Day 5 – Last Day in Cape Town and AfricaCom

SOUTH AFRICA

Day 5 – Last Day in Cape Town and AfricaCom

Today, November 11, was the second and last day of AfricaCom 2010. There was noticeably a smaller crowd than there was yesterday. The theme today concentrated on getting mobile accessability out to rural Africa. That sounds like a pretty loaded topic. Africa is, after all, the second largest continent in the world, after Asia, and is home to over a billion people based on the mid 2010 population estimates by the Population Reference Bureau. Of these, over 51% of the people who do live in urban centers, live in the slums and townships that have little access to modern conveniences and services. Furthermore, Africa today has the fastest birthrate of any continent and is expected to hit a population of 2 billion by 2050. It is in this environment that the push to establish mobile technology on par with other regions of the world that will present a monumental challege. The obstacle is not the infrastructure to bring about this technology — instead, the main challenge is to find a sound business model that will allow service providers to come up with creative ways to make the investment pay off for them in the short to mid term future. Without a clear path to investment recuperation and growth, any plans for significant growth will stagnate further and further behind other regions of the world. But, all is not as dour as it would seem. Time and again, the business leaders in Africa have found creative solutions to problems and do set the stage for some of the more innovative business opportunities seen today. I have a good degree of confidence that such innovative thinking will continue to dominate the strategies of many technology companies as they establish a foothold around the continent and build a solid campaign.

After leaving AfricaCom, I ventured back to the Westin Grand hotel and checked out of our room by the noon deadline. Although our flight to Johannesburg wouldn’t be leaving for another 10 hours or so, I did need to be out of there and place our bags in their holding area. Following that, I went back out into the city center to a part I haven’t walked down and played around with my Nikon camera by taking a number of pictures at various manual settings and exposure levels to continue to get familiar with the DSLR capabilities of the D90.

Later that afternoon, we had dinner at a place that was recommended in the Rough Guide book. An eclectic restaurant on Long Street called Mama Africa. They specialize in South African food which usually means different types of game meat such as springbox, kudu, ostrich, warthogs and crocodiles, along with the usual fare of chicken and beef selections. Along with the exotic food, there is also nightly entertainment in the form of live bands that play Miramba music. Although reservations are a must, we showed up around 6 PM and were able to get a table since we told the manager we needed to get to the airport within the next couple of hours and wouldn’t stay for the music.

The food was actually quite good. We ordered the Game Kebab as our appetizer and then stayed conservative for the entree by ordering the Karoo Lamb Chops and the Rump Steak. Both items were delicious with just the perfect flavoring to give the items a flavorful and savory kick. We were pretty close to the 7:30 PM pick up time for our ride to the airport by the time we finished our entree, so we had to forego dessert. However, if we could have stayed for it, the Banana Flame of the Mama’s Malva Pudding seemed like two options that we would have indulged in.

Returning to the hotel, we grabbed our bags from the concierge and waited for the driver from the Citi Hopper taxi service to pick us up. I had the hotel call them earlier in the day to arrange for the pickup. The ride back to the airport cost R190.

Our flight to Johannesburg wasn’t until 10:10 PM and we actually got to the airport just after 8 PM. In the United States, a two hour arrival time prior to a domestic flight is pretty standard, but it was way too early for South Africa. We were through security and at our gate by 8:20, including waiting in line to get our boarding passes. We used the South African regional airline Kulula for the flight. Kulula is actually a Zulu word for “easily” and I would admit that the entire process was pretty easy. The other awesome thing about this airline is the wicked sense of humor they engage in on their flight. I have never laughed so hard during the usually lame pre-flight announcements. The simple acknowledgement that only blondes need to pay attention on how to fasten seatbelts was classic. I hope to certainly fly them again, if possible.

The flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg is slightly less than 2 hours long. We arrived at the OR Tambo International Airport just after midnight and still had to make the 50 kilometer drive up to Pretoria where we would be staying for the night. Again, I had called the Pretoria Backpackers prior to leaving Cape Town and was able to arrange for a driver to pick us up and deliver us to the hostel for R300. If it wasn’t so late in the evening, we could have booked the driver for R200. But even the higher rate wasn’t too bad for the distance we had to go. We had booked a double room for R400 (R200 per person), which seemed a bit high for a backpackers hostel. Anyway, arriving at the hostel around 1:30 in the morning, we quickly went to bed since we needed to be up and out of there early the next morning to start the next leg of our trip: The Rovos Rail journey described as the most luxurious train in the world and billed as the Pride of Africa.