London has Soho, New York has Greenwich
Village, Rio has Ipanema, San Francisco has, well , San Francisco
and Cape Town has De
Waterkant.
Recently
voted as one of the top five gay travel
destinations in the world, Cape
Town unfurls her rainbow flag with
as much pride and dignity
that South Africa's fabulous new
constitution allows, stopping
just short of inviting Barbra Streisand or
Gloria Gaynor to throw an elegant soiree at the Mount Nelson Hotel.
De
Waterkant rolls out the red
carpet and welcomes all lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender visitors and invites them to celebrate in
South
Africa's fabulous freedom and equally
fabulous gay night life. It's in De
Waterkant
Village that the elusive
Afro-hunk / babe
is known to prowl the
streets and dance floors, often lurking behind a bar counter or grooving
under a mirror ball, so if Africa's
Big Five have been spotted and it's the Big
Six you're after then this is the place to be trophy hunting!
Bars, restaurants,
cafes, lounges and clubs are plentiful - there's Bronx, Sliver,
Confessions, Cruz Bar, Soho, The
Village Cafe, Cafe Dutch, Rouge, Opium,
Bar Code, Pigalle, Andiamo, Tank and The
Hot House for some steamy
lolly-licking bath house pleasures.
Cape Town also hosts an annual Pride Parade (end Feb / early March)
through
the streets of central Cape
Town and ends in De Waterkant with a wild
and wicked celebration
that includes all the bars and clubs
and gay
businesses
in the area.
Then there's the annual Mother
City Queer
Project (MCQP) themed party
(early Dec) that celebrates
queer culture. MCQP, in all its queer
fabulousness,
has made it onto the international party circuit list and sees international
guests planning their summer
holidays around MCQP.
For a slightly more cultural
tinge of pink
there's the annual Out in Africa Gay
and Lesbian Film
Festival (end Feb early March) where cinemas
in Cape
Town,
Johannesburg
and Durban screen
the controversial, the arty,
the docu-drama
and the hilariously camp movies
from the international circuit.
Fun in the sun? Of course, and for that its Clifton
3 where beefy bronzed bodies
smothered in tropical tanning oils line the beach in a colourful array
of swimmies,
bathers and skimpy trunks. And for more fun in more sun there's Sandy
Bay
nudist
beach where the skimpy
trunks
and inhibitions are left in the locker!
But be warned
- the average
temperature
of the icy Atlantic
waters
is around 14 degrees.
Back
to The Village
