Ritchie was a guest of Nissan Africa at the recent Nissan Magnite launch in Cape Town. Pictures: Kevin Ritchie
We all hate Cape Town, because when the wind drops and the sun shines, it’s perfect. It’s unutterably, breathtakingly beautiful every time from every angle.
It’s cool, it’s hip, it’s happening, which is why it was a no-brainer for Nissan to host the launch of its new Nissan Magnite in the Mother City recently.
The car’s loaded with tech; there’s a seamless connection through Apple Play and Android with your smartphone, which you can wirelessly charge.
It’s a dream for the selfie generation while the all-round cameras take the pain out of navigating and parking in the tight spaces in the city centre.
The event was designed to showcase both, so the organisers gave the invited motoring journalists and influencers the opportunity to #GoYourOwnWay.
This meant being able to choose their own activity, whether Zen breathwork at the V&A Waterfront or imbibing the art works at Zeitz MOCAA. There was even an option to go zip-lining in Hout Bay.
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But first it was a bit of fashion design at a quintessentially modern Cape Town establishment; the Fuata Moyo studio in Plein Street, challenging the creative spirit among the attendees to design their own bags.
Some efforts were incredible in their artistry, others less, while mine was like the participation certificate you give to the slowest kid in the class who means well.
There’s a helluva lot to do in Cape Town, great restaurants the length and breadth, catering for every whim and fad – as well as the bog-standard steak and chips.
It seems like every restaurant has an incredible view whether it’s coffee at a Blouberg café looking onto the pictureperfect Table Mountain or fish and chips at perennial favourite Kalk Bay with its colourful trawlers in the harbour.
The city itself is testimony to how to stop the urban decay that has blighted every single other South African city, by actively stepping in and repurposing buildings when their original tenants move out or the rationale for building them in the first placed has changed.
The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront is a sterling example of how to take the shabby end of a working harbour and turn it into a mixed-use retail space – and an international tourist attraction.
CRETIVE SPIRIT. Fuata Moyo studio in Plein Street, challenging the attendees to design their own bags. Pictures: Kevin Ritchie
The Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock is another – and the fitting venue for the Magnite’s launch party, serenaded by House and R&B talent Bucie.
Every time you go to Cape Town you’re struck by the view; everything is calibrated by your relationship to the mountain, whether you are looking at it from across Table Bay, in the lee of the 12 Apostles in Camp’s Bay, or down the length of the peninsula in Fish Hoek.
When the wind’s not blowing, which it truly can, or the Mother City isn’t living up to its age old moniker at the Cape of Storms, Cape Town really is the Tavern of the Seas, home to the homeless and the beautiful people, both of whom you will manage to come across in the space of a morning as you venture from one side of the mountain to the other.
It’s difficult too to wrap your head around the sheer scope and scale of history that Cape Town encapsulates; from the old Castle of Good Hope (built between 1666 and 1679) and the Iziko Slave Museum (also 1679) in the city centre when Johannesburg can only trace its history as far back as a dusty mining camp less than 140 years ago.
It doesn’t mean that Cape Town is perfect, not by a long shot; away from the tourist hot spots there’s the often awful reality of life on the Cape Flats and the great sprawling townships of Gugulethu and Khayelitsha.
But for the itinerant Vaalie, it’s a bit of a brain freeze to find working traffic lights, roads without potholes, and metro police officers making sure you observe the Highway Code, rather than cadging a cooldrink as they do in Joburg.
Thankfully there were no speed cops on the six-kilometre Promenade that stretches all the way from Mouille Point to Sea Point, where you can behave like a geriatric Hells Angel on an electric scooter and scare the hell out of all the beautiful people taking the air – and selfies.
There’s space for everyone in the Cape, the young and beautiful people, the old and wrinkly Karens and Kevins, and everyone in between.
BEUTY UNBOUNDED. Cape Town has incredible views of the mountain from wherever you may be.
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