A TASTE OF THE CAPE
NARINA EXELBY guides us on a trip to Cape Town. Expect bohemian cafes, picturesque road trips and lion roars
NARINA EXELBY welcomes us to South Africa’s city of culture, quirks and cats Narina Exelby為我們介紹這個南非城市的文化、千奇百趣及貓科動物
We are in a bar in Hong Kong’s Soho district. ‘Do you ever feel homesick?’ a friend asks. It’s six years since I lived fulltime in South Africa and I’m about to reply ‘no’ when the bartender serves our G&Ts. In that moment I’m sipping a sundowner on Blouberg Beach as twilight washes Cape Town’s Table Mountain from soft shades of pink into purple. Every fibre of my being is desperate to breathe in fresh, salty air.
The answer’s obviously ‘yes’. My friend snaps me back to reality: ‘You’re all mistyeyed – and you return often. So, what makes Cape Town that special?’
Where does one start? Cape Town is regularly voted among the most beautiful cities on the planet. Summer days are more than 14 hours long. It’s a city of magnificent beaches and dramatic mountain scenery; there is an abundance of cafes and restaurants; the surrounding winelands are just phenomenal.
I stop listing reasons and suggest, ‘ let me take you there.’
Blouberg – my home for a decade – is a good place to orientate yourself. It’s from here that you get those iconic views of Table Mountain across the bay with Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years, in sight, too. Wedged between the foot of the mountain and Table Bay is Cape Town’s lively CBD, harbour and the V&A Waterfront. See that peak to the west of Table Mountain? That’s Lion’s Head. From the top there are spectacular views of the City Bowl and Table Bay on one side, and the Atlantic coastline on the other. We’ll buy a bottle of pinotage – made from South Africa’s signature red wine grapes – and walk up one afternoon to watch the sunset.
One way to avoid the busy summer
我們正在香港中環蘇豪區一家酒吧內小酌，一位朋友問我︰「你會不會思鄉？」我離開定居多年的南非經已六年，正打算回答「不會」時，調酒師剛好將我們的氈湯力送上來。那一刻，我彷彿置身Blouberg Beach海灘上，呷著雞尾酒，望著桌山的暮色從淺粉紅漸變成紫色。我身體每一個細胞都急於想呼吸帶點海水鹹味的清新氣空 。
答案當然是「會」。朋友一下子將我拉回現實︰看「 你雙目，含淚 似乎有所感。觸而且妳又經常回南非，到底開普敦有何與別不同之處？」
應該從何說起呢？開普敦經常獲選為全球其中一個最美麗的城市。夏季白晝超過14小時，又擁有壯麗海灘和懾人心魄的山脈景，色 城中咖啡店和餐廳林立，的鄰近酒莊則釀出上乘的美酒。
我索性不再列出原因，反而建議︰「不如讓我帶你去看看吧。」
我在Blouberg市住過十年，這個地方可以方鬆地辨別不同的方向，不易迷路。從這裡望向海灣對面，就可見到著名的桌山，亦可看到曾囚禁曼德拉18年的羅本。島 位於山腳和桌灣之間的，就是繁榮興旺的開普敦商業區、港口及V&A Waterfront碼頭廣場。看到桌山西邊的那座山峰嗎？那就是Lion’s Head了。站在山頂上眺望，一邊是City Bowl區及桌灣的風景，另一邊就是大西洋海岸線。我們會買一瓶以南非著名紅葡萄釀成的pinotage葡萄酒，在午後登山，欣賞夕陽西下的景。色
若想避開因暑假而繁忙擠塞的馬路，可乘坐Southern Line列車。列車從桌山東邊的Devi l’s Peak山腳附近一路開往Simon’s Town鎮，乘搭這輛列車的，樂趣在於這條路線途經28個站，因此我們不妨來一趟欣賞街頭藝術之旅，者或 往位於時尚的Woods tock區內的大型購物中心Old Biscuit Mill，瀏覽當地設計師開設的小店。經過Rondebosch、Newlands
holiday roads is to take a train along the Southern Line, which runs from near the foot of Devil’s Peak on the east side of Table Mountain all the way down to Simon’s Town. The joy of taking this train is that there are 28 stops along the way, so perhaps we’ll do a street art tour or browse designer shops at the Old Biscuit Mill in hip Woodstock. After passing through the leafy suburbs of Rondebosch, Newlands and Constantia we’ll hit the False Bay coast at Muizenberg.
It’s here that the journey becomes really special, and we’ll ride with the windows down, a sea breeze blowing through our hair. There can hardly be a train route more magnificent: from Muizenberg until the track ends in Simon’s Town, the train fringes the coast and sea spray from the Atlantic wets one side of the carriages while on the other, the craggy Table Mountain range, carpeted in the hard-leafed fynbos shrubland found only around the southern tip of Africa, runs like a spine through the peninsula all the way south to Cape Point.
Let’s have a lazy lunch in the boho fishing village of Kalk Bay – coffee and a pastry at Olympia Cafe or fish and chips at the Brass Bell, a restaurant surrounded on three sides by tidal pools and waves. Back on the train we’ll glide through sleepy Fish Hoek and Glencairn, and end our journey at the historic naval base of Simon’s Town. We could wander the town and its museums, or kayak to watch the colony of very casual penguins that nest at Boulders Beach.
There’s so much to see around Cape Town but it’d be a pity to not explore farther, so let’s hit the road. We’ll be heading through wide, open spaces and classic road-tripping territory, and we’ll need an appropriately South African playlist: jazz by Hugh Masekela (turn to page 54 for more on him), pop by Johnny Clegg, afropop beats by Brenda Fassie and a cappella hits by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Turn up the volume, china (note: we have adopted a version of rhyming slang – ‘China plate’, shortened to just ‘china’, means ‘mate’).
One of my favourite routes – after the dramatic Chapman’s Peak Drive on the west side of the Cape peninsula – is the 650-kilometre-long Route 62. You’ve heard of the Garden Route, right? Well, Route 62 runs parallel to the Garden Route but 100 kilometres or so inland, linking the quirky dorps (Afrikaans for ‘villages’) between Montagu and Port Elizabeth.
Montagu is a pretty town with wide streets and old Cape Dutch buildings set against a backdrop of towering Cape Fold mountains. It’ll take just over two hours to get here from Cape Town via the picturesque winelands – Stellenbosch, Paarl or Franschhoek, depending on the road we take. Then we’ll continue east.
It’s best to take two or three days to trundle along Route 62, stopping often. We’ll be driving through the arid Little Karoo, a rain-shadow desert that’s home to the biggest variety of succulent plants in the world. We can sample wine and olives at vineyards and farms around Barrydale and Calitzdorp; and pop into padstalle (roadside farm stalls) that sell homemade delicacies like rusks (hard biscuits), dried fruit and biltong. We’ll stop for lunch at Ronnies Sex Shop in Barrydale; the quirky pub is a popular stop along Route 62 for 及Constantia等綠意盎的然城郊小之區後我， 們就來到Muizenberg區的福爾斯灣海岸。
旅程真正特別之處由此展開我， 們可以拉下車，窗 任由海風吹動髮絲。你很難找到另一條景色更壯麗的列車路線︰由Muizenberg區開始，車列 沿海岸線行至駛Simon’s Town鎮，車廂的一邊沾上大西洋的浪花，另一邊是陡峭崎嶇的桌山山脈，被非洲南端獨有的fynbos原生灌木植物帶覆蓋，一路向南延伸至開普角。
然後我們可以在瀰漫波希米亞氛圍的漁村Kalk Bay吃頓簡單而悠閒的午餐︰在Olympia Cafe餐品廳 嚐咖啡酥和 皮點心，或在Brass Bell餐廳吃炸魚薯條；後者三面被潮池圍，可以看遠到 處的海浪。我們返 回列車，後將經過懶洋洋的Fish Hoek鎮及Glencairn區，終點站來到歷悠史 久的海軍基地Simon’s Town鎮。我們可以在小鎮上四處閒逛，或到鎮上的博物館參觀；也可以划艇前去Boulders Beach海灘，看看棲息於裡那 悠然自得的企鵝群。
雖然開普敦還有很多東西得值 一看，但若不到其他地方探索一番則未免太可惜此，因 不如繼續前行吧。我們朝著大片廣袤空曠的大地前進，那是自駕遊的熱門地當區然，要準備應景的南非音樂播放清單︰Hugh Masekela（參看更54頁 多關於他的故事）的爵、士樂 Johnny Clegg的流行曲、Brenda Fassie的非洲流行音樂、以及Ladysmith Black Mambazo的無伴奏合金唱曲。將音調量 高吧， china（附註︰我們自行創作的押韻語俚 ——將「China plate」簡化為「china」「」，意指 mate ，即是老友）。
62號公路全長650公里，是我最喜歡的國自內 駕遊路線之一，歡喜 程度僅次於開普半島西面的Chapman’s Peak Drive公路。你一定聽過花園大道吧？ 62號公路與花園大道平行但， 它位於內陸，園與花大道相距大概100公里，它將Montagu鎮及伊利伯沙 港之間多個外貌獨有特 趣的dorps（南語非 「村落」的意思）連接起來。
Montagu是座美麗城的 鎮，有寬闊的街道及古老開的 普荷蘭式建築，映襯背後高聳入雲的Cape Fold山脈。從開普敦出發程，車 約兩個多小時左右。視選乎 擇的路線，我們沿途會經過Stellenbosch、Paarl或Franschhoek等風景如畫的酒莊，然後繼續向東進發。
若想沿62號公路作悠閒的自駕遊，最好花兩至三天時間，途中不時停靠路邊，探索一番我。 們將駛經乾旱的Little Karoo盆，地 這個雨影沙漠上生長的多肉植物種類冠絕全球。我們可以在Barrydale村及Calitzdorp鎮附近的葡萄園及農莊品嚐葡萄酒和橄欖或，隨時走到售賣rusk脆餅、乾果及biltong肉乾等自家食的製 品 padstalle路邊農場攤檔去瀏覽番我一 。 們會在Barrydale村的Ronnies Sex Shop吃午餐。這間別具一格的酒吧是62號公路上的人氣景點，以奶昔、小食以及從天花板垂吊下來的各式各樣內衣聞名，這個奇怪的佈吸置引不少人前來拍照打卡。在Oudtshoorn鎮上，可以參鴕觀 鳥農場及Cango Caves洞內蔚為奇觀的鐘乳石。62號公路沿途有不少外形漂亮的風車，吸停引人 下來拍照。這裡的山脈是Cape Fold山脈的一部分，有部分曾經呈水平橫放的岩石層，表面有好些彎彎曲曲的線條，有如一團被弄皺的紙巾。
我們最後位在 於海岸邊的伊利伯沙 港下車，乘飛搭 機前往Nelspruit市因。若為沒有到過荒野，南非之旅就不算滿圓。
its milkshakes, small bites and the oddly photogenic collection of underwear hanging from the ceiling. In Oudtshoorn, there are ostrich farms and impressive rock formations in the Cango Caves; and photogenic windmills throughout the route. The mountains here will blow your mind: they’re part of the Cape Fold belt and in some places you’ll see curved lines of once-horizontal rocks that have crumpled like tissue paper.
Eventually we’ll drop into Port Elizabeth on the coast – so let’s fly from there to Nelspruit, because a trip to South Africa won’t be complete without spending time in the bush. Hearing a lion roar just outside camp is one of those bucket-list moments; you can feel the sound waves rippling through your body, leaving you with little doubt as to who’s the king of the wild.
We’ll base ourselves at Skukuza in 聽著營地外傳來獅子哮聲，有時全身甚至會感受到哮聲聲波的震動，絕對是人生不可過錯 的體驗。荒野之中誰稱王？至此再無。疑問
我們將在Kruger National Park國公家園的Skukuza營區暫宿，沿著來往Skukuza及Satara兩個營區的柏油路駕車，有很大機會見到草原上的獅子，還有大象。隨後的早上，我們可從Skukuza駛至Lower Sabie
Kruger National Park, as one of the best places to see lions is in the grasslands along the tar road between Skukuza and Satara camps (elephants, too). We’ll drive another morning from Skukuza to Lower Sabie camp, because the riverine bush along this route is said to have more leopards per square kilometre than anywhere else in South Africa.
Kruger is about 18 times the size of Hong Kong. You might be tempted to explore as much of it as possible, but I’ll suggest we slow down. Sit quietly and allow all of your senses to tune into the bush – listen to the insects and birds; smell the dry grass; feel how the air changes when you walk under a tree. You’ll soon realise that what makes a park special isn’t just ticking the Big Five off your list.
‘Excuse me madam, would you like another G&T?’ The barman’s voice pulls me back into Hong Kong but as soon as my hand touches the new, cold glass the bar’s walls dissolve into acacia trees and golden strands of grass, and I’m standing, G&T in hand, watching the sunset over the African bush. There’s not another soul in sight, and a lion’s roar rumbles from the distance. 營，區 據說在這條的路河線 邊灌木叢中，每一平方公里內豹子的數目是南非之冠。
Kruger的面積大約是香港的， 18倍你可能想盡情探索，去的地方愈多愈好，但我建議大家不如放慢腳步。靜靜坐著，讓身體所有感官接收荒野傳的來 信息︰細聽昆蟲和雀鳥的鳴聲，呼吸乾草的，香氣 同時感受在樹下走動時空的氣流動。你很快就明白，一個國家公園的特色，並非只是在於能讓你見到著名的五大野獸。
「小姐，不好意思，要來多杯氈湯力嗎？」調酒師的聲音將我拉回香港。但當我的手碰到這杯新拿來的冰凍氈湯力時，酒吧牆身立刻化作金合歡樹和金黃色的非洲草原，站我 在草原上，手裡端著氈湯力，看 著夕陽西下。我游目四，方 一個人也見不到，耳畔則傳來遠方的獅哮聲。