Afrique du Sud - Le Cap: avril 2019

Après maintenant 4 mois à Cape Town, je suis tombé sur ce résumé venant d'un sud africain vivant ici depuis de nombreuses années. Il vient de Durban qui semble être plus chaude au niveau climat et océan.

The Weather: Its shit and you will never get used to it. Winters are wet, very cold and windy, and summers are very hot, dry and windy. However summer its not all shorts and slops all day, you will need a jersey at night, seriously, every night, when the sun sets the temp drops in summer.

- les quelques mois que nous avons passé ici en été ont été agréable et pas si chauds que ça. Les nuits sont fraiches et permettent de bien dormir.

Don't get a house with a pool: While in Durbs a pool is where you live, here you will need solar heating to warm it, even in Summer, and a cover to stop the wind evaporating out all the water (like an inch a day) and then you will still not use it much, a couple of times a year if you are lucky. Then in winter it goes green. Forget a pool, and get a small garden because nothing survives the hot, dry, windy Summer without tons of water being thrown on it everyday (and water in Cape Town is frek expensive, and they charge you double because the sewerage charge is worked out according to how much water you use.

- totalement vrai. La piscine ne se chauffe pas assez en été. L'automne ne permet pas de l'utiliser, l'eau est trop froide. Donc beaucoup d'énergie pour s'en occuper pour pas grand chose

The bright clear beautiful sky, its so clean:: When you first move to Cape Town everything, the sky, the mountains, the sea, all look so clear, beautiful and clean. It does not have that dusty, brown, African feel to everything. The reasons is very simple....the water is directly from the South Pole and the wind has blown every speck of dust away. Forget thunderstorms, humidity, the hot morning zing. Here its other too hot and windy or two wet, cold and windy. Though you do get the most glorious sunny, calm, perfect days in winter between the driving galeforce rain fronts.

- le ciel est magnifiquement bleu effectivement. Le vent permet aussi d'éloigner la pollution.

Where you live is important:

Over the Boereworse Curtain: This is everything north of the M5. places like Edgemead, Durbanville, Stellenbosch, etc. Here property can be good value, but also very expensive, but its not real Cape Town. To live here you need a braai-room (seriously, its so you can braai when its windy), a Hilux or fortuner, enjoy rugby, etc. Bit like JHB by the sea. Nice down to earth people, who sit in traffic on a high way each day to get to work. Temp can be like 10 degrees hotter than central Cape Town in summer.

- c'est l'endroit que nous avons choisi. Un peu loin de Cape Town (30 minutes sans traffic) mais c'est plus tranquille et sans soucis de sécurité.

Southern suburbs: From Rondebosch through to Tokai, along the M3. This is the old English types, all the best schools, Newlands rugby and cricket, summer concerts on the mountain, hiking, lots of wine tasting, good old stiff upper lip. Here a tiny house will cost you your left nut, but really retains its value, because it is really proper Cape Town and central to everything. 10min to airport, CBD, Sea, Mountain, etc.

- plus proche du centre mais le coin ne nous plait pas totalement sauf certains spots comme Constantia

City Bowl/Seapoint: Young and hip to old Jewish money mostly. You drive everywhere, the wind is hell in places on the side of the mountain, tourists everywhere, and its all about night life and shopping from what I can make out. Property is also crazy expensive, unless you live in Saltriver, but then you are in gangland (another thing to get used to in Cape Town.)

Campsbay area: For the very rich who like to be blasted all day by relentless sun, while viewing idyllic sunsets and a sea you cannot swim in (this is the cold sea side of the mountain).

- c'est la carte postale de Cape Town ou la Côte d'Azur. Mer, montagne, sable, soleil, belles voitures, superbes villas

Over the lentil curtain: This is everything on the other side of the mountain, Houtbay around the peninsula to Kalk Bay, some say Muizneberg (which is on the warm sea side of the mountain (ie the sea temp is 15 degrees). Here you have the horsey, hippie, arty, surfer types. They love being part of nature and don't mind traveling to work through bumper to bumper traffic over the mountain on a two lane farm road to get to work. Problem in these area is that you can live in an areas where the sun does not hit you until 2pm in winter, social issues and crime are really intense because of dense towns shoved into little valleys and you got massive tourist traffic all the time. Don't leave you house on Newsyears day or public holidays because everyone comes to the beach. Property prices vary dramatically from tens of million to a few million in places like Fishhoek.

Learning the language: Your Durb's accent is going to be a huge source of amusement in Cape Town. Just remember to say "pothole", not "podole", and its Boet, not Bru.

The Sea: Ah its so clean, clear and beautify, but totally fucking useless. The sea is cold, all the time. When they say the water is nice and warm they mean its 14 degrees. The warm side , Indian ocean side, never gets warm enough to go in without a wetsuit. So forget surfing, sailing (the wind makes it kak) and fishing is terrible. Here you get Yellow Tale and Snoek (watch for the bones), no Shad (they call it something else, but there is not much of it around)

Social Life: Its very different, there is so much to do in Cape Town, that you never see anyone, you are always out and about. So friends are usually made around activities and interests. Oh and everyone goes to their holiday cottage over Christmas for three weeks at least.

A last word on property. Yes it is expensive, but you don't need what you need in Durbs. Forget the big garden and pool, its a total waste and you will never use it because you will be walking the dogs on the mountain or beach, visiting wine farms, riding in the Tankwa. Make sure however that the house is well built for winter (has a fire place) and is insulated for hot windy summers. So cheap wooden windows are a no, no. They just warp and peal. Small is better in Cape Town so you can lock up and go.

After all these years I still miss Durbs, especially the weather, the people and openness of KZN. Cape Town is very cramped around a little mountain, very beautiful to live in, but a bit like the UK in Africa. You will miss the early, bright warm mornings, the sun only gets up at 8am in Winter and is dark at 5 or 6pm, but in Summer the sun sets at 9pm and you will enjoy sundowners on top of the mountain.

Une occasion offerte par le consulat de France à Cape Town.

La navire école de la marine nationale fait escale à Cape Town. Nous avons pu le visiter. Impressionnant de part sa grandeur et de ses capacités.

Capable d'héberger 16 hélicoptères ou 110 véhicules (13 chars entre autre) ou 450 militaires ou 69 lits d'hôpital. 6 hélicoptères peuvent apponter / décoller en même temps. Il peut aussi embarquer 4 chalands de transport qui sont mis à l'eau à l'intérieur du bâtiment.

Avant d'arriver à Cape Town, le Tonnerre a été engagé au Mozambique lors de la dernière catastrophe naturelle.

A l'embarquement

La salle à manger de l'équipage. A noter que les sous-officiers et les officiers ont leur propre salle à manger. Tout comme les salles de repos

Une partie des cuisines. On aurait bien pris une baguette

La coopérative. Nous y reviendront car il y a des choses introuvables ici.

La salle de repos des officiers aspirants

La salle de commandement des hélicoptères

La salle de commande du bâtiment

Le siège du commandant

Plus de carte, un grand GPS

Le pont

Engin de débarquement rapide

La mise à l'eau se fait ou ouvrant la porte arrière. 1 heure pour remplir la salle d'eau et une autre heure pour faire sortir l'eau.

Le grand moment de la journée. La coopérative vend de tout à l'équipage. Nous en profitons pour faire quelques réserves avant de partir. C'est s'éloignant qu'on comprends ce qui nous manque. Nourriture, culture, ...