Capetown, South Africa - Day 298

It truly can’t be overstated how beautiful Capetown is. Easily the most liveable city we’ve been to on the trip, in my opinion the 2nd nicest city in the world (after Vancouver of course…or maybe it’s the first…). Right on the ocean, surrounded by beaches, built right around Table Mountain and others (high rises literally encroaching on the lower slopes of it), safe to walk around, lush with a very comfortable climate. Would love to go back one day!

Checked into Fawlty Towers guest house and were almost immediately invited to share some brandy and cokes with Kenny (friend of the owner). Seemed like a nice guy – he and the owner (Nick) had been working on building an airplane for the past 3 years. Didn’t take long before it became apparent why the project was taking so long… while the girls ducked out to shop, Kenny broke out the next bottle of brandy (maybe 2:00 in the afternoon??), got real chatty, started giving Ray and I tours of the place including the infamous airplane, as well as Nick’s homemade revolving bed… so yeah, soon we’d had enough, better go find the girls. The waterfront area we met them at is touristy but quite nice… probably a perfect hybrid of Robson St. and Granville Island.

One last day left with Shirley and Ray, so we headed for a drive out to Cape Point the next morning. Heading south along the coast out of Capetown, passed through Camps Bay (ended up staying there later, similar feel to West Van), then on to Hout Bay. Another couple hours south taking your time driving and you enter the park at Cape Point where the landscape drastically changes to a deserty mountainous combination giving you the feeling that you’re really approaching the edge of the earth (for all intents and purposes I suppose you are). Climbed up to the lighthouse and our good luck with the weather took a turn (as it often does here) forcing us to take the silly railcar thing back down to the parking lot. We learned that after building the lighthouse, it didn’t take long for them to realize they had to build another because the first was built too high, so high that the ships couldn’t see it in the fog and mist or cloud. Turns out Cape Point is the southern most spot we’d see on our trip (there’s one a bit more south nearby but we didn’t make it there), so a bit of a milestone for us!

Took a different route back to Capetown as the sun was beginning to set so that we could stop at the penguin beach (known as Boulders Beach). Stinky, noisy little creatures, but somehow still loveable. The African penguin looks just like the ones from the antarctic, except quite a bit smaller. So funny watching them waddle around, hopping over little gaps here and there, some with their young.

We dropped Shirley and Ray off at the airport the next morning, unloading 4 months worth of trinkets in the process (woo hoo!). Big thanks to both of them for that! Another milestone for the trip, day 300. Cool! Tired of avoiding the people at Fawlty Towers, Jen and I moved to a much, much nicer hostel a few blocks away (so wish we’d stayed there from the start… amazing how good a book’s description can make a place sound even when it’s not). Didn’t do much the rest of the day except explore the city a little more, as well as Jen’s favorite places to shop. Again. Annoyingly, in one day of shopping at Capetown we found pretty much every cool crafty thing we’ve seen (and bought) over the previous 3 months, some of it even cheaper. (not only annoying that the stuff isn’t unique to the other areas we’ve been, but some of it we’ve been carting around in our bags for quite some time… ah well).

All throughout SA and Namibia, they have car guards that watch your car for you and make you feel obligated to pay them at the end (sometimes they wash your car even when you ask them not to… imagine if someone did that at home???). Anyway, at first I didn’t like it, but they’re always so nice and I really think they make a difference in the amount of car crime, plus it gives them a way to earn a bit of money. I now wish Vancouver would do something like it!

Back in Zambia we met a guy, Jonathon (he’s the one who helped us into Zimbabwe), who lives in Capetown, so we gave him a call and made a plan to climb Table Mountain. When we pulled up to his house to meet him, we had to appreciate our luck in meeting the guy who owns possibly the nicest house in Capetown. Wow. He invited us to stay at his place, which after trying out his glass shower that overlooks the ocean, we couldn’t refuse :). Just to give you an idea of how nice it is, apparently he often rents the house out as a movie set or to the producers or stars.

I had it in my head that Table Mountain was kind of one of those must do’s in Capetown that was easy and everyone did. Well it turns out actually climbing up and down does not fall into this category (perhaps taking the gondola up and down is). There are over 300 registered trails up the mountain, and only one really obvious one, which we did not take. It’s steep and difficult and the weather can change very quickly and dramatically. Looking up from the bottom at all those rock faces it’s hard to believe it’s possible to climb it at all! Someone had just died on another nearby mountain a few days prior to our climb, and it turned out the very next day someone fell to their death on Table Mountain. Jonathon took us up a route that was more interesting than the easiest way, and involved “a few scrambly bits” which turned out to be slightly on the frightening side but very satisfying in the end!

About half way up a Brazilian guy caught up to us doing everything you’re not supposed to do when hiking (starting with leaving his friends behind to continue on his own, and not telling them); he tagged along with us since Jonathon knew the way, and was actually quite nice. Around the same time, Jonathon took us on a short(ish) detour along the right arrow traverse or something like that, which apparently few people know about nevermind do (for good reason)!. “Okay… make sure your shoe laces are tied tight for this next bit, walk very slowly, lean in to the right, and whatever you do – don’t look down or left” …a few more even more frightening scrambly bits (ie. a 500m drop to your left)… and then what has to be one of the most incredible natural features in the world – this crack in the side of the mountain that you claustrophobically slide yourself into, and walk BEHIND the rock that forms the side of Table Mountain. Just amazing… everything feeling so unstable with a good 500m drop below you, and probably still another 500m to the top still above you, cracks all over allowing you to see through the side of the mountain to the void outside (I suppose geographically speaking it is incredibly unstable…). Apparently the route keeps going all along the vertical part of the mountain, but after seeing 2 of these sections my nerves were getting to me and it was time to head back to our easier route. So glad we did it!

Eventually made it to the top and enjoyed the incredible view for a while (was nice b/c there was almost no one else up there), wandered along the circular path along the top of the mountain and just as we were headed down the easy trail (basically like the grouse grind) the Brazilian guy bumped into his friends that he had ditched (quite funny to watch them blab at each other in Portuguese, probably telling him off for leaving them). It was a gruelling 1 hour trip to the bottom. Could barely walk for 2 days after, and even now as I write this (a week later) it still hurts to walk downstairs…

Sidenote… As I write this we’re sitting on the beach in what is often considered Africa’s surf capital, Jeffrey’s Bay (or J-Bay), sun shining down (though still a winter’s breeze blowing), drink in hand, watching the surfers ride the waves that are crashing about 30 ft away. MAN am I having a difficult time with the thought of us flying out of Africa in a mere 11 days (and over 1000 kms still to travel before then). Looking very forward to seeing friends and family…aaaaand that’s really about it. I suppose we’re tired of never staying in the same spot for more than a couple of days, but the thought of finding a place to live, working, going to a bar and seeing the same waitresses doing the same job as before we left… it’s all rather depressing, and incredibly surreal that what used to be so far in the future is now so close at hand… crazy…

The day after Table Mountain went to the beach for a rare winter beach day down at Camps Bay and got to meet some of Jonathon’s friends. Very nice guys, gave us plenty of good advice on which wineries to visit, and where to go on our trip along the coast.

Had some interesting conversations with Jonathon about the divide in SA. He seems to be quite for the idea of the rich getting richer, just as long as the standard of living of the poor is also improving. He pointed out that obviously there always will be poor people in the world, and it’s all really a question of geography. I suppose they’re good points but it’s sure hard to swallow when you drive by the slums and see them with your own eyes.

Next day was a cold, wet one so we did some more shopping mall exploration (buying stuff here is really smart since it’s much cheaper than home for clothing)… then that night enjoyed a very nice homecooked meal at Jonathon’s. Then it was off again the next morning. Sad to leave one of our favorite cities!