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Watch: Oom Willem takes a trip on a cruise ship to Cape Town (Film 12)

Cape adventures: exploring Tokai and Chapman's Peak

By Anton van Zyl • 23 August 2025
Watch: Oom Willem takes a trip on a cruise ship to Cape Town (Film 12)

Join Oom Willem on a 1927/28 luxury cruise from Rotterdam to Cape Town, chronicling his honeymoon via Lisbon, exploring historical sites like Tokai Manor, and navigating Chapman's Peak Drive in his Packard "Twin Six," all captured on 16mm film.

We are backtracking a bit this week, linking up with earlier episodes in our travels with Oom Willem van den Berg. In our defence, it is not always easy to identify and date unmarked, hundred-year-old films. Some of the reels also appear to be out of sequence, possibly from being incorrectly spliced and stitched together.

Unlike today’s digital era, where clips can be edited on a computer in minutes, film editing a century ago was a slow, manual process. Home movies were sh...

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