash through narrow ravines. When we arrived at the top within seconds the sky cleared up and we could enjoy the magnificent view of the area. Since we started a little later than scheduled we hadn‟t enough time to go to the famous arch, but some of us absolutely wanted to see it. To still be able to get back to the camp before it was getting dark, we had to power walk to the arch. After less than an hour (it normally takes approx 1.5 hours) we reached the impressive arch and could take some amazing pictures. We joined the rest of the group earlier than expected and after the descent we got back to the camp at 7 pm.
By 11 most of the people had already gone to bed to recover from the hike, so only a few of us were still sitting around the cosy campfire – at night it got really cold out there.
Next morning we were awakened by the sun. Even though it was still pretty cold it was still the perfect day to go to the rock pools. The way to the pools took only half an hour and then we could jump from the rocks into the refreshing cold water or lie on the rocks enjoying the sun – whatever we felt like doing.
Back at the camp we had a quick lunch and in afternoon we started our way back toCape Town.
The trip to the Cederberg Mountains was absolutely awesome and I can only recommend going there – but you shouldn‟t be afraid of exercise and better not be scared of heights either.
Furthermore it was the perfect training for our trail run on Friday. Everyone here in office participating in the run – especially Lisa and Sarah – is totally excited and looking forward to Friday to come…or rather being over; I‟m not quite sure.
But I‟m confident that we will all finish the run with flying colours!
See you next week – in case I will physically be still able to go to work Tobias