Tourist season down south

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before (although I can’t easily find out where, as you’ll read below) about the difficulties faced by many small businesses in Cape Agulhas during holiday season. Put simply, because of the region being just too far out of Cape Town to easily attract day or weekend visitors, there are about 50 weeks of relative calm and quiet (which is why I love it down here), followed by 2 weeks of annual chaos.

Compare and contrast with Hermanus which is 75 minutes out of Cape Town (if you ignore the nonsense of Somerset West) and is busy most weekends with tourists from the Mother City. They can run businesses with plenty of staff all year round. They’re experienced in dealing with large numbers of people, and even when December is busier, they’re ready to go.

But Hermanus used to be lovely. Now it’s just like another busy city. So actually, vive le difference.

Reasonably though, you can’t set up a small business in Agulhas to effectively deal with that sort of wild seasonal dichotomy.

And so there are issues with too few tables at restaurants, not enough goods in supermarkets, slow service in both, and general frustrations for everyone concerned: the tourists are hungry and could be on the beach, the businesses could be getting more people in and out through their doors and making more money. And that’s so annoying, because this is their one fortnight chance to make proper moolah to last them through the harder times ahead.

There’s no easy answer.

And then there’s the water and the internet. Struisbaai relies on boreholes to get water for its +/- 4,000 residents. There’s no rain here in summer. Boreholes need electricity though, and there isn’t a lot of that about at the moment. There’s quite literally not enough water to go around at the best of times.

But there are over 20,000 tourists visiting throughout Christmas and New Year. They don’t care about the water restrictions, because their GP-registered Chelsea Randburg tractor is near the sea, and will rust overnight if they don’t hose it down each evening. And so we literally run out of water some days.

But remember that if you are a tourist, the place you’re visiting is completely yours for the duration of your stay. Never mind the other people visiting, and certainly don’t worry about the local residents – they’re just there for you to use and abuse as you wish.

But that’s another story.

Anyway, we’re a bit tight on resources, so it’s a good job they’re not planning on building 650 new housing units down here.

Oh. Wait.

And the internet at our cottage in our little village is via one mobile operator. There’s a single small mast here, and it doesn’t like loadshedding. It also doesn’t like it when the village is full of people. It can’t cope. And so this post, while being typed on my laptop, will then have to be transferred to my phone via Whatsapp, formatted on the WordPress app, moved into one of the larger villages nearby and uploaded from there.

Needs must.

I don’t like it when it’s so busy here, but I get it: without these two weeks each year, there wouldn’t be anything here for the other 50.

But I am looking forward to some February sunshine and a beach to myself (and the beagle) again.

Day 726 – Camps Bay

You’d never go there as a Capetonian, because it’s tourist deluxe, but we had a nice wander along the beach – which wasn’t too busy – and a lovely lunch there today. Because we too were tourists for a little while.

We’re approaching the end of a Covid-disrupted holiday season, so it wasn’t packed, but there were still a healthy number of foreign accents and languages around, enjoying the sunshine and the weak Rand.

We were too early for most of the Cape Town rich and famous post-“work” party set, although there was a noticeably loud table full of surfwear-clad 20-somethings laughing and slapping each other’s egos, every sentence beginning with “100s!” and ending in “bru” or “am I raart?”.

The beach was hot, the water was (as is traditional) very cold and once we avoided the sunglasses salesmen, (who were surprisingly respectful today), we had a pretty chilled few hours.

Sweary tourist guide fined

Incoming from the Isle of Man…

[The TT being the annual motorcycle races there and Senior Race being (arguably) the biggest race for the week.] [Hoorah for context.]

Indeed.

I was a little confused by this story. Shouting at people isn’t a nice thing to do, and shouting at TT visitors is both rude and foolish, especially when the tourist trade on the island relies so heavily on their attendance at the Races. But despite her shouting and swearing at the visitors, she did seem to be attempting to assist them with enriching their stay:

Shelley Eileen Wardally, of Demesne Road, in Douglas, was seen by plain-clothed police officers shouting and swearing at visitors calling them ‘come-overs’ and telling them where to go.

The Isle of Man is a truly beautiful place. My spiritual home.
There are many wonderful places to visit there, many of them sequestered away from the prying eyes of the tourists. Some locals might prefer it kept that way, but Shelley is clearly all about sharing the wealth with her useful advice in “telling them where to go”.

I’m obviously not party to exactly where she suggested, but Colby Glen is an underrated hidden gem in the south of the island. Bluebells, wild garlic, a little brook running through it. I’ll bet that was included.
But then it all gets a bit weird:

…officers approached and spoke to her about her behaviour.

She then turned her abuse to the police as she swore at them telling them where to go.

Er… Shelley. These guys are from the Isle of Man. It’s likely that they are aware of all the incredible experiences it has to offer. You’re wasting your time in telling them where to go. They already know where to go.

They are fully cognisant of the local attractions, Shelley.

Why would Shelley be telling police officers where to go, then?

Wardally was said to be holding a can of Strongbow as officers approached

Ah. The Strongbow “defence”. It’s basically more of an admission of guilt.

Defence advocate Paul Glover said: “Ms Wardally informs me she had too much to drink that day and emotions got the better of her.”

I do understand, Shelley. Sometimes the sheer beauty of the Gem of God’s Earth gets to us all, and we simply can’t hold back. It’s completely overwhelming and you need to get it out of your system before you just… explode and start drunkenly shouting at tourists in Douglas.

“But for Senior Race Day this offence wouldn’t have taken place.”

As The Jacksons infamously told us: Don’t blame it on the sunshine, don’t blame it on the moonlight, don’t blame it on the good time, blame it on… er… Senior Race Day.

Which happens every year.

No, Shelley – I think we need to blame it on the Strongbow.

The 46-year-old has been fined £275 after admitting being drunk and disorderly. She was also ordered to pay £125 prosecution costs.

Ja. See? The offence was ‘drunk and disorderly’, not ‘simply existing on Senior Race Day’.

This is clearly a message to anyone blurting out he location of secret sites to tourists. It seems that the Manx justice system will do anything to stop their private spots from being revealed.

Keep it to yourself next year, Shelley.

The Selfie Stick

Having experienced Westminster Bridge a few times in the last few days, I can personally vouch for this phenomenon.

I have to say though, they didn’t make much difference to the already very heavy tourist traffic on the bridge, some (or more) of which may have included us. Maybe they need to move some of the landmarks to a quieter, less central bit of London.

Seal Island quota photos

More tourist stuff today with the tourists. Cape Town is full of them.

image

It was ball-achingly hot again today, so the breeze on the Nauticat boat out to Duiker Island was a great relief. Unsurprisingly, there were seals. Great swathes of them; almost as many as tourists.
The seals along South Africa’s shores eat over 200 000 000 tonnes of fish each year. Want to do something to promote local fish stock sustainability? Kill a seal.
Not really, obviously. That would be a horrible thing to do – although undoubtedly beneficial for the fish.

I would definitely recommend the hour long trip out to Seal Island though. Great fun for adults and kids alike, and good value at R50 and R20 respectively.