When we arrived in Cape Town, we were ushered through the various steps expeditiously by people our travel agent had arranged for. The ATMs would not accept our credit cards so we are stuck with dollars rather than Randy’s for our two days here. We emerge from the airport to cold, rainy weather and our driver, Martha, takes us to the More Quarters, about half hour away.
We have a small apartment, which is fine. We are tired and order small dishes sent to our room. Then we crash. Arise at 6:30 for a good breakfast at the hotel.
We are met by our guide, Josh, at 9:00 a.m. and set off on our Cape Peninsula Quirky Tour! Accompanying Josh was another guide, Lee, who had worked many years as a safari guide, including at Singhita, where Carol and I had stayed in 2003
The tour began with a drive along the coast towards Simon’s Town, where we go in search of a colony of rogue penguins. The thriving penguin colonies on the outskirts of Simon’s Town draw visitors from all around, to this part of the Peninsula. We do it a bit differently and leave the main breeding areas beneath the busy walkways to look for the hidden colonies in lesser-known coves loved by the locals. 
Afterwards, Josh tells us more about the rich history surrounding Simon’s Town, provides some insights into this historical harbor town. We stop by the ocean to watch surfers catch waves and compete
Then we’re off to the Cape of Good Hope, and into the Cape Point Nature Reserve. The reserve is filled with adventure, wildlife and captivating historical stories around the Cape of Storms with shipwrecks and legends enchanting this renowned area where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.
We start our journey along one of the lesser traveled roads to search for the Cape Five – ostrich, baboons, bontebok, tortoises and mountain zebra – while enjoying the beautiful views and Cape Fauna Floral. We found many baboons, some ostriches and eland antelopes.
Leaving the reserve, we stop in Scarborough for an excellent lunch with Josh and Lee at a local restaurant,The Whole Earth.
Not having had enough adventure, we wind down the day with an exhilarating drive back to Cape Town. We follow the tar around the shoulder of Chapman’s Peak which rises above on one side, and plunges way down to the rocky shores far below. Chapman’s Peak Drive links the village of Hout Bay to Noordhoek, around 114 bends which is quite possibly one of the most beautiful 5.5 miles one can ever experience. We were supposed to do this by motorcycle and sidecar, but rain did not permit that. Still the views and crashing waves below made for a wonderful drive.
Tonight we have dinner with the amazing Albie Sachs. Africa has many wonders, one of which, Victoria Falls, we I’ll see later. But I’ll take Albie Sachs over any of those other wonders. We first met Albie and Vanessa in 2003, on a trip to South Africa with two couples who are close friends of ours. Here is a photo taken at dinner back in 2003.
Maxi is our second grandchild to meet Albie and his architect/wife Vanessa September. Zoe, Carol and I had dinner with them in Cape Town on May 13; 2016. Albie is now 89, but remains incredibly vital and productive.
Here, briefly is some autobiographical information about Albie. He was born in Johannesburg in 1935. His father, Emil Solomon (Solly) Sachs, had arrived in South Africa from Lithuania at the age of six, on the eve of the First World War, and his mother, Ray, had arrived as an infant. Both of his parents were involved in the Communist Party and trade unionism.
His career in human rights activism started in 1952 , when as a 17 year old second year law student at the University of Cape Town, he took part in the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign. Three years later, he attended the Congress of the People at Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was adopted. He began his practice as an advocate at the Cape Bar when he was 21, and most of his work involved defending people charged under apartheid’s racist statutes and repressive security laws. Many of the people he defended were facing the death sentence. As a result of his work, he was raided by the security police, subjected to banning orders restricting his movement and was placed in solitary confinement for 168 days without trial. He eventually went into exile in 1966.
He spent eleven years studying and teaching law in England, and a further eleven years in Mozambique working as a law professor and legal researcher. On 7 April 1988, a bomb that was placed in his car in Maputo (Mozambique) by South African security agents, blew up. He lost an arm and the sight of one eye.
In exile during the 1980’s, Sachs worked closely with Oliver Tambo, the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), and helped draft the organization’s Code of Conduct and statutes. After recovering from the effects of the bomb blast, he devoted himself full-time to preparations for a new democratic Constitution for South Africa. Finally, in 1990, he returned home. As a member of the Constitutional Committee and the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC, he played an active role in the negotiations which led to South Africa becoming a constitutional democracy. After the first democratic election in 1994, he was appointed by then President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court.
As a constitutional court judge, Justice Sachs was the chief architect of the post-apartheid constitution of 1996. As one of 11 green-robed judges, he participated in landmark rulings. These rulings included declaring capital punishment a violation of the right to life, to making it unconstitutional to prevent gay and lesbian people from marrying. The court also backed Aids campaigners in 2002, by insisting that the government had a duty to provide HIV-positive pregnant women with drugs to reduce the risk of transmission to their newborn babies.
In addition to his legal work, he has travelled to many countries sharing his experiences, in order to help heal divided societies. He has also been engaged in the sphere of art and architecture, and was involved with the development of the Constitutional Court building and its art collection (located on the site of the Old Fort Prison in Johannesburg). Sachs has also authored several books, including The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1966), which was published in Britain when he was a banned writer in South Africa. This book was later adapted by David Edgar as an RSC play in 1979, which is now a classic of prison memoirs. Stephanie on Trial followed his second detention, and The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter (1990) traced his triumphant convalescence after the bombing. He also wrote a book with Indres Naidoo, entitled Island in Chains. In 1991 he received the Alan Paton Award for Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter.
Albie holds 14 honorary degrees across four continents In 2009 he received the Reconciliation Award as well as the Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award. On 21 June 2014 he was awarded Taiwan’s inaugural Tang Prize in the Rule of Law for his contributions to human rights and justice globally In 2015 Albie was named a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow. He had helped select the art collection at Constitution Hill, the seat of the Constitutional Court.
Not exactly your ordinary tourist day in South Africa.
For his ninetieth birthday, Albie is planning a trip to the US, where Carol and I hope to catch up with him and Vanessa in Chicago.
