Were you waiting around to start your Cape Town Heritage Tours adventure from the very first chapter?
Well, tarry no more because the time has finally arrived - this Saturday afternoon at 14h00 - to continue on our next triumphant circuit through the psychogeography of this pearl of a peninsula just behind the arch of the beloved Labia Theatre.
At the end of Autumn, we return to the centre of our Town for arguably the best heritage walk of them all! In fact, the walk itself is a piece of heritage, bridging in just 1 km three centuries of pedestrian life at the outermost edge of this continent.
Government Avenue is, for most of us at least, the shady, sleepy shortcut separating the Mount Nelson from the lights of the CBD. But if you go through it with a sharp-eyed guide, you'll rediscover it as the very first site of struggle in the West's 'domestication' of Africa.
In fact, there is perhaps no single space in the world in which so many of the contradictions, traumas and romantic ideals of Colonialism exist side-by-side for the sake of our curiosity and critique.
From the rows of Northern Oaks first laid out by Simon van der Stel, to the plague of American squirrels imported wholesale by Cecil Rhodes, to the still-illustrious Cape Dutch temples that signify the South African birth-places of Formal Education, Botany, Painting, Natural Science, Bibliophilia, Warfare and Representative Government itself.
But along with that conservative clout comes a suppressed history of slow-building cosmopolitan citizenship. Along this strip is also the first official synagogue beneath the Sahara, the first monument of friendship with the people of Japan, the first truly global seed-market for exotic flora from every continent, and the site where Nelson Mandela first laughed while shaking P.W. Botha's hand, celebrating a new covenant for a halfway-reconciled nation.
On top of all this, it is simply the road known and loved by the most South Africans throughout our epoch. So let's join their tangible shadows for a loose, casual meander from the top to the bottom and back again, getting to know the heart and stomach of our city all along the way.
Bring your own water, jackets and questions.Love to you all for reading this far??
“What an entertaining and insightful walk through most probably the oldest garden in Southern Africa. Cameron provided us with his knowledge, passion and artistic talent in reliving the human endeavors and experiences over the last 4 centuries. The Companje Tuine of mid 17th centuries were conjured up through readings and historic story telling. He went on to contextualise the old and the new worlds with a baton of words. Magical thx”Tinka W.
P.S. If you've read this far I'm guessing you'll want even more of the specs, so here goes:- We'll be starting at the Labia and finishing by the Saffron Pear Tree in the Botanical Gardens section, so happily park in Queen Victoria Street or the lot by the Gardens Bowls Club off Wandel Street if you're coming by car.- We've just put up our ticket prices for the first time in two-and-a-half years, from R120pp to R150pp. Obviously this is just to keep with inflation and to allow the tours to remain a sustainable enterprise for the foreseeable future, but this is still about R50 less per person than our nearest competition. In other words, we are deliberately undercharging the tours so as to keep them affordable for locals and visitors alike and to encourage guests to come back weekend after weekend.- Book via Quicket, WhatsApp us on 076 033 8164, E-mail us on cameronlukepeters812@gmail.com or Message us via the buttons on our home page to secure your place.- We have also just introduced a broad scheme of discounts you can apply for on each tour, so please do consult the list below before contacting us!- And we've decided to partner with a different local NGO or charity for each and every one of our tour routes so that R10 of every ticket purchased goes directly to a good, sustainable,…
