The place I had been going all along...

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By this time it had become very clear that sticking around the boat with Alex and the gang was not an option. Fixing the sail boat for more than a couple days was just not in my travel agenda on this trip so I took off for Langebaan Lagoon for an epic kite surfing adventure… so I hoped. I arrived to 30 knots of wind in near perfect conditions. Keep in mind that you get conditions like this about once a year on any MN lakes so to say I was stoked was an understatement. The only problem with wind this strong was my gear was too big so I searched out a local kite shop and rented a smaller 6 meter kite, which was ideal. I had a brilliant day on the water making a few new friends on the beach and enjoying a great meal on the water just taking in this amazing day. After lunch I wanted to go back out and the conditions were getting a little rough as it was gusting to around 40 knots, and most people had now come off the water. I knew I should probably call it a day, but went out anyways and fought the massive winds tooth and nail. When you get strong gusts like this the kite may invert on you and gain so much power it will just drag you across the water with absolutely no control. I experienced this a couple months back on Millacs in which I lost my board and narrowly saved my kite as I dragged myself though the water over a mile through 5’ swell. Clearly I was not looking for this to happen again, but sure enough it did. A comfortable tack across the bay went haywire in seconds as my kite collapsed and ripped me straight down wind a couple hundred meters completely out of control. Option one was to pull the plug on the kite which will stop the madness, but possibly leave me a mile long swim to shore or I could just ride out the storm which I did. By the time I regained control my board was too far back to retrieve and now very uncomfortable with the conditions I body dragged over a mile to shore minus a $350.00 board. Not cool at all, but the price you pay when you push the limits of Mother Nature hooked up to a kite. I hung out one more day there with a buddy I met from Austria and kited in very light conditions the next day.

I spoke with the Captain after my day of kiting and he stated they were ready to make a move around Cape Point to Hout Bay. He needed me to pick up the sail on the way back, which turned into another mess as a two hour trip turned into 6 hrs. as I fought brutal cape town traffic, almost coming into a head on collision as driving on the left side of the road finally caused me to slip up a bit. To make matters worse my “Cheapie” rental car (The Company I rented from was actually called rent a cheapie) broke down on me and I waited a couple hours to get a new car. When I made it back to Simons town, all I wanted was a shower and a good sleep, but that was not in the captains cards as he persuaded me for one drink on his buddies 50’ “Old School” Sailboat. The boat was brilliant with a wood deck and rigging and sail more similar to a pirate ship that a modern day sailboat. One drink turned into many more and the next thing you knew Kirin (Alex’s Buddy) whipped out a bag of costumes, so we dressed up and ended up partying until late into the night.

The next day the crew was off to Hout Bay minus me as I bailed and decided to take care of my cheapie and meet them up in Hout Bay this afternoon. It ended up being a great call as I had plans to check a few items off the list around this area. First on the list was checking out Cape Point and hiking to the Cape of Good Hope. I was the first one in the park and enjoyed a very scenic drive through the park running into a gorgeous looking Antelope species which I hadn’t seen in any other parks. I made my short hike out to the point and then took a drive around the park exploring the coast line and looking for anything that caught my eye. As I parked the car I spotted a flock of Ostrich on the far side of the beach and decided to try and sneak over to them for some pics. As I kicked off my sandals and made my way through the rolling sand dunes, I quickly crossed some fresh tracks of some sort of Antelope. Sure enough as I peeked over the next dune was about 5 meters from two of these creatures as they were bedded down for a midday nap. I was getting so use to chasing these animals around in the car throughout Kruger Park that I forgot the pure enjoyment of confronting these animals so close and on foot. I was a moment of pure pleasure as I sat quietly watching them sleep with the warm sand at my feet and the rising sun at my back. The rest of my walk revealed many more of these Antelope and unfortunately my stealth was not enough to get close to the Ostrich as they were on their way out of the country as they spotted me over 100 meters away.

The next stop on my morning agenda was for a small penguin colony near Simons Town. As I arrived with plans of paying my fee and walking the boardwalk viewing the Penguins from a distance a parking guy showed me the way to another group of penguins, free of other tourists, fences, and money. Right up my alley!! I made my way to a small inlet and sat there for a half hour enjoying the penguins playing in the shallow by mere feet from me and they came in and out of the water into the morning sun. The joy of a moment like this is amplified by the lack of people around and I felt so blessed to have my own little National Geographic like moment all to myself.

Next stop was Hout Bay to meet the crew, which took me on an amazing drive along the high cliffs of Cape Point admiring the majestic views in every direction along with the 100+ Porsches which seemed to have the same agenda. I have never seen so many sports cars in my entire life as they must have had some sort of event going on as they cruised the cliffs attempting to dodge the slow moving tourist and the 100’s of bikers which littered the route.

Hout Bay had a completely different feeling that Simons Town as this was clearly a fishing port and a tourist spot just the same. There were people everywhere walking the docks and waiting for their tourist boats out to Seal Island. It seemed to me like there was plenty of seals right here in the harbor so I passed on the boat ride. I slowly walked the harbor for a couple hours inspecting all these old boats and enjoying the antics of the seals. They constantly seem like they live in a world of play as they gracefully move through the water. I wanted sooo badly to jump in with them and relive the moments I enjoyed with them in the Galapagos Islands years ago, but this water was waaaaay too cold for that today.

Alex arrived with the boat later that afternoon and we immediately headed for Cape Town for a night of partying on the famed long street. We checked into a nice hostel and started to get after it right away with a shot of whiskey, which is by far my least favorite drink and apparently causes me to make ridiculous faces of disgust, which Alex loves to see. We had a great night of partying late into the morning and took in everything Long St had to offer us. Alex was to standard form as he started undressing on the dance floor to the song “I’m too sexy for my shirt”. He must have been overheating a bit and he quickly went for the pants to and as he was taking off the belt security was right there trying to hall him off. Luckily for us the lead singer had taking a liking to him and told the guards to let him be. I can tell you there is never a dull moment when you get out with Captain Rust for a night of drinks.

The next day I made another run up to Langebaan hoping to get some of the great winds forecasted for the day. Unfortunately the forecast was wrong and I struggled to stay up wind most of the day and the wind was constantly changing throughout the day. I did get to meet back up with my buddy Mario’s from Austria though and we enjoyed a few beers and conversation on the current state of our home countries. While wandering the beach later that day I spoke with another kite surfer about the National Park in the Kalahari Desert I was planning on visiting and he offered to let me use the internet at his house to make my bookings. An hour of internet usage turned into a beer, two cups of cappuccino, dinner with his family, and a good night sleep. It always amazes me how often stuff like this happens when you are traveling alone. It’s like the world makes itself available in strange ways to help you along or make your journey a little smoother. Although the kiting turned out to be near terrible on this day, time spent with my new friends easily made up for the lack of wind.

The wind wasn’t forecasted to do much the next couple days so I set off for Cape Town early in the morning to catch a 12 hour bus ride north to the Kalahari Desert to enjoy the Kgalagladi Tranfrontier National Park. As I called the bus station midday to book my reservation I cringed to hear they all tickets were sold out. They offered me a ticket the following day, but to me this was not an option and I opted to rent a car and make the 10 hr. drive through the night to keep my plans in check. Before dark most of the drive took me through rolling hills of huge wheat and barley fields not unlike eastern Montana or Colorado. As the fields turned wineries and then high desert as the sun went down I sat there in awe pondering the pure diversity of this amazing country.

As I arrived in the park, my expectations were sky high as I hoped to see a trifecta of large cats and finally see a Cheetah in the wild. This park was near the polar opposite of Kruger and more of the Africa you would dream about. The landscape was mostly barren desert with dried grasses and random thorn trees dotting the savannah. My five hour drive to the rest camp was fairly uneventful minus some large herds of Springbok, Wildebeest, and Gemsbok. My high and unrealistic hopes of seeing large cats around every bed were quickly weaning as I checked in at Nossob Rest Camp an hour before dark. I asked the guard at the gate where the best area to see large cats would be and he stated there should still be a pride of lions hanging around at the waterhole a few miles up the road. As I peered at 5 parked cars up in the distance I knew they must be on my lions. To my amazement there was a pride of seven adults and two cubs nearly blocking the road as they lay in the shade to avoid the hot desert sun. Coming from the south I was the only can and was able to park a mere 3 meters from the lioness and the two cubs and sat there in ecstasy for over an hour until I had to head for the camp gate before close. At one point in time the cubs started making there was towards the rest of the pride, and to the mothers disliking she began to make light roars which erupted into a full out charge of the rest of the group as she prepared to defend her cubs. My whole body tingled with emotion at this event and it was one of those moments you will remember for the rest of your life. I had been in the car for the past 24 hours and put over 1000 miles under my tires in some of South Africa’s greatest parks and this one moment made it all so worth it. I swear I even felt a tear coming on for a moment as I was overwhelmed at my experience. The next day started right where the last left off as I approached a large male and a female again in the middle of the road and then only a kilometer away found another huge male casually strolling along the side of the road completely oblivious to my presence. I had plans to drive north to the boarder of Botswana and Namibia, but gas was getting low and I had no cash so I made my way back to the closest cash machine 4 hours away. On the way back I found a lone parked car looking with binos out into the river bed below. They stated they were looking at a Cheetah with four cubs. Finally…. The trifecta completed…. The only problem was I was the only person on a safari without a pair of binos. The couple gladly borrowed me theirs and I watch the female gracefully walking through the river bed as 4 of her cubs nervously watched her walk away from there den. Nearing the entrance gate I came across another pile up and apparently there was a leopard sleeping in this small cave on the edge of the cliff and they were all waiting for her to make an appearance. I declined the wait and headed back for food and gas, the whole way wondering the status of this Leopard when I arrived back. Luck was sure on my side today because as I slowly approached my vantage point she came out of the cave and lie curiously viewing the line of strange objects parked below her resting place. Quality Leopard sightings like this can take up to weeks in a park to find, and in my first 24 hours in the great Kalahari I sat awestruck rapid firing photo after photo to get a great shot. I met a really nice French couple during this viewing and joined them for dinner up at the rest camp that night. The next morning I saw a far out lion and four hyenas on a kill as I left the park.

After an uncomfortable 14 hour bus ride back to Cape Town I arrived to find Alex and the crew waiting to take me on a hike up the famed Table Mounting which encompasses the skyline of Cape Town. We met up with a local that Alex had met a few nights back that was to show up a rarely used and difficult trail along the face of the mountain. After a month of not working out my quads were on fire for most of the 3 hour hike as we sat and enjoyed the brilliant views upon the city below. It was actually a nice feeling of being a little worn out after the hike as I believe this is the first healthy thing I have provided my body over the last month.

The trip is now truly coming to a close as there are only a few days left of this epic adventure. We’re hoping to spend a day of it doing some wine tasting in an area called Stellenbosch and also at least one more day under sail up at Langebaan Lagoon. The trip has been beyond imagination and I feel completely content with my time spent in South Africa.

My sadness of leaving this amazing country is nothing to the excitement I fee l of making it home to spend the holidays with my family. It’s always the same feeling I get on a trip of this stature. There comes a time when you have done all you came to do and want nothing more than to get back to your real life again, especially at a time of year like Xmas. I finish these blogs of South Africa with a quote I love that seems so fitting for the moment at hand.

"There was once a man who’d become unstuck in the world – and he traveled around like a leaf in the wind until he reached the place where he started out. His car, his job, his phone, his shoes – everything was right where he’d left it. Nothing had changed, and yet he felt excited to have arrived here – as if this were the place he’d been going all along."



Signing off til I find a way to become unstuck once again…….



REEDO

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