How long is this gonna take?!

Day 1 - Saturday, October 3, 2009 – Hiking Table Mountain

 

            We are finally in Cape Town!!! The night before I slept in Lauren and Rosario’s so we could get up early to watch the sunrise. It was 6AM and very early but when we looked out the window all we could see was the outline of the mountains and coast! It was so exciting to finally be here. We rushed up to the top deck with our cameras and it was perfect timing for sunrise. There were a lot more people up than I thought and we all watched as we pulled into port. It was the most beautiful sight! It was pretty chillier than we had expected but the weather wasn’t supposed to be the warmest while we were there. Lauren, Katie, Becky, Ashley, Rosario, Jennifer, Monica, and I all ate breakfast on the deck and saw a group of seals right by our ship – a great sign before our adventures began in South Africa.

            It took a while to get cleared from the ship but we finally ventured out into Cape Town between 10 and 10:30. Lauren, Becky, Kate, Rosario, Megan, and I were off to Table Mountain for the big hike. The day turned out to be perfect for it. Bright and sunny skies and it had warmed up a lot! I suggested we walk to the bottom of the mountain but when we actually saw how far away it was we decided against it! We were ported in the Waterfront which was a beautiful area to be in. Extremely developed and there were so many restaurants up and down the walk. There were such pretty boats ported next to us and all along the harbor. The Waterfront reminded me a lot of Boston and Halifax. Anyway, we found a taxi and headed off to the mountain. Our taxi driver’s name was Charlie and he was so cute! We were in a minivan type taxi and Lauren, Megan, and I sat in the “trunk”. This was my first experience riding in a car on the left side of the road. It was pretty exciting. When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain I looked up and almost fell over because the mountain was so HUGE! I couldn’t believe I was about to climb it, especially after I didn’t exactly make it to the top of the mountain in Ghana!! I figured this was a great chance to redeem myself and I was determined to get to the top.

 We started the hike at 11:00 so it was right near midday when it would get super hot. We decided to take the Platteklip Gorge route because it was the least steep path – if you could even call it a path! The gorge goes straight up the center of the mountain and is a direct ascent to the summit. Rosario started ahead of us and pretty soon she was out of sight. Pretty quickly Megan, Becky, and Kate were all booking it too, so Lauren and I hung back and just took our time. It felt like every ten feet I was ready for a break! I’ve definitely learned that I need to practice on the stair master before I embark on a hike up a huge mountain! Next time I’ll be more prepared! With just the two of us left we took our time and stopped when we needed to. After about an hour we ran into Micah, an SAS student from Hawaii, who was hiking at our pace. We stuck with him up until the top. We would stop for pictures and just to take in the scenery because it was so beautiful. We could see the entire harbor and as we got higher up the scarier it got to look down. Eventually we ran into a bigger group that included Mario, Career Services LLC, Jane, nanny for a professor on the ship, and a few others. We all stuck together the last leg of the hike. As we were going up, many people were coming down and we would ask them all how much longer! It had gotten really hot as we were hiking and we ended up running out of water. We would have had three bottles but Lauren’s ran away from us in the taxi L Pretty soon it was only about 30 minutes more to the top depending on how many times we stopped. Our short breaks worked out nicely because we would hike for a while, point out a shady area, make it there and stop. I realized that if I was ever going to make it to the top I would have to have short term goals which is exactly what we did. Right before we got to the top we met a group of girls from the U.S. studying at the University of Cape Town. We told them all about Semester at Sea and they told us about their time in South Africa. It was pretty awesome to meet people from home on a mountain in South Africa! Small world!

            We finally reached the top and it was a big clearing but we still had to walk to one side or the other to see the view. We had to hike up another short little hill with super high rocks and then we made it!!!! It was the best feeling in the entire world. I couldn’t believe I actually climbed Table Mountain. Charlie said it usually takes about 2 ½ hours and that’s exactly how long it took us! We were happy we didn’t go over, especially after all of our stops! We got to the edge and the view was breathtaking; unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I couldn’t stop taking pictures. The ocean was beautiful and we could see the rest of the mountain along the coast. We were so high up (3,500ft) and it was unbelievable! We took the typical pictures everyone takes on top of a mountain – I’m going to have some good Christmas card pictures by the end of this trip! By this point we were so dehydrated and hungry that we pretty much ran to the restaurant. We saw the rest of the girls from our group who beat us by 30-60 minutes. They were about to head back down as we got in line for food. Lauren, Micah, and I had lunch together and I ate the best cheeseburger of my entire life!! We took our time enjoying the scenery and walking around the top of the mountain after lunch. We stopped at the gift shop and bought a few things. Then we headed to the Cable Way for our trip down the mountain. After the hike we decided it was our reward to take the cable car and Lauren hurt her ankle a little when we got to the top so it was best just to ride down. The trip cost $10USD which I thought was a rip off but oh well! Lauren is super scared of heights so the cable car wasn’t her favorite ride. A huge group of people clamored inside the cable car and we were on our way down. As we descended the cable car started spinning so we could get a full view! It took us all by surprise and Lauren pretty much kept her eyes closed the whole time. It was a nice ride and we got a great view of the mountain and the harbor below. On the side of the mountain I could see mountain climbers. It was crazy because they were so high up and pretty much had nothing holding them. That’s not the next thing on my list to do!

            By the time we got down it was about 5PM. We grabbed a taxi bus which had other people in it already. It was only 20Rand each so we got a great deal! The currency exchange in South Africa is very close to Morocco (about 7.1 Rand for every $1USD). When we got back to the Waterfront, Lauren, Micah, and I walked around a few stores. We went into a furniture store that had a full zebra skin – CRAZY! You could see the ears and where the eyes used to be. I think it was supposed to be a rug?! I stopped to get ice cream and Micah headed back to the ship. The vanilla was so good and pretty different from our vanilla at home. It had a great flavor! Well, I wasn’t used to being able to an English speaking country (we pretty much get by using hand motions and pointing in all the countries) so I pointed to the cone of the guy that just ordered. As Lauren and I were leaving, that guy and his wife asked us if they could ask us a few questions. Turns out they’re working on a global project of going into the townships and recording the African music. Their goal is to get the behind the scenes music out into the world because people living in the shanty towns have little opportunity to do so. West, the husband, asked each of us what we think of African music and I compared all of the different African countries we’ve been to (Morocco, Ghana, and South Africa). He really liked our answers and we told him and Suzanne, his wife, about Semester at Sea and why we were in South Africa. We gave them our info and bid farewell. Just think, if I hadn’t pointed to his ice cream cone we probably never would have met them!

            Lauren and I went back to the ship for dinner and a shower. There was a really nice hotel right across from our ship in the harbor with free wi-fi so we took our computers out about 8PM. There were SASers lining the wall of the entrance to the hotel Skyping and browsing the internet. I Skyped Mom, Chris, Max, and Lewie! It was so great to see Mom!!! The connection wasn’t the greatest but it went pretty well for my first time trying to Skype. After we were out there for a while the hotel security guard told us we needed to leave. Apparently, we were disturbing the guests. Hmph! We went back to the hotel to hang out for a bit then head to bed. SHARK DIVING TOMORROW!