By all rights, Cape Town should be under water.
Has anyone told you that the front two kilometres of modern skyscrapers buttressing the Mother City’s CBD are where the sea used to be, once upon a time?
In keeping with the Promethean ideals of the Dutch corporation we were born from, the city and the Union government in the 1930’s and 40’s set out to fight a war against the waves, and ended up winning a Pyrrhic victory.
Out of a graveyard of centuries of shipwrecks we built a modern monumental landscape to meet the demands of the 20th Century, and lost our humanity in the process. Today it seems as difficult to imagine a future, fairer Cape Town as it is to cast our minds back to a time when Table Bay was more of a cove than a catastrophe. But that won’t stop us from trying.
This Saturday at 14h00 I want to invite you on an unprecedented historical walk along the original 19th-Century shoreline of the city, outlining the dreams, memories, nightmares and fantasies that brought us to the weirdness we live in. Starting from the great grain elevator we just re-invented as a Modern Art Museum and ending by the oldest train in Africa behind glass in the middle of today’s station, in three hours we will accomplish the improbable by pedestrianising a landscape constructed for human beings that will never exist.
Along the way we’ll trace the remnants of a buried world of dockside brothels and pubs, crowded noxious fish markets, districts of long-demolished cinemas, boulevards still named for forgotten Nazis, and mausoleums of the high Apartheid era that show off a complementary layer of madness to the history we just escaped from.
Today’s Cape Town is still building into the sea and still struggling to keep track of its citizens, and the Foreshore remains its prime battlefield.
Come join our newest adventure by booking at the Quicket Link below for just R150pp or via DM on 076 033 8164 or cameronlukepeters812@gmail.com.
There are so few outings like ours and none explicitly designed for locals and wannabe locals to equally enjoy!
Remember your questions, comfortable shoes, water, sun hats and your childlike curiosity for the past and the future!
Yours,Cameron of CTHT.
“What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon! We walked from Zeitz Mocca and Silo Hotel, to CT station, along what used to be the coastline. Cameron was a mine of anecdotal history. From the sailors, stevedores and pubs that were part of the story of the town, to the reclamation of Roggebaai, and the later donations of statues to the City, and the reasons therefor! This made CT come alive in a way that is not obvious to regular residents….an afternoon very well spent!!”- Christopher H.
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 by the entrance to the Zeitz MOCAA at 14h00 then finishing inside the Cape Town Central Station two-and-a-half hours later, so I'd advise doing a two-car system or taking the MyCiTi bus the whole day.- 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, local…
