Hex Mountain Weekend

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March 3rd 2009

Published: March 3rd 2009

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Life Through A New Lens

The Mountain

This is at the bottom looking up!!

Once again I had a phenomenal weekend. Cape Town seems to be just filled with those, and the only problem with phenomenal weekend is that it makes it impossible to do homework. The good news is that I really only have homework in two classes, so during the week it’s crack down time. Crack down time is boring though, so do you want to hear about my weekend?? I know you do.

Let’s start a little bit before the weekend does. Thursday, February 26, I went on a field trip with my Health Care and Community Development in South Africa class to the Western Cape Rehabilitation Center. This is a really nice facility on the outskirts of Cape Town that serves mostly stroke, brain injury, and spinal cord injury patients. They have more than 150 beds and serve about 5,000 others through outpatient services every year. Their services include speech and swallowing therapy, physical therapy, wheelchair fitting and adjustments, and many more. They have a wonderful facility, but they do not have the man power to make full use of it. The center is a public/private partnership. This means that a private company is in charge of the building, and

The Famous UCTMSC Dam

Look to where the rail ends on the right side, now climb over it and jump!!!

the services are public. The sad thing is that many patients and workers have trouble getting to the center, and so they are working on that. Also, many of the people that they serve end up leaving the facility and going back to their homes and communities where many of them live in houses the size of the training bathroom, and they don’t have running water in their houses. This is a really great facility that has the potential to make a large impact in the community if they only had the transportation and the manpower. For my class I may be doing more work with this facility to help them out.

Friday Night, February 27, I was irritated and frustrated with my house, so I took all of my food and went to Alma to cook. This was really good, because I couldn’t handle being in my house much longer. I don’t really know why, but sometimes it’s just stressful. Then the IES students living at Alma threw a small party. It was mostly just IES students, and it was fun, but I left early because I had to get up the next morning.

Saturday, February 28

Getting Started

This was taken when I could still see the group ahead of us.

I got up early and headed to upper campus for an overnight hike with the UCT Mountain and Ski Club. This was the Fresher’s (Freshman and new people) hike, and even though I’m not a member of the club they allowed me to go along, and all I had to do was help pay for gas. The club even lent me a sleeping bag and a mountain pack that was ½ my size. Those of us going left home at 7am. I had my mountain pack filled with 3 sleeping bags (mine, Katie’s and Rebecca’s) minimal clothing, lots of water, apples, plums, enough PB&J sandwiches to last me for 2 days and a couple of other things that I needed. By the time I got onto upper campus, I was tired already, and I started to question my decision to hike a mountain with a bag that was so big that Ben asked me if I was carrying a midget in my pack.

From upper campus we found a driver that was coming back somewhat early the next day, and we drove to Ceres, where all the cars met up again. Ceres is about 2 hours inland from Cape

Keeping the Perspective

After a little bit of hiking check out how small the dam looks already.

Town. Ben, Susy and I ended up riding with Isabella and her friend Sarah. They are both first year students from Durban, and they are living in Rochester house. They were really awesome. On the way to Ceres, we stopped at a winery plantation for wine tasting. Once again, I tried 3 kinds of wine that I didn’t like. Apparently I’m insane, because insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I keep trying wine and keep thinking that it’s gross. Oh well, it was a fun little detour either way.

When we got to Ceres we chilled for about an hour waiting for everyone else to get there. Finally, we got back into the car and then drove to the bottom of the mountain. We were hiking up a mountain that UCT owns in the Hex River Mountains. From the bottom we did an initial 30 minute hike up to a dam where we all stopped, went for a swim and had lunch. Part of the swimming experience at the dam is that you must jump off of the dam, which stood 11 meters (35 feet) from the water into 12

Shrinking Mountain?

The mountain doesn't look so bad from this angle.

meters of water. It took me a while to talk myself into this, and it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever jumped off of in my life, but I finally did it, and it was totally worth it!!! It was a lot of fun, and one of the guys said that I flailed the whole way down. He was concerned that I was going to hurt myself because I was still flailing when I hit the water, but I barely messed up my suit (swimming costume). In fact, Susy had perfect form when she jumped, and she said it hurt like a beast and really messed up her suit. On well, it was totally worth it!

After our stop, we did the final leg of the hike. We were told that it would take about 3 hours, so we all set off. Everyone kind of left at different times, and somehow Ben, Susy, Brittany, Jo and I got separated from the group, so we ended up essentially feeling our way up this mountain and taking frequent stops for water breaks. Thankfully, the trail was marked, and Ben does a lot of mountain hiking, so he could read the

Going UP!!

In order to climb this mountain, you must climb the rocks. The best way to do so is to spider monkey your way up, which is fun with a large pack.

trail. Apparently mountain trails are marked with piles of stones. Good to know, huh. On the way up we also adopted another guy named David who was really slow and would have just pitched his sleeping bag on the side of the mountain and slept by himself if he had it his way, but we continued to encourage him and made our way up this huge mountain not knowing how close we were to our destination. About halfway up, I asked if my bag was supposed to set the way that it was because it was really hard to carry. Turns out it was adjusted for someone much larger than I am, so we took a timeout while Ben tightened all the different pulleys, and after that the hike was much easier. At this point I started referring to him as El Capitan, because he was leading the way and taking care of us the whole way up.

About 5 hours later we finally made it to our destination. It was an exciting adventure, and I was really proud of myself for hiking my first real mountain with a big ‘ole pack on my back. We camped in a

Water Break

Check out how far we've gotten.

field in a valley close to a stream. The stream had water that was clean to drink, and we also swam in it. It was nice and cold and exactly what I needed. The rule was just that you drink upstream and swim downstream. My legs were pretty tired by this point, and I had some trouble standing still for long periods of time, but that’s ok. At one point I was walking on wet rocks and ended up falling on my face because right before I put my foot down I saw that there was a frog and 3 tadpoles right underneath my foot and ended up practically face planting because I quickly shifted my weight to miss them.

After swimming we went back to the camp site, changed, and had supper (PB&J #2). After supper we found a spot to sleep where there was enough ground without pointy bushes on it and claimed it to sleep. Later Susy and I, while trying to find a rock formation to use as our bathroom, found a better place and after our potty break moved our stuff. Well, we ended up being the only ones there, and not wanting to

Keeping it in perspective

Now look at the dam!

seem antisocial moved back close to our original spot. Eventually that night, by the time I actually put down my sleeping bag and went to sleep, I was back in my original spot, had moved 3 times, and had come to rest unknowingly between two prickly bushes. I discovered them the next morning when I was no longer protected by the sleeping bag. I didn’t sleep well, but I enjoyed the stars. I have never seen so many stars in my life. Sleeping in open air in a field surrounded on every side by mountains is the most wonderful thing, minus the pointy bushes. There was not a single spot in the sky that didn’t contain a star. I even saw the longest shooting star I’ve ever seen. It streaked halfway across the sky. Now, I didn’t sleep well, but that was one of the best nights I’ve had since I got here. Before we went to sleep we all chilled at the makeshift bar (a piece of wood that some crazy person carried up the mountain) and talked. Just hanging out and stuff was a lot of fun, because for once, nobody was drunk, and since I called it

Electrolytes in a Bottle

Energade, the South African attempt at Gatorade.

an early night and left with Ben, even if they did get drunk I missed it.

The next morning, Sunday March 1, we all got up with the sun. Of course, we didn’t have much of a choice. Since we were in the valley it was completely light before the sun actually came up over the mountains, so I sat with Isabella on a rock and watched the sun rise while I ate my moosley (granola) and grapes for breakfast. The fun thing about watching the sun rise in the mountains is that you don’t watch the actual sun. You look in the opposite direction and watch it slowly engulf mountains before you in light, because you don’t see the actual sun for a very long time. Shortly after that we headed down the mountain, because we wanted to be at the bottom before 11, and we gave ourselves 3 hours to get down. Well, let me tell you, the way down wasn’t exactly easier than the way up because we took a more direct strait down route, but it was quicker. The good news is that on the whole trip, both up and down, besides the mishap with

Check out that view

We're really starting to make progress.

the tadpoles, I only fell once on the way down. That’s ok though, because my pack was big enough that it hit the ground before my but did, and then shortly after that Susy fell too. We reached the dam in about an hour, and so we took an hour to swim again. At the dam Susy, Ben and I took a little swim and walk to some small waterfalls that were upstream. After our swim and PB&J #3 we headed back down to the car, and then drove home. On the way home, we stopped for ice cream at Steers. I LOVE Steers ice cream and may go through withdrawal when I get home.

I was only home then for about an hour, and then I headed over to Alma because IES got us tickets to the summer sunset concert at Kirstenbosch Gardens. This week it was a group called Malaika, and they are huge in South Africa. Everyone loves them. It was a really great concert, and I’m really glad that IES got us tickets. At the concert, I had PB&J # 4. It was a lot of fun though, and Malaika is not only popular, but

Pose for a picture

Yes, at this point only Susy and I are wearing shirts, but that will change.

they are amazing musicians. There were a couple of times where the chords they were singing gave me goose bumps. Needless to say, after all of the excitement, I was totally exhausted, so when I got home went to bed.

This week I’m mostly just doing homework so that I can spend my weekends having adventures. I have another adventure planned for this weekend. I am going on a weekend wakeboard trip, so next week will be the story of another adventure. This weekend I forgot to bring Vashti along, sorry Mel and Christine, but I will try not to make that mistake again, because Susy and I have some super fun things that we want to do. I am going to head out for now and get to work. Keep checking though for more posts and pictures.

With Love from Cape Town,
April

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