So nothing particularly medical in this post but we do have some great recommendations on how to make the most of a brief visit to Cape Town!
To start off, I’d like to get a brief word in before Master Houlden decides to slander my good name in his next entry. I would like to make it crystal clear that I did NOT crash the car. The car was assaulted. On Sunday night there was an unfortunate incident where a vicious stationary wall brushed Heidi leaving the smallest of blemishes. The police have been informed and we will be seeking damages from the perpetrating brickwork. Even walls can be violent in South Africa. Watch out kids.
On Monday, thoroughly prepared for a break from the hospital and thoroughly unprepared to go anywhere because both of us had left it to the last minute to pack, we scrambled to get our stuff together and ubered to the airport. 4 hours later and we were sitting happily with Chris (a fellow Trin Cam elective student) in a fab jazz bar in Cape Town listening to some incredibly talented musicians. Once the keyboard had been set up Chris left us both gobsmacked as he played nonstop for about 45 minutes.
Chris rocking the keys
Did someone say Carnivore feast platter?
I thought I'd forgotten spare socks.... I hadn't.... Didn't realise till we packed to leave 3 days later
Both feeling thoroughly untalented we got back to our hostel ready to climb Table mountain in the morning. We met Manu at the botanical gardens with the mountain looming over us and set off on apparently one of the trickier routes up - Skeleton gorge (yes they could have picked a friendlier name). So good news first. The path was not nearly as bad as you might think. Bad news. The path seemed to fade in to nothingness on a fairly regular basis leaving us to blaze our own trail. After successfully conquering the gorge we found ourselves on a beach. Yehp you did read that right, on the top of the mountain we came across a small beach that bordered one of the 2 reservoirs and stopped for some lunch while debating whether the water was too orange for us to jump in to.....
The iodine coloured water was strangely inviting.
I am unconvinced by Riki’s choice of route
After a whole host of misdirections later (and much 'it's about the journey not the destination blah blah blah' from whoever had picked the wrong path that time) we got to the plateau where we had incredible views over Cape Town and the sea - Highly recommend.
Totally worth the 4 hours of hiking.
Refuelled with pizza we met up with Harri (for those not acquainted with his backward Welsh spelling that is not a typo) at the oldest pub in South Africa and heard many many cute stories about him living with his two nephews while he was in Cape Town. We had very ambitious plans for the following day involving an early hike up Lions Head, another well known ascent. This plan was quickly thwarted when we realised that the 6 hours of hiking up and down the previous day had left us barely able to ascend the steps of our bunk bed let alone another mountain. Cue a short walk to the waterfront to stuff our faces and our first beach afternoon instead - for anyone going to the area I highly recommend Clifton beach, it was totally ideal. Riki even managed to find someone his own size to pick a fight with while we were relaxing in the form of Harris' 11 year old nephew. Fully beached out, we celebrated Harri's penultimate night in South Africa with some sea food and drinks at the local party area of Cape Town - Long street. This was the only place we got a little harassed in Cape Town- it felt just like being at home in Joburg. Technically speaking, in terms of murder rate, Cape town is actually a much more dangerous place at time of writing compared to Johannesburg, sitting at number 15 on the global chart (Joburg doesn't make it in to the top 50). I can honestly say it does not feel that way when you're travelling around, appearances can be deceiving I guess!
Clifton Beach featuring a candid walk from Harri and Riki losing a fight to a prepubescent child in the background
Chris had kindly offered to be our taxi for our last day so just before lunch we began our mini road trip to Boulder's beach famous for being home to a large Penguin colony. In search of the best viewing spot I may or may not have got in to a slightly compromising position.
Not sure what good all that time I've spent bouldering has done me.....
PENGWINS!!!!!!!!!!!
Chasing that MDU elective photo prize
Next on the agenda was a short drive up the coast to a popular surfing spot. Neither Riki nor I had surfed before but by some miracle we both managed to stand up after a couple of goes! I absolutely loved it. If you've never given surfing a go before it was amazingly satisfying and is definitely something I'm gonna be trying to do again in the future. Perhaps next time I'll try to do it in a slightly warmer climate because despite the full body wetsuits we all rapidly lost feeling in our hands and feet thanks to the winter sea temperatures. Harri joined the three of us and proceeded to recount his adventures from his morning of shark cage diving. Apparently they were very large and very scary. All of us felt suddenly much more uncomfortable sitting on our surf boards a 100m or so from the shoreline.
Boiz Boiz Boiz
A packed few days but we definitely feel like we made the most of Cape Town. Safari to come!
Comments
Post a Comment