What a weekend!

Friday turned out to be a less successful day than Thursday, perhaps my hangover contributed to this!! After an hour in the net cafe I went in search of Cape Point, but without a map or any idea of where I was going, I soon ended up back in Hout Bay again. I cruised back to Honray's flat and chilled out there for a while and this weird low cloud swept in and spoilt the good weather. I decided to chill for a while and when Honray came back from work he wanted to do the same. We had a lazy start to the evening but then went to meet his friends Wim and Kristine, who we had a very long, amusing, boozy night in some of Cape Town's bars and clubs which ended about 4.30am!

I was woken on Saturday morning to the sound of Honray crashing through my bedroom door hollering "Wakey wakey, rise and shine! You've had your sleep and I've had mine!" I've never heard that rhyme before but I wont forget it in a hurry. I could see Honray was still pretty wasted from the night before, and I was feeling a bit special too, but we had lots to do so we set off to get some supplies for the hike we had planned for Sunday and the road trip to Namibia on Tuesday. After that we met up with Wim and Kristine again and went for a drink and a snack at a restaurant overlooking the sea and a cricket pitch. Then we went to an awesome little beach near Camps Bay and swam, threw a frisbee, jumped off a big rock into the sea and played about in the shorebreak. I was warned that the water was very cold, but it wasn't so bad and I thoroughly enjoyed my first dunk in the sea in Cape Town. After the beach we went to a restaurant famous for its excellent steak and had a really nice meal together, then watched a DVD at Honray's.

Sunday morning we started early, picked up Wim and Kristine and headed north out of Cape Town. A little under an hour out of the city we went through a huge bridge and then parked up and hiked down a trail alongside the Eland river. The river flowed over smooth boulders in the bottom of a steep valley between rugged mountains, it was beautiful. The path was often steep, rocky and loose underfoot, sometimes passed alongside steep cliffs and involved some steep climbs. Once again I was in my flip flops!! I will buy some decent trainers for walking in when I get to Oz, but I just don't have enough room in my luggage to buy any here. I don't think I held the others up too much though. We barely saw another soul the whole way, apart from two fly fishermen making their way up the river, casting as they went. After about an hour we came to the spot we were aiming for, which Honray and Wim had been to before. There was a relatively shallow rocky pool in the river with some big boulders standing in the middle. We climbed out onto the boulders and right in the middle of the river lit a little disposable braai (bbq) and cooked some lunch. It was quiet, peaceful, totally deserted and the scenery was fantastic. I had a bit of a swim and mucked about in the rapids. We heard and then saw some wild baboons, and then on top of the ridge that overlooked us we saw two springboks (we think, they were quite a distance away). They seemed to stand there almost motionless for quite some time. When the sun looked like it might disappear behind the mountains we set off back, but stopped at a deeper pool nearer the start of the trail where there was a rock a couple of metres high which was great for diving off. After our walk we drove back to Cape Town, went and got changed and then all met at Honray's friend Ricardo's place for some pizzas and a game of poker. I thought I was playing pretty well at first but as I got tired I became more reckless and lost, buying back in twice but still being out first. It was fun though. Kristine had the chip lead for most of the game but Ricardo won in the end.

Monday: Thismorning I got up early again and went to Honray's workplace to drop him off. He has very kindly lent me his car today, so I set out once again to try to find Cape Point. This time I had a map, so I found it really easy. Unfortunately there was a lot of dense low cloud and I couldn't see a thing from the lighthouse, 249 metres above the waves below, which I could hear but not make out through the white-out. Its a shame, because the views must be stunning on a clear day. I wandered back down and drove round tothe Cape of Good Hope, where the waves were very impressive and the rugged landscape was quite incredible. There were a couple of coachloads of tourists there so I got a guy to take a photo of me with the 'Cape of Good Hope' sign. I also took some pictures of the beach, the rocks, the waves etc. The tourists seemed pretty focused on the sign though, strange. After that I drove to Boulders beach to see the colony of little African Penguins, very cute but very smelly!! And that brings me just about up to date. I'm going to check out Bloubergstrand and possible do some kiting thisafternoon, then I guess it'll be another chilled one tonight. Tomorrow Jez arrives and we head off on our roadtrip to Namibia. We should be doing some white water rafting, seeing Fish River Canyon (second largest canyon in the world after Grand Canyon) and generally exploring another African country. So, I'll post what we got up to when I get back. I'll also try to get some photos on here soon, been struggling to upload them to blogger so far, but theres a few scenic pics of Cape Town on my facebook page.

I climbed Table Mountain in flip flops and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

Thursday: I decided to go up the Table Cable, so I drove the matchbox up the winding 'Kloof Road' to the Cable station, but when I got there the queue stretched all the way down the road and looked as though it would take hours to get to the front!! Perhaps foolishly I decided to climb Table Mountain on foot. I had no water, no suncream on, no sunhat, nobody with me, and I was wearing flip flops!! To boot it was just past midday and there was hardly a cloud in the sky so it was very hot. But I decided balls to it, I was walking up Table Mountain! The first few hundred metres of the path were steep and almost put me off, but I decided to soldier on. I came to a signpost that described the more direct route up the mountain as 'more dangerous' and that there was some steep climbing, perhaps not suitable for flip flops. I decided to take the recommended route, so I took a path that traversed the mountain for a while then wound up a steep gorge. As with all mountains the top seemed to get further away the further I progressed, but the incredible views kept me going. Everyone I encountered on my way made some comment or other about my flip flops, as though I was the first person in history to scale the mountain in such footwear! A sign at the bottom said that a 'resonably fit person' should reach the top in two and a half hours, I did it in two, so I guess that makes me uberfit!! The top wasn't quite as I expected, it was rocky and uneven (for some reason I was expecting it to be as flat as a football pitch) , but the views were breathtaking. I stopped in the cafe on the top for the beer and bottle of water I had repeatedly promised myself on the way up and then without much delay jumped on the cablecar to get down. The floor of the cablecar revolved on the way down to give me a panoramic view, which was interesting!! When I got down I decided to drive along a coastal road I had seen from the top which wound alongside some beautiful white sandy beaches and some impressive houses that must be worth millions!! Eventually I came to Hout bay and took a little walk along the beach, paddling in the shorebreak. It was very nice and I remember thinking 'I could get used to this'. After that I went back to Honray's flat, after a while he came home from work and we went to Camps bay for a couple of beers over an impressive sunset. Then we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant he likes near his flat before returning to Camps bay and frequenting a club called ignite, which soon filled with hot chicks. We had several 'pixie dust' shooters, which is a mix of tequila and absinthe and blows one's head off. These and a few rum and cokes and few beers saw to it that I was well and truly drunk by the time I crashed into bed. A thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding day all round.

Langebaan

So, my hire car arrived, its about the size of a matchbox, I could probably drive it with my elbows sticking out the windows on either side!! Haha, its a little Hyundai of some description. Mapless, I headed out of Cape Town and towards Langebaan, which is luckily very easy to find. The strong wind was blowing my little car all over the road like a feather in a hurricane!! But the scenery on the way was amazing, reminiscent of Western Australia with red-dirt-tracks at the side of the road here and there. I arrived at Cape Sports at Langebaan about 1.30pm and as I had expected it was too windy for a novice such as myself to kitesurf, so I hired a windsurf board and sail, and a wetsuit, for two hours. I didn't realise the tide was with the wind so I started out on kit that was far too small. Then I had a board with outboard straps, despite only being 95 litres (apologies to non windsurfers for the jargon). I had a reasonable sail, then came in to change the footstraps and when i went back out, finally with the kit how I wanted it, the wind had dropped and the tide increased, so I was barely planing and had to wobble back in downwind. Not the greatest sail ever, but the scenery was impressive and its always nice to experience a new location. I was happy. On the drive back I saw the aftermath of an horrific car crash, I'm sure a couple of people must have lost their lives. This served to reinforce my reasoning for making this trip, you never know when you're going to go!!
On arriving back in Cape Town I met Honray and his family in a great little Dutch restaurant on the waterfront called Den Anker. I had a fabulous tuna steak and some very tasty imported dutch beer. Then we went back to the flat and watched a bit of UEFA footy before going to bed, shattered!!!! Not sure what to do today, don't think theres a lot of wind so I'm considering climbing table mountain. But Honray has designs to climb 'lionshead', a smaller mountain next to the table, for sunrise thisevening. So I'm not sure. Its ever so nice having nothing to do but decide what to do. He he.

Arrival in Cape Town!

Despite my flights running very smoothly and economy class on Qatar airlines being very comfortable I didn't get a wink of sleep so I arrived in Cape Town on Tuesday morning totally exhausted! Spying Honray's beaming face as I walked into the arrivals area soon perked me up though and the buzz of being somewhere new helped me to last the short drive to his flat. Once he had gone to work I crashed out and slept from about 11am till 4.30pm. Honray got back from work a little later and took me up Signal Hill, which overlooks the city, for a beer and to soak up some sights. It was a bit overcast and Table Mountain was crowned with a huge cloud, but was no less impressive for it. Honray's family are here till thisevening so we went for dinner with them before going to watch the second half of the ManU Dynamo match at Honray's friend's place.
I slept like a log last night and was woken thismorning to the suggestion that I accompany Honray to work where he would source me a hire car so I could drive to Langebaan for a windsurf or kitesurf. It looked windy out, so I lept out of bed and thats what we did. Unfortunately the car ire place can't get a car to me until midday so I had a wander about the attractive waterfront area and had a savory pancake breakfast before finding an internet terminal to st up a blog. That brings me up to date. Its now 10.45 so soon I'll be picking up my hire car and driving an hour North to Langebaan where I will hopefully hire a windsurfer or kitesurf gear and get on the water!! I'll get some pics uploaded as soon as I can......