Craig heads to Capetown, South Africa
Published Thursday October 2nd, 2008
Culture schlock.
It's a very long journey from Canada to Capetown, South Africa: in my case a roughly six-hour hop to London from Halifax, followed by a layover (12 hours and four pints of cask ale) before a 12-hour torture chamber ride to the southern tip of the African continent. If there's one good reason to wish you were rich, it's the luxury of flying first class... On landing in the country, then taking a car ride towards wine country, my lingering media memory "" from TV, mostly - of South Africa starts gaining clarity, as we pass by what looks like several hundreds of thousands of people's worth of bare bones accommodations. The Shantytowns dominate the land near the highway on the outskirts of Capetown. These tiny huts fashioned from what looks like old sheet metal, abandoned shipping crates and other scrounged stuff, are often without electricity, sewer service or running water. They're all jammed together in disorder, like cars in a junkyard.
This depressing sight is in stark contrast with my eventual destination: a guest house/inn called The River Manor in idyllic Stellenbosch, a rich, clean university town with European architecture, and also a renowned destination for fine wine, as mountains, vineyards and wineries occupy the landscape just outside the city proper.
My next culture shock moment came as we headed to a nearby café for breakfast (I slept though my free one on the plane). We sat outside and I ordered a nice breakfast, with fantastic coffee and "" why not "" a glass of wine. A quick perusal of the wine list showed several decent Chenin Blancs for around 15-20 rand a glass. I double checked that, as I'm pretty sure I confirmed the exchange rate at around 8.5 rand to the dollar. So...that means a glass of good wine is Stellenbosch can be had for two or three bucks!
Another quick glance around revealed that everyone eating and drinking at the café was white, which I duly noted. I assumed they were mostly students at the famous Stellenbosch university. As I came to notice for the duration of my trip, most of the service staff at hotels, and on cleaning crews, as well as security, bus and cab drivers, and other labour jobs, are black. Not to say that things aren't changing here. For example there are several initiatives led by the wine business to provide training and jobs for blacks in the hospitality industry. It seems to be working, as I encountered a fair number during the next few days at the CapeWine 2008 event.
I attended a lecture on how South Africa is changing, and how the number of people with water, sewer and electricity has jumped dramatically in the past few years, and they hope to have it up over 90 per cent in the next few years. The last 10 per cent will be difficult. And I heard about how important 2010 is to them, the year the World Cup of Football (that's soccer to the uninitiated) comes to South Africa. The whole country is excited about this.
It's spring here, so it's warm but not hot down in the Cape, and it gets quite cool at night. The pool is too cold even for this ocean hardened Maritimer, and I realize I should have brought a sweater or two. Later than evening we dined at Wijnhaus, or as I called it, Amy Wijnhaus, but it was no hangout for strung out addicts. I dined on tender springbok, and tasted great wines for a pittance.
It was cool as we walked home, but we still sat outside at a bar for a local beer and a chat with the owner about U.S. politics. He, a white man like me, wondered if the Americans are evolved enough yet to elect a black man.
A few days later, after several winery visits to impeccable estates with incredible views to the mountains and ocean, probably all owned by extremely rich whites, I found myself at Mitchell's Ale House, a brewpub down in the touristy waterfront area of bustling Capetown. The beer was really good "" very English tasting "" and ridiculously cheap at under $2 a pint. The pub is cosy and old, just the way I like them. The smoking sucks, but hey, that change will come soon too to this hopeful country. The day before I visited Balthazar's, a haven for wine lovers that has 150 wines by the glass. The view to the shops and the harbour made me daydream I was in the Maritimes, but a glance at the wine menu prices snapped me back to Capetown.
All the guys working the bar were young blacks, and I smiled as I saw them nose each wine before serving, making sure it's not defective, with oxidation being the most common problem. I thought to myself how most of our restaurant servers in New Brunswick don't bother to do this, and wouldn't know the difference anyway. Just for a moment, this made me proud of South Africa, even if it was for a small reason. Everything starts somewhere.
Craig Pinhey can't wait to get home and start lobbying for decent wine at $2 a glass. Visit Craig at www.frogspad.ca.
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