Cape Town Baby!!

---

Hey everyone!! In Cape Town at the moment, its sooooo kool!! Definitely wana come back here (if G&G let me...) :p staying in a backpackers called Carnival Court, and some of the other Lattitude volunteers were here too over the weekend - some left yesterday though, and some are leaving today 😞 will miss them loads, but am gunna see some again next weekend so its all good :D bought soooo much stuff - presents, a thermorest, a waterproof bag - necessary stuff, but its adding up man!! Decided not to worry about it though, there's no point, you only live one after all!!

So the day before assessment, Iona got Fuller told that it wasn't kool to comment on my leg hair, which was awesome :D watched a bit of "The Hills Have Eyes" which was horrific, went to the beach with Nadia, one of the participants, she's kool, from Namibia originally. Saw massive jellyfish!! Not swimming in that beach again man. Packed for assesment.

16th was assessment start!! Spent most of the morning preparing the participants by getting them their personal and group gear out the store, was amusing. There was one participant we didn't know was male of female, it was awful!! (ended up male) ate soooo much lunch, then drove to the start of the hike, just outside George. Was a 12-hour hike, 1pm til 1am... enough said :p such an experience though. We wern't allowed to help the group read the map, so I gave up looking at it cuz I was getting frustrated!! They went the wrong way a few times, and Deon was totally playing with their heads, was ridiculous. Saw a brockenspectre, a rainbow below us on the hill where we could see our shadows in it!!! It reminded me of my hike with Roy, with the clouds in our faces 😊 we set up camp at Kamperskloof (sp?!) in our 3-man tent, I was the only 1 with a sleeping bag with me (sensible:p) so I was warm!!

17th we got up and everyone had to do 3min taks about themselves, didn;t realise me and Iona and Natasha had to do it too but we did, was fun, I love doing things like that :p drove to Willow Point and had to run the last 1.2k, I stayed behind and helped some of the struggling particpants. Then, we swam to the blue boat and back, I did it in 2mins22secs apparently :D not all front crawl though. Helped Ceso, a participant, to learn to swim, we actually got somewhere!! Though his breathing was way off :p rowed the Whaler back to the bothouse, everyone got a turn captaining and I had to bring it home, was funny!! I wasn't loud enough and got slagged for it, they totally took the ick out of everyone to see how much they could take, it was a shame but fine for us cuz we knew what they were doing. Deon kept chucking gear off the boat so they had to turn the boat around and get it, it took sooooo long!! After lunch, we got the kayaks and had to load all our stuff in to them - that was not fun - and strap the backpacks on the front. I was with Nadia, who was alright, understood that it was me who had to steer eventually :p little fish were jumping around, one of them landed in Natasha's sprayskirt!! When we got there and dragged out our boats and re-packed our rucksacks, we hiked up to an abseil site and by that time it was dark so only 2 people abseiled, and we set up camp while everyone else got chucked on solo :D with some tarps and string, they had to build their own shelter. Willie gave us tomatoes and onions so we made rice and meatballs and hot choc with our wee stove :D

18th was final challange day - totally loved it!! We kayaked back to the boathouse, tidied up, and the whole group had to run back to Sedgefield (8k) with 2 massive poles, log-size almost. one was sooo heavy!! And it was running all the way :D we started off having it so that 3 people we on each pole and subbing, but it was too awkward so we dropped it down to two. Unforgettable experience, totally pushing yourself in the heat, me and Iona and Natasha had the poles for the majority of it!! We're solid :p was honestly one of the best things I've done so far, loved it. The participants dropped off along the way like flies!! Only Nadia and Timba were left at the end, but Chris also got invited back, which is awesome cuz he was really good. We met Jaques, the executive director, while we were cleaning up, was funny!! Deon also wants us all to stay for a year (especially Iona) instead, but I'm definitely not!! I mean it would be a kool opportunity, but I value my life at home waaaaaay too much, realied that from being out here!! The other 2 are thinking about it though, would be awesome for them!! Its awesome though, Deon told us he was very proud of us, which is really something 😊 washed out my water shoes from the cake of mud that they were in from being waist-deep earlier :p got some booze to celebrate, but R12.99 deal on choc wasn't on anymore though 😞 Granny called, was so happy, was gunna call her anyway to wish her happy birthday. Natasha spoke to her hehe :p Willie made a braai, was awesome, played some pool, went back early to sleep for Cape Town the next day, but got kept awake 😞

19th was Cape Town day!! Got up early to take our laundry down, the nice person that I am, went for a walk, read some book, packed, we got made to hoover our floor!! Fuller, grr. She also made us leave early, because didn't want people to think Nadia was getting special treatment by staying longer than everyone else!! Nadia took us to Cape Town, couldn't cancel our bus though 😞 stopped at a nice place on the way up, sold farmers stuff, reminded me of the Coffee Bothy!! The St Lowery pass (sp?!) was stunning, down in to Somerset West. It was weird coming in to Cape Town, and seeing the township and poverty, all of a sudden becoming a rich golf resort!! Long Street is awesomely kool, all the parties happening and in the centre of things - downside is you get nooooo sleep!! Went to a kool place to eat called Mr Pickwicks, had a peanut butter milkshake, was actually awesome!! Beat Natasha at pool, then went to bed. I'm going to have a break now and finish this later, this computer is driving me nuts, the keyboard doesn't work too great, I'm bashing really hard!! Will try and get on Leonard's laptop later 😊 if you guys have any questions about anything I'm doing, don't hesitate to ask!!

Speak to y'all later 😊 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

---