Inner city Cape Town is not a place for driving through or looking at, it’s a place where you can and should use your legs…get sweaty and loosen up. Jump on a bike. Join a Cape Town city cycle tour, not any ordinary tour.

Inner city Cape Town is not a place for driving through or looking at, it’s a place where you can and should use your legs…get sweaty and loosen up. Jump on a bike. Join a Cape Town city cycle tour, not any ordinary tour.

I want to travel more in this city, underneath it and around it. This is why it is always at least warm outside before I have even woken to peer through the window – my mind is always made up, and the last few weeks have seen me in many city sliding sleuthscapades with AWOL – pinned up entirely by small prickling facts, things I know happened, the kind of stuff you read about in books, on blogs, see photos of, visit museums for – history and stories, more of the hard pressed, bittersweet juice.

A good place to get some of this juice is St. George’s Mall and the Fair Earth Market (every Thursday).

I take a camera on most of my tours, using it on less.  Camera’s sometimes just can’t be, and these photos are a small tribute to the moments which will never be caught on film or spoken about, fleeting interactions.  I expect most Capetonians will share a similar phone gallery composition, the difference being that mine were all taken on tour – with real live tourists!

I like Greenmarket Square.  By this time my guests always feel comfortable and well-oriented, and I am exceptionally happy for this, every time.

Getting to support small local businesses and projects and watch people enjoy themselves, at the same time.

Like every place, the further you move away from the hype the closer you get to the real noise.

You make up your version of what’s happening around you, and you like it because it’s yours.

It has been life changing to be placed in the perfect position to look out for some amazing people whilst they find their noise.

My own cape town is the street. street music, smoky street snacking, street sport, street sounds like “jay!” and rain on tin roofs, silent small shop settlers, strolling seventy somethings, seasonal swallow songs, sea point’s sea, sentimentals serving songs and salutes in solemn spaces like the castle and Bo-Kaap museum…

The thing about history is it’s presence, the way in which layers of stories are inevitably remembered and shared. Cape Town is my living history channel, and it’s moving faster every day. The fleeting city is giving way to a more subtle, soothing resonance of acceptance – of the past, present and weather. What is really starting to matter in my Cape Town is the small, intimate spaces between people, regardless of the setting or premise.

…secret spiralling stairways, spicy sauces, sisterly smiles super proud security guards, sunlight streams in the gardens, sweat sunny mountain sweat, small business owners, people who always make a plan, people who bend over backward to smile at you.

I think about the weather and the history often, almost all the time. These can be a bit confusing you see, so by nature I am drawn to one constant in this cape town conundrum – life.

I have noticed that what everyone wants from this place is not good weather, not revised histories, not special tickets or pictures, maybe not even entertaining stories – they want to feel its people breathing and hear rhythm escaping from very old bricks, new bricks – real time, real people.

Thank you to AWOL Tours and all the fantastic friends I have made on tour – you have heard, seen and done things that very few people do, and loved every minute. You are a constant reminder of why we are all here – one very short life in one very beautiful city.

Inner city Cape Town is not a place for driving through or looking at, it’s a place where you can and should use your legs…get sweaty and loosen up. Jump on a bike. Join a Cape Town city cycle tour, not any ordinary tour.

I want to travel more in this city, underneath it and around it. This is why it is always at least warm outside before I have even woken to peer through the window – my mind is always made up, and the last few weeks have seen me in many city sliding sleuthscapades with AWOL – pinned up entirely by small prickling facts, things I know happened, the kind of stuff you read about in books, on blogs, see photos of, visit museums for – history and stories, more of the hard pressed, bittersweet juice.

A good place to get some of this juice is St. George’s Mall and the Fair Earth Market (every Thursday).

I take a camera on most of my tours, using it on less.  Camera’s sometimes just can’t be, and these photos are a small tribute to the moments which will never be caught on film or spoken about, fleeting interactions.  I expect most Capetonians will share a similar phone gallery composition, the difference being that mine were all taken on tour – with real live tourists!

I like Greenmarket Square.  By this time my guests always feel comfortable and well-oriented, and I am exceptionally happy for this, every time.

Getting to support small local businesses and projects and watch people enjoy themselves, at the same time.

Like every place, the further you move away from the hype the closer you get to the real noise.

You make up your version of what’s happening around you, and you like it because it’s yours.

It has been life changing to be placed in the perfect position to look out for some amazing people whilst they find their noise.

My own cape town is the street. street music, smoky street snacking, street sport, street sounds like “jay!” and rain on tin roofs, silent small shop settlers, strolling seventy somethings, seasonal swallow songs, sea point’s sea, sentimentals serving songs and salutes in solemn spaces like the castle and Bo-Kaap museum…

The thing about history is it’s presence, the way in which layers of stories are inevitably remembered and shared. Cape Town is my living history channel, and it’s moving faster every day. The fleeting city is giving way to a more subtle, soothing resonance of acceptance – of the past, present and weather. What is really starting to matter in my Cape Town is the small, intimate spaces between people, regardless of the setting or premise.

…secret spiralling stairways, spicy sauces, sisterly smiles super proud security guards, sunlight streams in the gardens, sweat sunny mountain sweat, small business owners, people who always make a plan, people who bend over backward to smile at you.

I think about the weather and the history often, almost all the time. These can be a bit confusing you see, so by nature I am drawn to one constant in this cape town conundrum – life.

I have noticed that what everyone wants from this place is not good weather, not revised histories, not special tickets or pictures, maybe not even entertaining stories – they want to feel its people breathing and hear rhythm escaping from very old bricks, new bricks – real time, real people.

Thank you to AWOL Tours and all the fantastic friends I have made on tour – you have heard, seen and done things that very few people do, and loved every minute. You are a constant reminder of why we are all here – one very short life in one very beautiful city.

I want to travel more in this city, underneath it and around it. This is why it is always at least warm outside before I have even woken to peer through the window – my mind is always made up, and the last few weeks have seen me in many city sliding sleuthscapades with AWOL – pinned up entirely by small prickling facts, things I know happened, the kind of stuff you read about in books, on blogs, see photos of, visit museums for – history and stories, more of the hard pressed, bittersweet juice.

A good place to get some of this juice is St. George’s Mall and the Fair Earth Market (every Thursday).

I take a camera on most of my tours, using it on less.  Camera’s sometimes just can’t be, and these photos are a small tribute to the moments which will never be caught on film or spoken about, fleeting interactions.  I expect most Capetonians will share a similar phone gallery composition, the difference being that mine were all taken on tour – with real live tourists!

I like Greenmarket Square.  By this time my guests always feel comfortable and well-oriented, and I am exceptionally happy for this, every time.

Getting to support small local businesses and projects and watch people enjoy themselves, at the same time.

Like every place, the further you move away from the hype the closer you get to the real noise.

You make up your version of what’s happening around you, and you like it because it’s yours.

It has been life changing to be placed in the perfect position to look out for some amazing people whilst they find their noise.

My own cape town is the street. street music, smoky street snacking, street sport, street sounds like “jay!” and rain on tin roofs, silent small shop settlers, strolling seventy somethings, seasonal swallow songs, sea point’s sea, sentimentals serving songs and salutes in solemn spaces like the castle and Bo-Kaap museum…

The thing about history is it’s presence, the way in which layers of stories are inevitably remembered and shared. Cape Town is my living history channel, and it’s moving faster every day. The fleeting city is giving way to a more subtle, soothing resonance of acceptance – of the past, present and weather. What is really starting to matter in my Cape Town is the small, intimate spaces between people, regardless of the setting or premise.

…secret spiralling stairways, spicy sauces, sisterly smiles super proud security guards, sunlight streams in the gardens, sweat sunny mountain sweat, small business owners, people who always make a plan, people who bend over backward to smile at you.

I think about the weather and the history often, almost all the time. These can be a bit confusing you see, so by nature I am drawn to one constant in this cape town conundrum – life.

I have noticed that what everyone wants from this place is not good weather, not revised histories, not special tickets or pictures, maybe not even entertaining stories – they want to feel its people breathing and hear rhythm escaping from very old bricks, new bricks – real time, real people.

Thank you to AWOL Tours and all the fantastic friends I have made on tour – you have heard, seen and done things that very few people do, and loved every minute. You are a constant reminder of why we are all here – one very short life in one very beautiful city.