II. Driving Chapman's Peak Drive
I enjoyed driving in South Africa. One of the great roads on the Cape Peninsula is the Chapman's Peak Drive. Trouble is as a driver you don't get to see too much of it as you're making sure you don't drive over the edge.
When we did the drive I reassured Jo that there were barriers and stone walls and we wouldn't crash to our deaths. Or be crushed by falling chunks of mountainside. But no sooner had we paid our money at the Hout Bay entrance than we saw a tow-truck backed-up over the precipitous edge with its winch motor smoking with effort.
I thought to myself surely no-one drives over the edge and had a look around on the internet. I came across this advert for a Mercedes.
So people do fall off the road. People also like to see how fast they can go even though the road is narrow and a favourite cycle route. Here is a clip of someone in Porsche 911 GT3RS, a terrible camera and an inability to change gears. If all Porsche's give you the visibility these two yahoos have through their windscreen I don't think I'll be buying one.
The list of Chapman's Peak clips on You Tube is surprisingly large. I liked this one about a guy who takes his rather good-looking young guest, Carla from Portugal, for a ride on his motorbike to see the sites. It's a bit po-faced but it gives a feel for the place and there are some nice shots of whales right in by the coast.
There are also double entendres which seem wholly unintentional, as the camera lingers on Carla's very palpable presence. For example, 'Carla doesn't know what's waiting for her round the corner' ...or... 'Carla and I were enjoying ourselves immensely' ...or... 'and then Carla's luck got even better' ...or...'let's see if we can squeeze in a few more rides before you leave Cape Town.'
Carla smiles through it all. And we get to meet him in the final frame.
Lastly, when we made our return journey on the C-Peak road on the second day of our visit we were held up by an advertising company taking some shots of a new Audi. This gave me a chance to fire off photos galore and stretch my legs.
Thinking that someone might have posted something on the web about the Audi ad hold-up I had a little look around. And lo, there was a cyclist's You Tube clip about the ad, his being allowed to go after the ad truck and before the cars and his perusal of said car. Here it is.
The guy has his camera mounted to his bike and seems more interested in the car and its price than the view. But hey. He lives there.