Sunday, August 12, 2007

the path less traveled (a.k.a. the one that doesnt exist)

So this week I had classes as normal. However I had a 4 day weekend because Thursday was National Women's Day and my class on Friday was cancelled so that was great. On wedensday evening I went to a braai where I learned how to dance like Afrikaans people do. This is more like partner style dancing and was much more classy than Americans dance. That was very neat. Oh some mornings I get up and run which is relaxing but that isnt the point. It can be kind of sad. On the trash days you can see a bunch of people going through others trash and looking for food or anything worth money. So when i realized that was waht was going on it was kind of a reality check for me. Here I am living in an enormous rooom with my own bathroom and these people are just trying to get enough food to feed their family. Anyway enough with that. So on thrusday I walked around downtown and went to a really delicious place for lunch where I had some of hte best cheesecake in the world. It was so good. After we just browsed through some shops. It was very relaxing. Then on Friday I went to another vineyard called Lanzerac with Rita. There we went on a cellar tour which was very interesting and then had a wine tasting and cheese tasting. The cheese was very goood and the bread that the served as part of the platter was delcious. Here are some pictures of that day:




it was cloudy and rainy


outside of the cellar

rita and I

the hotel that is part of the vineyard




That evening Rita came over and we made Sloppy Joes. They were very good and very filling and not to expensive to make. It was great and something that is going to be done again. After dinner we sat and hung around and played MASH South African Style. That was funny.

Chelsea and Blakelee playing MASH.

Also that day I decided to do my laundry but here in order for your clothes to dry all the way you have to put it through the drier twice. I didnt have time to do that so I only did it once and hung my clothes all over my room. I thought that it looked funny so I took some pictures. It kind of made my room look like a jungle.





Saturday was just a relaxing day where I did homework and took a nap. On Sunday (today) we rode the train into Cape Town.

Blakelee and Me

A view from the train

We were going to Hike Table Mountain. This is a picture I have taken previoulsy of Table Mountain:


It overlooks all of Africa it seems (okay I am exaggerating a little). So we took a mini bus to the bottom of the trail. Here are some of the views from the bottom:





Chelsea and Blakelee

We then began up the trail. Here is a picture of some crazy flowers:








There was a path that lead up the mountain that we thought was the correct path. So we took it. Then i kind of disaperaed. Not so good. But we contiuned thinking that we would meet up at the path eventually. it began getting really tough. We were more rock climbing then hiking and the bushes and shrubs were cutting up my legs. This is what we began to climb:



I saw this and thought that you could kind of see the outline of a face. This is my new old man on the mountain.

On the path that wasnt actually a path we hiked in between 2 huge rocks sticking out of the mountain. It was gorgeous. Then we got to a dead end where we determined that it was no longer safe to continue so we decided to hike back down to the path. We were so close to the top it was heart breaking. This had taken us about 2 hours. So we hiked back down and ate lunch. We then found the correct path to hike up. This path was difficult but not nearly as bad as the one that we had just done. We also had to catch a train back and we knew that it would be cutting it close if we hiked up it but we did anyways, i know i know carless youths. So eventually after a lot of huffing and puffing we made it to the top. The views were gorgeous!







However we didnt have alot of time to enjoy the scenery because our train home left in 1 hour. I did feel like I was on top of the world. It was an amazing experience! There is a cable car that runs up the moutain so we took that down to save time. Then hopped into a cab and got to the train station only to find out we had just missed the train. Now one thing that we were told is to travel and groups and not be in Cape Town past dark. So we called one of our South African friends and he came to pick us up. We stayed inthe train station the whole time and tried to stay close to security guards. Thankfully nothing happened and we got home safely. We are making this friend dinner to thank him and we payed him as well. That part was pretty nerve wracking. But all in all it was a great day and I think that we are going to do this hike again sometime. It was worth it. The pictures don't do it justice.

Cheers!

1 comment:

Steve Taetzsch said...

Quite an adventurous week! Glad your hike ended safely. Your photos were spectacular. You are in such pretty country. You know, I recognized many items from your drying laundry photos --how sad is that? Thanks for the continuous updates to the blog. We all enjoy them.

Cheers from South Dakota