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.