Finally...Cape Town

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Today we arrived at the final leg of our journey...the beautiful city of Cape Town. I'm not a city person, especially big cities (which I think Cape Town is, since it has over 1 million people), but I was drawn to Cape Town by friends, pictures, and dreams (okay, dreams sounds a bit cheesy, but I couldn't think of a third thing...I wanted to say penguins, but we haven't seen the penguin colony yet).

After leaving our comfortable guesthouse in Stellenbosch this morning at around 10am, we drove over to the BP in order to get our car washed finally (2.5 weeks traversing South Africa, our car looked like a whole bunch of nastiness...not to mention our resident ant colony that seemed to have an infinite number of members which loved crawling around on the dashboard). We thought that after a good car wash and vacuum, the car rental company might think that we were outstanding citizens and took great care of the car (and didn't bottom out so many times in Kruger National Park). Long story short, Erin almost lost it with the carwash manager since we were at the gas station for over an hour while they slowly washed and vaccuumed our car. We had to return our car to the Cape Town airport by noon and also get our shuttle, which our hostel was sending at noon. Everything turned out fine (it always does for me).

We arrived at our hostel at about 1pm, and upon talking with the girl working behind the desk, weather in Cape Town (especially in the fall) is unpredictable. Since it was a beautiful day out, she told us to go and climb Table Mountain (which we intended to do, but maybe tommorrow, or the next day...we didn't really want to rush into anything). For some reason, I was talked into calling a cab (which the company said would be by in 20 minutes). No more than 5 minutes later, when Erin and I were getting changed in our room, and I was trying to eat a banana for lunch (which never happened), the girl behind the desk was yelling at us to meet our cab. After a death ride through the streets of the town, we arrived at the small gorge (forgot the exact name) where we were to set out and being our climb. Apparently the average time it takes hikers is 2.5 hours to climb up to the top. After the waterfall hike, the 6 wineries visited the previous day, and the lack of food or water for lunch, I thought it would take us at least 3 hours. I was wrong. We did it in exactly an hour. Erin was quite the hiker. The view from the top was beautiful, as it looked out over the whole cape in virtually every direction. There were numerous little trails that you could take to different vantage points. After staying up there and relaxing for an hour, we decided to take the cable car down.

Just got back from the V & A Waterfront (way more beautiful than the Barcelona's waterfront) where we ate seafood at an Italian restaurant. The atmosphere was really nice and it was still warm enough to sit outside, so we did. And now I'm back at the hostel (not Long Street Backpackers...after we were steered away from staying on Long Street because of the many clubs and bars--equivalent to staying on Bourbon Street in New Orleans), Big Blue Backpackers, located in the Green Point region of Cape Town, right next to the waterfront. I will say goodnight now. Tommorrow we are planning on getting up pretty early to take the ferry to Robben Island (basically an Alcatraz look-alike where Nelson Mandela spent many years as a prisoner there), and after that, we're planning on spending the afternoon exploring the ins-and-outs of Long Street. Goodnight from Africa.

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Photos

Hanging Out
...Erin atop Table Mountain

Platteklip Gorge
...this is a view of the gorge that we climbed up through to get to the top

Me at the top
...this picture reminds me of all of Uncle Henry's and Tim's mountain pictures in Colorado

Big Blue Backpackers
...inside of our hostel, which is very clean

Top of Table Mountain
...Cape Town is directly below us in the background

Cape Town and Robben Island
...different view of the city...if you follow that ridgeline that runs from the left of the picture to the center, our hostel is located just to the right of it, and to the left of the little harbor

Comments

[Mandy]

Hey Girl!
Air-Just wanted you to know that I've been following along with you on your journey! I can't even imagine how awesome this trip's been for you guys! Totally jealous! I can't wait til we see each other again so I can see all the pics and hear the rest of the stories. Anyway, so glad you haven't gotten eaten by a wild animal! Be safe and have fun! Love you!!!!!!