About the author -

Fu'ad Rahman is a Cape Town-based journalist, and enjoys the beaches in sunny South Africa. He has also travelled through Africa and spent 3-and-a-half years wandering around on the continent as a foreign writer.

He works fulltime for a newspaper in South Africa . However, he would like to work in the United States as a jounalist. Please contact him for further information. E-mail
Or via snail mail:
Fu'ad Rahman
48 SilverSands Avenue,
Westridge,
Mitchells Plain, 7785, Cape Town,
South Africa

Cape Town must be one of the prettiest sights in the world. When Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the Cape of Storms, as Cape Town was known then, he noted: "The fairest Cape".

And indeed a beautiful place it is. Cape Town enjoys a similar climate as most parts of California - Mediterranean. It is here that two oceans meet - the cold Atlantic and the warm Indian Oceans.

Unlike Hawaii the waters are not still but neither are the seas here too violent. The backwash is slow and gradual, yet at certain spots we have excellent surfing conditions due to the high winds trafficking along the coastal lines.

I live on the east side of the peninsula and so enjoy the warm water beaches. I usually walk to the beach and swim regularly. Even when it rains, I prefer to swim sans suit, letting the soft rain fall on my body as I enjoy the vast ocean facing me. Although we have a clothing optional beach known as Sandy Bay, on the west side of the Cape peninsula, most people prefer to swim sans clothes at isolated spots along the vast untamed stretch of coastline here.

Fishing is also abundant here. Cape Town is popular for the rare Snoek fish, only found in Japan. But the snoek caught here is a larger size. Snoek is a delicacy like the Nordic salmon, and it could be said it is the official Cape Town fish. Snoek is particularly being caught at the Hout Bay beaches near Simonstown, almost at the tip of Africa. Furtehr west, near to the Saldanah Bay region, crayfish are abundant. And fishermen pride in their successful seasonal catch. Crayfish is like a lobster, and goes very cheap here. Good fish, usually more expensive at hotels, is easily found for quite cheap along the road with licenced hawkers selling their catch immediately. Although crayfish have never let the fishers down for decades here, not too long ago, millions of crayfish committed suicide, leaving the poisonous ocean. The coastline south of Africa is polluted at certain areas due to oil spills of hundreds of ships passing through. Also toxic wastes are being dumped into our oceans as well as industrial wastes running in pipes into the sea. Sea life is endangered here.

At certain areas, especially on the eastern side where the less affluent people live, one often sees a red tide washing all over the coastline.

Most sports take place on west coast. The Cape-to-Rio annual yacht race is a favourite. Control of the coast is maintained by professionals. We have well-trained life guards, sea patrols, etc.

Tourists delight themselves sighting whales coming in from the Antarctic, and dolphins are usually seen playing with swimmers who swim in deep. There is an abundant seal population. Recently I stood with my cousin at the edges of the railing at the Waterfront - an entertainment, hotels, cinemas, pubs , restaurants and shopping complex on the docks in the city - when a seal was swimming in front of us in the rather polluted oil-stained water.

It flipped round on its back, lifted its head and started clapping its fins at us - obviously being aware of people clapping hands and throwing it food.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like more information about South Africa, to share stories, or offer me a position in the United States.

E-mail Or via snail mail:

Fu'ad Rahman
48 SilverSands Avenue,
Westridge,
Mitchells Plain, 7785,
Cape Town,
South Africa