A winter down south
Like every year I am one of many windsurfers that keep coming back to the mother city of Cape Town. There are not many places in the world that deliver such a variety of world-class conditions on the water and offer quite a decent lifestyle off the water while Europe is covered in deep snow.
There is something special about this place apart from the windsurf conditions. I don’t know if it is the vast beauty of this country, the hospitality of the different kind of people from locals to foreigners or the fact that life here is so controversy.
It’s a place that tells a lot about the harsh reality of our current world.
There are so many poor black people living in little house, next to a few rich white guys living in big houses. In terms of crime statistics Cape Town is on the top of their game as well as being one of the most favourite touristic destinations in the world.
The corrupt president Jacob Zuma was forced to step down at the beginning of the year and left the country in a devastating economical condition. Will the new PresidentCyril Ramaphosa be any better? Moreover there is this water issue. Imagine, a city with over 5 million citizens is expected to run out of water! The so-called Day Zero is scheduled for June, when all the water dams are empty. It would be a major disaster for this developed society. A worst case scenario plan has been worked out, with 200 mobile water stations around the town that supply the citizens with 25 litres of drinking water per person a day. Approx. 4000 people will be waiting each day for hours to get the needed water. This situation could last for months till the winter hopefully brings more rain again.
It is fascinating and scary at the same time to see how much we depend on water. It’s not only about drinking water, we need water for almost every sector in our life. It’s probably one of the most precious resources we have and we will probably experience this kind of situation more and more in the future with a growing population and the consequences of climate change.
A tourist like me has to adapt to these regulation while I am here. If the situation gets worse, I can just jump on a plane and leave to “rainy” Europe, where we ironically have too much water, while on the other side most people that live here don’t even have the funds to take a bus ride out of town.
I guess visiting this tip of Africa year after year brings me not only a lot of memorable windsurf sessions but gives me the chance to see certain things out of a different perspective. It’s reminds me that it is more than privilege to be able to travel the world and open the tap whenever I feel like to enjoy a cool zip of fresh water!
Your favourite list of Cape Town:
Favorite sailing spot: masthigh Haakat
Favorite sail/board in cape town: 4,0qm/ 80L Thruster
Favorite place: Scarborough
Favorite moment: an encounter with a humpback whale
Favorite restaurant: Cafe paradiso
Favorite rental car: Kenning car hire
Favorite Airline to fly to cape town: Condor
