Ups, Downs and Cape Town!!

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Hey hey hey! Hello again! Hope life is treating you all well! Chris, you got your ticket to Cape Town yet? It’s going to be wild!

Anyways, left you guys in Natures Valley where we spent another night on the deck under the stars. The guys who ran the lodge were really cool, they dug John Butler and Xavier Rudd so I grabbed my hard drive and shared some songs with them which we played over the sound system. I was loving the lodge and didn’t really want to leave so soon, but time presses on and we have to keep heading south. I’m looking forward to not having these deadlines to meet! We had plans to Skydive in Plettenberg Bay though, so we were both looking forward to that, kinda!
Up early Friday for a wander down to a waterfall deep in the forest. A bit of a scramble later we managed to find it and I hopped in for a swim! An 80ft waterfall is quite a way to shower!! The sun didn’t make it through the trees so the water was freezing!

The bus picked us up and we headed the little way down the road to Plett, in search of a skydive! Despite my consistent, relentless efforts Rebecca flat out refused to bungy, however she had constructed the argument that she would ‘rather skydive than bungy...’ and so the deal was done!
We couldn’t book the skydive until the next day so after pitching the tent we wandered off in search of food and the beach. We found both, a pleasant enough seafood restaurant that overlooked the beach and the saltwater lagoon that divided the beach when the tide was out, and pretty much engulfed it when the tide was in. We wandered back through the town. I found the first musical instrument shop I’ve come across and snuck in for a peek, I’ve been missing my guitar and considering picking up a cheap one, but there was nothing there. Also, I really should send my drum home before I acquire a guitar!

Up early the next day with a skydive booked for 10am. The weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky, no wind and thirty something degrees. I was really excited! We were driven to the airstrip, strapped into a harness and thrown into a little tin can plane! It’s was like a 1970’s mini with tin foil wings! We staggered and rattled along the runway and lurched skywards at a stomach churning angle! I was sat backwards, so looking out of the back window, watching the tail wobble and weave as it left the earth behind and raced towards the sun. We were thousands of feet in the air before we were strapped to an instructor and told what was what! Surprisingly there’s not a lot to it! Just jump and have fun! Theres a film of the whole thing so you guys will get a chance to check that out at some point! At 10,000ft the door opened and with a quick shuffle I was sat on the edge and for the first time I was a little nervous! Rebacca had jumped first though and nothing in the world is funnier than the look of absolute horror on her face. That DVD is destined for you’ve been framed!
No turning back! We jumped and freefell for 35 seconds, reaching 207kmp/h before the parachute opened. It was such good fun! Once the parachute opened it was as if we were sitting still in the air, the view along the coast was amazing, I could have sat up there all day! Wasn’t to be though, a few tricks and stunts later we were heading to the dirt at a remarkably fast rate, somewhat destined to greet it with a bump! We landed on our arses and skidded to a dusty stop. The whole thing was amazing, I’d love to do it again!
Me and Rebecca had agreed that whoever reached the highest speed freefalling would be treated to lunch, she beat me by 15kmp/h so we headed to a Mozambique restaurant, which was good!

The rest of the day was a little dull in comparison! The atmosphere at the hostel never quite picked up, it was a strange place! Glad to be leaving the next day and exhausted from the adrenaline rush, we headed to bed after watching our skydive dvd’s again.

Sunday morning I woke early so I grabbed my camera and wandered along the beach to get a few pictures. Even though it was a dull little town, it was pretty! I keep forgetting to photograph places I’m writing about! I’m gutted I never made it back to the supertubes in J-Bay for some photo’s!
A couple of snaps later I headed back and packed my bags and hopped on the bus to Mossel Bay, 3 hours down the coast. We stopped at a McDonalds on the way. How on earth they get the food tasting exactly the same 6000 miles away I have no idea! I didn’t exactly want to eat at McDonalds, but these busses have always stopped at Steers until this particular one, and Steers is the worst fast food outlet in the world, ever, ever, ever. Worse than anything you could ever imagine! So I was almost pleased to see good old Ronald, almost.

Mossel Bay was founded in 1488 by Bartolomeu Dias, a European explorer who had unknowingly sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. 9 Years later Vasco da Gama made the same navigational error and upon finding the shores of Mossel Bay christened it ‘Aguada de Sau Bras’ - the watering place of St. Blaize. Rumour has it it was da Gama who first bartered for cattle with the local Khoe in what (according to Mossel Bay Visitors Guide) is ’generally regarded to have been the first commercial transaction between Europeans and the indigenous people of South Africa.’
This history lesson comes neither because it is fascinating, nor because I have delusions of Bill Bryson-esque travel writing proficiency, it’s because after a whole week in the place I have nothing else to tell you! Of all the places we’ve visited and would have loved to stay a week,we were stuck in this dull little town. It was a PADI course that kept us in this sleepy little town. More about the PADI later, for now though - back to the history lesson! It’s about to get as exciting as it is going to!

In 1500, Pedro d’Ataide sought shelter in Mossel Bay after losing much of his fleet in a storm. He left an account of the disaster, as well as a warning about trade relations with the Indians hung in a shoe from a milkwood tree. Untouched by the local khoe, who apparently ‘feared’ the written word, the note and shoe were discovered a year later by another, presumably lost European, Joao da Nova. So happy was old Joao that he had found this note, he set up a chapel - the first Christian place of worship in South Africa. The exciting bit is that the ‘Mossel Bay visitors guide’, from which I have taken most of the above facts, promises “... and the tree has served as a kind of post office ever since...” Well, I had to find this tree!

Back to the PADI, an open water scuba diving qualification that spread over 6 days. I’ll not bore you with the day to day intricacies of the course, but in a nutshell it was 3 days in the classroom, 5 dives in a pool and 4 dives in the sea, followed by an exam. I absolutely loved it. The two brothers that ran the dive centre were awesome fun. I had the misconception that diving was an ‘extreme sport’ in the sense that skating, surfing and BMX may be considered. Quite the opposite is true, it requires carefull preparation, a profound understanding of weather and a pretty big chunk of intelligence. The reward is not the adrenaline rush of, say, a successfully landed BMX trick, but a glimpse of some of the most fascinating things the sea has to offer. It keeps you smiling all day!
Getting used to breathing underwater was a bizarre experience, I was conscious of every inhale and exhale in the pool sessions, but as soon as we hit the reef and saw the corals and fishes I was distracted enough to resume unconscious breathing. I can’t really name any of the creatures we saw underwater unfortunately, though there were a couple of reef sharks and Sean (our instructor) managed to upset an eel (and got himself electrocuted) and a squid-ish creature (which inked all over the place!) amongst other colourful and intriguing things!
It was on a day off between the pool sessions and the open water dives in which I was supposed to be studying dive charts that I set off in search of the post office tree. I had visions of a tree covered in thousands of notes people had left, maybe even leaving one myself. There was an entrance fee to get into the park which surrounded the tree, this also suggested it really would be a spectacle worth seeing. Maybe the fee was to cover the cost of the postcard I would leave. I’d arrived at the wrong entrance so had to slyly slip the guard double the entrance fee to be let in. Surely it would be worth 20 bucks though!
Wandering towards an average looking tree that I was sure wasn’t the tree I was looking for a plaque read: “ This milkwood tree (sideroxylon inerme) is considered to be over 500 years old. The Portuguese navigator Da Nova found a message in, or under a tree near the watering hole in 1501 and this may well be the same tree” MAY WELL BE!?!?!? The tree outside the park MAY WELL BE the same bloody tree but it was free to look at that one! Where are the notes and postcards?? The guide book promised “a kind of post office.” The only thing vaguely resembling a post office is the gathering of old people! The town’s claim to fame that I had coveted was a tree that may or may not have been responsible for sending a Portuguese man all the way to India with only one shoe. In other words, a tree which, despite it’s girth was only really a small, unimpressive tree. RUBBISH!

There really wasn’t a lot more to Mossel Bay, it boasts the only working harbour on the Garden route, which equates to there being ships in the sea sometimes. There is also Seal Island which, as the name suggests, is a tiny island in the bay home to lots of seals and lots of Great White Sharks that eat the seals and the occasional surfer. The PADI made the stay totally worthwhile though, I’m now qualified to rock up anywhere I chose and dive. May even try to sneak in a dive in Cape Town before I head north. I think I could get quite into this diving thing!

Feather in cap we couldn’t wait to head out of town and towards Cape Town. We’re skipping the wine region for now so Rebecca can make the most of CT, I’ll be renting a car and heading back up that way after Easter weekend.
The bus drove through the mountains of the wine region as the sun set behind them. I worked my way through a bottle of sauvignon blanc and the driver put the film ‘derailed’ on for us. A film with a rape scene was a bit of a strange choice for the picturesque drive. Fortunately the gravity of the aforementioned scene relied on Jenifer Anistons’ ability to act in a drama/thriller. Not so good. The film wasn’t awful though and it was followed by Jack Johnson’s on and on album, which was a whole lot more appropriate.
We arrived in Cape Town late, checked into a backpackers on Long Street, the place to party in CT, and spent the night in the bar. Sleeping in a dorm meant having to put up with the loudest, weirdest snoring you have ever head until 4.30am. It sounded like a whale in a tsunami, a sick whale at that. You would not believe the pretty little South American girl that was responsible for the noise! I didn’t! I was like, ‘was someone else in the bunk under you last night?’ apparently not!
Staying awake until 4.30 listening to snoring that somehow penetrates your ears even though you are plugged into an iPod at full volume really does give you the chance to question snoring! From a Darwinian standpoint, it seems a little bizarre that we would evolve from one cell in the sea to the adept natural wonders we are today, yet still snore. I’d rather evolution had left us with tails and relieved us of snorers! From a religious stance, what God would allow snoring? Does it even have a biological advantage? I think I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent...

The next day we wondered the length of Long Street to the waterfront. Long Street wasn’t quite what I had expected. I’d imagined a South African ‘Las Ramblas’ but, other than being long, it’s not quite as instantly memorable! It is however, packed with bars, clubs, pubs and restaurants which I cannot wait to explore! It’s about time I experimented a little further with African cuisine. Springboks, kudu, crocodile, ostrich and zebra beware! Hows that for a mixed grill!?!?
The waterfront is a collection of malls, galleries, theatres, museums and cafes where jazz bands play in the street and some very expensive looking boats cruise along the canals, all overlooked by the spectacular table mountain. We spent the day ducking in and out of shops and cafes before heading back for some great Indian food. The hostel had a DJ in session when we arrived back and he played some awesome house beats while we kicked back and wrote this blog on the balcony before heading to bed to catch up on the sleep the snorer had deprived us of the night before!

Tuesday we woke a little more refreshed and set off in the opposite direction as the day before to explore a little further. In the 48 hours or so we had been in CT I’d slowly begun falling for the place, by the end of the day I was pretty much head over heels. We wandered through a planetarium and the SA museum, where the skeleton of a blue whale hung from the ceiling, filling the entire 4 storey building pretty much end to end. We passed the houses of Parliament, a cathedral and the SA National Library en route to Slave Lodge - the place the original Dutch settlers on the Cape kept and sold slaves from all over the world. The building has since had many identities to secrete the shame of the slave trade, but was recently renamed the slave lodge and became a museum and acknowledgment of the progression of equality and human rights. There was a huge installation in memorial to Steve Beko, who had been a black rights activist during apartheid and had died in police custody in Pretoria, brain damaged from police brutality. We had been introduced to his story in Soweto, and seen the place he was arrested and held by the police who inflicted his fatal injuries in PE, so the exhibit was fascinating, if a little sombre. We wandered back through the greenery of the company gardens, filled with trees from around the world, and headed out to a Sushi bar with an American and Spaniard that share our Dorm. The food was so good! After stuffing ourselves we set up on the bars balcony with a group of Brazilians talking and drinking until after the bar closed, watching the inebriated crowds dodging the beggars in the street.
The Spaniard had just flown from Mozambique and upon discovering I was heading that way whipped out his camera and talked me through his photographs. The places looked absolutely stunning and he was full of recommendations for places to go and things to do. So many people have been so enthusiastic about Mozambique, I can’t wait to get there! Danny and Sean, the PADI instructors also raved about the diving there, so I am sure I’ll be checking that out too!

Wednesday I headed down to an internet cafe under our hostel to catch up a little, with a latte easing me out of my sleepy state. When we went to pay for a couple more nights at the hostel they had given our beds away! We hadn’t booked, we’ve become arrogant enough to assume our beds are ours as long as we want them, which is clearly not the case in CT. We stuffed our things into our bags and headed off in search of a new place to call home. Fortunately we found a spot a couple of hundred metres down the road. We checked in and made sure we booked the next couple of nights. We dumped our stuff and headed back out the way we had done the day before, this time towards the holocaust museum and SA’s Jewish Centre. A holocaust museum was never going to be the most fun-filled place to seek shade from the midday sun, but it was at least educational and very well presented, if a bit heavy before brunch. I asked Rebecca if she thought the Jewish centre would serve bacon sandwiches. She checked the menu! Priceless...
We wandered back through the bustling streets, ducking in and out of shops and street stalls. Rebecca headed back to the hostel while I checked out a young designers fashion market. It would seem vests are in, though not for me.
We headed out for supper, ending up at an African restaurant where my mixed grill consisted of springbok, gemsbok, ostrich and kudu. It was the best food I’ve eaten in as long as I can remember, not just in SA. Kudu and gemsbok in particular were fantastic. Quite proud of eating that lot! Stuffed , we headed to the first night of the CT Jazz Festival, in Green Market Square. We caught Clare Philips, a white woman full of soul with one of the best drummers I’ve ever seen live - The Incredibles (i think) who mixed Jazz and Hip-Hop beautifully and go the whole crowd dancing and finally The Stylictics headlined, I didn’t think I’d ever heard of them, but it turns out they are the 1970’s crooners responsible for all sorts of bluesy love songs - none of which spring to mind as I’m sat here typing. Look them up though! They were great! The atmosphere was awesome too, everyone was dancing and singing along. I’d never think to put on a jazz CD, but live jazz is one of my favourite things. It brings back memories of Long Island Iced Teas in Santiago’s with Si.

Thursday the temperature was scraping the 40’s as we headed back down Long St to the V&A Waterfront again, after my internet cafe latte. We were headed towards the Two Oceans Aquarium, but stopped for pancakes on the way and watched jellyfish and seals dance by the boats in the canals. The Aquarium was awesome fun, I love marine fish. We saw all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures and corals, including a huge tank filled with ragged tooth sharks, turtles, stingray and all sorts of fish. We spent the afternoon wandering around the mall again, drawn in by the air conditioning as much as any of the shops. Rebecca has managed to pick up curios for everybody she has ever met, ever ever ever! The only noteworthy discovery of the afternoon was an artist who uses a soldering iron to burn incredible wildlife and landscape pictures into buffalo hide. It’s a little beyond me how he ever came up with the idea and I’ve certainly not seen it anywhere else, but the results are stunning. Not quite my cup of tea, but stunning nonetheless.
I’d planned to head out to an adidas 60th birthday party, but found myself exhausted so spent the night with a cup of tea writing up these last couple of days. I phoned Haley (I promised you a shout and I can’t think of anything witty, so this is it - sorry!) to wish her a happy birthday, it was really cool to catch up. Did make me miss being able to just pick up the phone and talk for hours though!

Friday, a pretty uneventful morning preceded a trip up Table Mountain. It had been my intention to climb the mountain on foot, but after walking the very long way around along the peninsula to the foot of the 1,085ft climb I took the easy way out and hopped in the cable cars, which were an experience in themselves. 10m per second along 1,200 metres of cable in a rotating capsule that offered stunning views of the coastline, the mountain range and the city. An Indian guy that had ridden in the same cable car as me got married on a deck overlooking the city on the top of the mountain, a solo violinist playing the wedding tune as the bride arrived in the following cable car. What a way to get married! A group of tourists gathered on the rocks and watched the ceremony, it was pretty cool! I spent the following couple of hours wandering around the various hikes along the top of the table, flattened by glaciers 600million years ago - apparently.
I hung around to watch the sun set from the mountain. It was stunning beyond words really, I won’t bore you with inadequate adjectives, you’ll just have to come and see for yourself. It was one of those really special moments that fills your soul, there to be shared really but I was all alone so I made do with a cold beer and my iPod. The priest who had married the two Indians, at some point in his endless rambling, suggested love was being able to honestly say to some one ‘I am who I am because of you’. I sat and thought about the people who have made me who I am and for the first time since leaving, I was a little sad as I missed the folks at home. (haley - here's another shout! i miss those long conversations about nothing in particular!)
I’d lugged all my camera equipment around with me and had shot some awesome photographs, but unfortunately at some point I’d managed to somehow get dust on my camera’s sensor, so each of my photographs - probably the best I ever took - were redundant, to put it politely. Though on discovering this, I wasn’t putting it politely at all. I headed back in the last cable car down the mountain and spent the rest of the night pissed off about my photographs, mostly. Rebecca still wants to go up the mountain though, so I’ll set about fixing my camera and cash in my second chance.

The next couple of days were pretty uneventful, the reflective evening spent on table mountain missing people damped my mood a little and for the first time since arriving ten weeks ago, I spent a whole day without achieving anything at all. I hate those days, so booked us in at a backpackers in Munitzberg on the other side of Cape Point. I wanted to surf! We arrived Sunday and I spent all day Monday surfing. The waves were awesome, the view of the sun setting behind the mountains was beautiful, I caught the best waves I ever have and was absolutely exhausted by the time I caught the shore break back to the beach. It was exactly what I needed! I was grinning as the waves pushed me across the bay. Refreshed and a whole heap happier we’ll be heading back into the city tomorrow.

There you go! The last few weeks! Sky diving and scuba diving! I’ll do my best to check in again before I leave CT on the 19th to let you know how my little solo road trip goes and hopefully get up some photos of CT. After that I’ll be heading in Namibia and Botswana!
Hope you are all well!
Lots of love
xx

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Photos

a little secret paradise
plettenberg bay - the sceneic route to the beach

a bug and a flower
a wild lilly pond by the road in plett

dakkie
these furry little guys were all over the point, this particular one has chocolate on his face from eating the bits that fell from my ice cream!

the lagoon on the beach
natures valley - i went for a swim with the fishes!

the view from natures valley
me being silly with the fisheye

some sunshine
just in case you've forgotten what it looks like

the post office tree park
i like the sky in this one. and that guy has one easy job watering the lawn!

rock pools
quite like this photo

surfing at the point
not me, i'm just out of shot doing 360 backflips....

the post office tree
what?! i want my money back! i bribed a guard for this!?

sun set from table mountain
unfortunatley my sensor was covered in who knows what. i had no idea at the time. what a bummer!
the rest of my CT pics will be in the next blog!