A walk of Cape Town angst

A camp of distress

Except when tired or lazy, getting around Cape Town is quite easily done as a pedestrian as we usually stay close to the city centre. The first part of our stay was at Camps Bay, a rather well-to-do area that attracts menace and crime like flies to rotten meat, that each night was as uneasy and unsettling as it could be, we were regaled with stories of rather determined burglars and incidents of home invasions.

That the walls had an electric fence, or we had reinforced gates to our doors did not seem to present the idea that we were safe, especially when the burglars hulled out a wall to gain entrance into the compound. We were glad to leave when our time was up.

Camps Bay is also hilly, the inclines are so steep that every view I had of being fit was soon abandoned to the challenge faced. The beauty and aura of wealth, ostentation, and sometimes gaudy architecture in the display of means did not once endear the place to us.

Gone when they are going

Back to walking though, it can be frustrating, if it appears those walking around you have no purposeful destination that a saunter looking like deliberate loitering is what one observes. This apart from the no consideration of others, people who just stop suddenly in the doorways, gateways or on pavements without allowances made for others, not to talk of those who walk abreast oblivious of space or having no spatial awareness.

At times, I seem impatient as my stride is broken by the impediment of sloth, that I have to call out to be given way to pass. Our sedentary existence did not mean we slacked, but eventually, I did get an average of over 10,000 steps done for the month. Whether that is helped my weight management goals, I won’t be able to tell until I get home.