A place where everyone has a story...

Only 20 minutes south from the concrete couture, assembly lines and hard nights, you'll find the endless serenity of South Africa's mother city. While many are quick to complain about Cape Town, I’m sure even some MOOKS Report readers have felt discontent towards it - you know - can’t really see yourself ‘living it up' in a city filled with crime and punishment. But just like Dostoevsky’s classic novel, Cape Town is a city of depth and intrigue, and one that requires you to read between the lines to fully understand. To look without judging and to venture off the beaten track, where you'll discover a different side to Cape Town.

While it may not be the yellow brick road, the road that leads to Kalk Bay, a fishing village along the rugged terrain of the Western Cape coastline, makes for a delicious Sunday drive with visual toppings thrown in for free. As the urban landscape softens and the abrasive vertical and horizontal lines transform into organic curves and endless skies, it's Valentines Day and my destination is the beautiful - you guessed it - Kalk Bay. A charming multi-coloured, multi-cultured rustic location by the sea, where everyone has a story to tell, including me.

Unfortunately mine has a word limit. But take a closer look at the smiling, honest faces, sporting expressions of gratitude for life’s simple pleasures. It reminds me of New York's Soho, only by-the-sea. There's a distinct beauty and rich array of colours that make Kalk Bay, Cape Town’s place to be (Bakhtin would dig it here). Nestled below the rugged mountain, Kalk Bay’s harbour is lined with splintered boats, squawking gulls and humans by the droves – an image many have tried to capture and sell in city galleries.

Below me, underneath a bridge, is what seems to be a gathering of one large family. Dispersed members are absorbed in a game of dominoes, and have attracted a crowd of seagulls and others like me who pose with a camera hoping to capture something special.

Old antique stores are filled with dusted treasures that remind me of bougainvilleas and dinnertime china that my mom would never use. A second hand book store is a place where each bound story, fiction or non-fiction, carries in it a tale that's not written by owners long gone.

And that’s what this beautiful, charming seaside labyrinth is really all about. From the fisherman, to the seagulls, to the day visitor, in Kalk Bay, everyone has a story.