It’s the middle of the week and there are no tourists in Jubilee Square to throw a few coins into his guitar case, but that doesn’t stop Machawe Ndlovu. His solo echoes out over the waterfront, past yachts bobbing in the swell and past the statue of Just Nuisance, Simon’s Town’s famous Great Dane.
You can tell by a guitarist’s body language when the music is playing him, and not the other way around. Especially when he lifts the instrument to his mouth and starts plucking strings with his teeth…
It might not be busy today, but it makes sense for a street musician like Machawe to play here. Simon’s Town, just down the coast from Cape Town, is a favourite hang-out for locals and international tourists alike. Everyone comes here for the laid-back vibe, the dramatic views, the fish and chips, and the penguins.
1 Go see the penguins
Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Colosseum in Rome, the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach is a must-see attraction when you’re in Simon’s Town.
The first two breeding pairs arrived in the early 1980s, and now there are as many as 3 000 of them waddling between the towels on the beach. (The penguins
