steel
Mega Poster
Ok bear with me, I haven't written a trip report in years. We'll see how this goes.
I somehow managed to wind up in South Africa of all places this summer, so I've made it my mission to visit all... 2... amusement parks in the country before I leave. I'm staying in Cape Town for the time being, so at this point I've only been to Ratanga Junction, but in a few weeks I'm heading to Johannesburg to check out Gold Reef City. Okay, off we go...
I'd been in Cape Town for about a week at this point (this was several weeks ago), and I had a few days off work, and the weather was good, and everything is dirt cheap in South Africa, and it's winter and all the wimpy South Africans think it's too cold to do anything (hah), so I hopped in a cab from my apartment in the city centre to Ratanga Junction in Century City, just a few minutes drive along the Table Bay coast. Century City is a very very white and very very luxury shortly-post-apartheid development in the middle of an otherwise non-white suburb, which means it feels out of place and a bit wrong. But roller coasters! In Africa! I mean!!
I hear from Capetonians that Ratanga has not done well economically and seems to be in perpetual danger of shutting down, but I didn't see too much evidence of that. It's clean and well-kept, and there were modest crowds, though this may have had something to do with the fact that it was winter holiday week in all the schools. And it's super affordable - only about R120 ($12 or about £8) for general admission.
It's actually a tiny little park. There can't be more than ten or fifteen rides, give or take, plus a light smattering of kiddie rides. It's split up into several sections and it's easy to get around. Shockingly, it's themed mostly to wild Africa.
South Africa is still extremely racially segregated, even though the laws of apartheid have been gone for 20 years. Most of the guests I saw were white, even though Cape Town is only like 20% white. There were a few coloured (mixed race Indian-black-white) families - that's the majority race in southwest South Africa - and no black families at all. On the other had, almost all the employees are black and coloured. I saw one white employee. If you've never been to South Africa, it's a magnificent and extremely sobering experience.
So first credit of the day was Diamond Devil Run, a standard Vekoma mine train a la Calamity Mine at Walibi Belgium. It was enjoyable enough, but one-train operation on a ride this long is a real capacity-killer.
One interesting thing I noticed on all three coasters was that there is absolutely no preferred seating, period. Not for the front, not for the back, not even if you ask nicely. I really think this is a pointless rule. I've never understood it at North American and European parks and I don't understand it here, especially not to this insane degree. As long as the station is kept reasonably full, but not crowded, and as long as every train is leaving as full as possible, there's no need to take away that element of choice.
Their skycoaster was only $5 per person per flight, but they require 2 riders minimum, so I didn't get to do it.
(I got over that pretty quickly when I remembered I'm going REAL bungee jumping in a few weeks, WHATEVER)
So on to the next credit, which - no seriously - is called Cape Cobras Nashua Mobile Thrill Ride (Cape Cobras is a cricket team). It was plain old Cobra until a few years ago, and that's what everyone still calls it. I guess this is evidence of the financial trouble Ratanga has had, since I've never even seen a more branded ride at Six Flags. All the seats have pictures and stats about different players for you to read if you get bored during the ride.
I've been on four Vekoma SLCs now - Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland, Thunderhawk when it was at Geauga Lake, T2 at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, and this one. T2 and Flight Deck are the two worst coasters I've ever been on and Thunderhawk is not exactly a luxury experience, so I was not expecting much, but this ride was actually really great. THAT one came out of left field. Maybe it has something to do with Cobra being the star attraction at Ratanga, which makes it one of the biggest rides in all of Africa - apart from Gold Reef City, of course. I don't know, but it was nice and smooth and the views of Table Mountain and Table Bay from the top were fantastic. There's one jerky spot halfway through the roll over, but otherwise, it's smooth and fast.
This is also the part where I tell the story about the most terrifying employee behavior I have ever seen at an amusement park. The attendants at Cobra were constantly walking back and forth across the ride area in the station when the train wasn't there, touching and even swinging on the track, etc. At one point, a few of the attendants had pretty clearly dared one of the others to give the entire safety spiel from the middle of the ride area WHILE THE TRAIN WAS ON THE BRAKE RUN AND ENTERING THE STATION. I honestly couldn't believe what I was watching.
Anyway... after Cobra I took a lunch break at a little cafe overlooking Ratanga's pretty decent-looking log flume.
And finally to the last credit here, Bushwhacker. Surprise, every coaster at this park is a Vekoma. yayy... I don't know, it's a fairly good kiddie coaster. Nothing special.
And that's about it. It's a small park. Good way to kill a few hours if you're ever in Cape Town and don't have anything to do. Of course that's not a situation you're likely to be in in a city like Cape Town. Ratanga is very much not marketed as a tourist attraction the way Gold Reef City is. It's a small, local park intended for middle-income families from the area, and that's fine. I had a nice time wandering around. It's very far from the best attraction in Cape Town - ahem, Kirstenbosch, Lion's Head, Cape Point - but I'd go all the time if I had kids and a car and lived in here permanently.
There is one other "amusement park" in Cape Town. Just a tiny little fun park thing attached to Grand West Casino, but all they have is a kiddie coaster that I would almost certainly not be allowed to ride thanks to arbitrary rules.
I went to Ratanga on Tues, July 9, and since then I've been living and working in Cape Town and seeing the other sights in the Western Cape. On August 16, I'll leave for a week-and-a-half trip to Durban, Pretoria, and Johannesburg. The plan right now is to do the Bloukrans bungee jump (the highest commercial bungee bridge in the world, gulp) on the 17th and Gold Reef City on the 22nd or 23rd, so that's when to expect parts 2 and 3.
I somehow managed to wind up in South Africa of all places this summer, so I've made it my mission to visit all... 2... amusement parks in the country before I leave. I'm staying in Cape Town for the time being, so at this point I've only been to Ratanga Junction, but in a few weeks I'm heading to Johannesburg to check out Gold Reef City. Okay, off we go...
I'd been in Cape Town for about a week at this point (this was several weeks ago), and I had a few days off work, and the weather was good, and everything is dirt cheap in South Africa, and it's winter and all the wimpy South Africans think it's too cold to do anything (hah), so I hopped in a cab from my apartment in the city centre to Ratanga Junction in Century City, just a few minutes drive along the Table Bay coast. Century City is a very very white and very very luxury shortly-post-apartheid development in the middle of an otherwise non-white suburb, which means it feels out of place and a bit wrong. But roller coasters! In Africa! I mean!!
I hear from Capetonians that Ratanga has not done well economically and seems to be in perpetual danger of shutting down, but I didn't see too much evidence of that. It's clean and well-kept, and there were modest crowds, though this may have had something to do with the fact that it was winter holiday week in all the schools. And it's super affordable - only about R120 ($12 or about £8) for general admission.
It's actually a tiny little park. There can't be more than ten or fifteen rides, give or take, plus a light smattering of kiddie rides. It's split up into several sections and it's easy to get around. Shockingly, it's themed mostly to wild Africa.
South Africa is still extremely racially segregated, even though the laws of apartheid have been gone for 20 years. Most of the guests I saw were white, even though Cape Town is only like 20% white. There were a few coloured (mixed race Indian-black-white) families - that's the majority race in southwest South Africa - and no black families at all. On the other had, almost all the employees are black and coloured. I saw one white employee. If you've never been to South Africa, it's a magnificent and extremely sobering experience.
So first credit of the day was Diamond Devil Run, a standard Vekoma mine train a la Calamity Mine at Walibi Belgium. It was enjoyable enough, but one-train operation on a ride this long is a real capacity-killer.
One interesting thing I noticed on all three coasters was that there is absolutely no preferred seating, period. Not for the front, not for the back, not even if you ask nicely. I really think this is a pointless rule. I've never understood it at North American and European parks and I don't understand it here, especially not to this insane degree. As long as the station is kept reasonably full, but not crowded, and as long as every train is leaving as full as possible, there's no need to take away that element of choice.
Their skycoaster was only $5 per person per flight, but they require 2 riders minimum, so I didn't get to do it.
(I got over that pretty quickly when I remembered I'm going REAL bungee jumping in a few weeks, WHATEVER)
So on to the next credit, which - no seriously - is called Cape Cobras Nashua Mobile Thrill Ride (Cape Cobras is a cricket team). It was plain old Cobra until a few years ago, and that's what everyone still calls it. I guess this is evidence of the financial trouble Ratanga has had, since I've never even seen a more branded ride at Six Flags. All the seats have pictures and stats about different players for you to read if you get bored during the ride.
I've been on four Vekoma SLCs now - Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland, Thunderhawk when it was at Geauga Lake, T2 at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, and this one. T2 and Flight Deck are the two worst coasters I've ever been on and Thunderhawk is not exactly a luxury experience, so I was not expecting much, but this ride was actually really great. THAT one came out of left field. Maybe it has something to do with Cobra being the star attraction at Ratanga, which makes it one of the biggest rides in all of Africa - apart from Gold Reef City, of course. I don't know, but it was nice and smooth and the views of Table Mountain and Table Bay from the top were fantastic. There's one jerky spot halfway through the roll over, but otherwise, it's smooth and fast.
This is also the part where I tell the story about the most terrifying employee behavior I have ever seen at an amusement park. The attendants at Cobra were constantly walking back and forth across the ride area in the station when the train wasn't there, touching and even swinging on the track, etc. At one point, a few of the attendants had pretty clearly dared one of the others to give the entire safety spiel from the middle of the ride area WHILE THE TRAIN WAS ON THE BRAKE RUN AND ENTERING THE STATION. I honestly couldn't believe what I was watching.
Anyway... after Cobra I took a lunch break at a little cafe overlooking Ratanga's pretty decent-looking log flume.
And finally to the last credit here, Bushwhacker. Surprise, every coaster at this park is a Vekoma. yayy... I don't know, it's a fairly good kiddie coaster. Nothing special.
And that's about it. It's a small park. Good way to kill a few hours if you're ever in Cape Town and don't have anything to do. Of course that's not a situation you're likely to be in in a city like Cape Town. Ratanga is very much not marketed as a tourist attraction the way Gold Reef City is. It's a small, local park intended for middle-income families from the area, and that's fine. I had a nice time wandering around. It's very far from the best attraction in Cape Town - ahem, Kirstenbosch, Lion's Head, Cape Point - but I'd go all the time if I had kids and a car and lived in here permanently.
There is one other "amusement park" in Cape Town. Just a tiny little fun park thing attached to Grand West Casino, but all they have is a kiddie coaster that I would almost certainly not be allowed to ride thanks to arbitrary rules.
I went to Ratanga on Tues, July 9, and since then I've been living and working in Cape Town and seeing the other sights in the Western Cape. On August 16, I'll leave for a week-and-a-half trip to Durban, Pretoria, and Johannesburg. The plan right now is to do the Bloukrans bungee jump (the highest commercial bungee bridge in the world, gulp) on the 17th and Gold Reef City on the 22nd or 23rd, so that's when to expect parts 2 and 3.
