Day 3-060
8 hrs, 3 .8 kms
Day Totals: 16 hrs, 9.8 kms

After Stellenbosch, my plans start falling apart. There are no minibuses from here on east. I'm told I need to go to the Cape town neighborhood of Somerset West to catch a minibus from there. Which I do. Here I'm told I can only get a bus to the next town, and I'll have to get another bus from there. This minibus climbs high over a mountain pass where I gaze back for one last glimpse of Table Mountain.

Over the ridge, everything changes, the minibus turns off on a side road where I see people cutting down trees in a forested area.

"Those trees look way too small to be harvested" I think to myself. Then I suddenly realize: they're not harvesting trees. They're creating a new squatter town... a new slum is appearing right before my eyes. I guess if they move fast, and there's a lot of them, the police won't try to mess with them.

Pretty much all of Grabouw is a vast township slum, out of sight from Cape Town . And this is as far as my minibus goes.

There's no way I'm staying here. I ask around for another minibus going east. One tells me he'll take me as far as Bot River. You won't find any more buses from there he warns me.

I don't care, Bot River sounds better than "Grabouw" so it's either go there or go back to Cape Town...

So off we go.. through a winding mountain pass and down into another valley, and... my heart sinks...

Bot River is another township slum in the middle of nowhere. I can see how this day could end very badly. I think through my options: I will not get off this minibus if I don't feel safe. I don't care if I have to pay him to drive me back.

Then suddenly everything changes. We cross the train tracks, and suddenly we're in a tiny little Boer enclave complete with a bar, pizzeria and ... a hotel. I heave a sigh of relief.

I feel a tinge of guilt, knowing that, thanks to my white skin I will be welcomed here and given a safe room, a warm bed, and offered assistance. If I were not white, I would most likely be not. Suddenly I feel like I'm actively participating in the present day Unofficial Apartheid System.

The hotel feels like a well preserved museum. With ancient light fixtures and the decor of a Boer frontier hotel--complete with dingy dance hall.

In the hallway there's a guidebook showing a "road trip" around the area, with stops at all the interesting little towns. I look up the map of Bot River and am disturbed to find that it only shows the tiny "white" area. 95% of the town... just doesn't exist on this map. The other maps are all they same, they only show the "white" section.

I'm starting to piece together how a traditional Boer looks at this country: he sees it as a country whose sole purpose is to pleasure and provide for its white inhabitants . The other people... they're like ghost in a traditional Boer's mind. The come, they work, they serve you... then at night they disappear to somewhere that doesn't exist.

I gaze out the window. From here all you can see are the white-owned vineyards. The town was specifically planned so that the whites could live and never even see where the other people lived.

I feel antsy to move on. I really don't want to get comfortable in this kind of setup.

I head up to the shop to ask about finding transportation to the next town. The shopkeeper tells me there are no buses from here--but it's safe to hitchhike on the main highway. He offers to contact the bus station in the next town to reserve a ticket for me.

A little later, he has a change of heart. He says he'll drive me there first thing in the morning. I decide to accept.