Cape Town!!!

Gonna be good – 10 hours to go

Gonna be great – 5 hours to go

Gonna be AWESOME – 30 minutes to go

As indicated, the closer we got to Cape Town, the more exited we got!

 

It took us 17 hours to get to “The Mother City” of South Africa. Our coach ticket said it would take us 25(!!!) hours. Luckily enough, we didn’t have to travel by coach. The staff of GBT Maccassar was kind enough to offer a lift, since they’re based near Cape Town. So, with a few boys and a few staff members we traveled down within 17 hours.

 

The first sign of getting close to Cape Town (other than distance-indicating roadsigns) was the famous Table Mountain. Even though the mountain is just slightly more than 1 km high, you can see it from quite far. We got dropped off in front of Long Street Backpackers (based on Long Street, how original) by the staff and after saying goodbye, we headed towards the backpackers.

Long Street Backpackers is literally in the middle of the pubs and clubs (unlike Tekweni Backpackers, where I expected the same, but never mind). Based on the first and second floor of a building, it is a fantastic place to stay. Within the backpackers you scarcely hear the noise from outside. There’s a kitchen, bar, TV-lounge with DSTV (which provides hundreds of channels), there are two balconies and plenty of rooms.

 

We met up with the other PT volunteers and, again, shared stories (I’m not going to do my entire story again about how nice meeting other volunteers is. Read previous blogs :))

A few other volunteers stayed in Carnival Court Backpackers, which is also based on Long Street and just a minute walk from Long Street Backpackers. Those in Long Street Backpackers all slept in the same dormitory, which was obviously very cosy.

 

I’ll give a summary of the “basic” days (well, my basic days than). In the morning (read: 11/12 o’clock) I would have breakfast which consisted, almost the entire 13 days, of bread with Nutella (living the student life). Almost every day I went to the Smoothie Shop next door, where they sell amazing (AND HEALTHY) smoothies. They aren’t ordinary smoothies, at least that’s what I thought, since some of them have peanut butter in it, or beetroot, cacao powder, special milk etc. Anyway, after the morning ritual it was usually hanging around with the other volunteers. Either going to the local market, or discovering the area a bit more, just filling the day (priority: no stress! :D).

Like my time in Durban, going out almost every night was one of the reasons I came in Cape Town. So, as intended, almost every night we went out. As I mentioned earlier, the clubs and pubs etcetera are just around the corner, so finding them wasn’t really a problem. During all the clubbing I would often take a break to go to the Burger Shop, where they have the best chicken burgers in the whole of Cape Town. And then?

REPEAT

 

It wasn’t just that though. As I said, those were the standard days, but obviously we had some special days as well! On Christmas Day, our backpackers organized a trip and lunch (everybody had to prepare something, and then we would share) to Table Mountain. Not to the actual top, but to a cave halfway up the mountain. We got dropped of in front of the hiking path, and then we had to climb towards the cave. It wasn’t that long a climb, but it was the heat that was killing. Though eventually we got there and had lunch, with a nice view on Cape Town and Robben Island. Something that surprised me was that Robben Island (famous for the late Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment) actually is very close to the coast. That probably is one of the things that is (or were) so tormenting about the prison though. You can see the country, but you’re not allowed in it ever again. After the lunch (about 5 o’clock, so a pretty long lunch) we climbed down and went back to the backpackers.

 

We also had supper in several restaurants. One of the favorites definitely is the small Mexican restaurant with the friendly staff and delicious food. To be a bit cultural, we also went to a restaurant called “Mama Africa”, across the road. We knew it was going to be expensive, but it was only going to be a one-time-thing, so we didn’t care. Here I tasted crocodile for the first time in my life. Just like every kind of meat you haven’t tasted before, crocodile tastes like chicken, but it is extremely chewy. Therefore (and because it took long to get my meal, which made it free for me!) it took me quite some time to finish it, but it was a nice experience anyway. Another restaurant/bar we went to was “The Beer House”, where they serve 99 different kinds of beer. What made the restaurant so appealing for me was the fact that they serve bitterballen! (I don’t know a proper translation, so look on wikipedia or something) I hadn’t had this Dutch snack for quite some time, so it was a must-have. They weren’t fantastic, but bitterballen nevertheless, so I enjoyed them.

 

The most fantastic experience I had was on New Year’s Day, when I climbed Table Mountain (this time completely). I went with a small group and started a climb which said it would take 2 hours (a bit demotivating, I have to confess). As we climbed higher and higher we kept on watching the time, to have an indication how long we still had to go. Whilst walking you meet other hikers as well (some going up, some going down). A few of the hikers going down gave us a very motivating talk, saying that we were already halfway (when we had only climbed for about 20 minutes, hell yeah).

After that we kept on climbing, taking a break every now and then. Since we were making a turn in the climb (we had to climb up to a part where the mountain splits a bit), we lost sight of Cape Town itself and only saw rocks, grass and the mountain. As we came higher, the road got rockier and the wind heavier. When we were walking through the split the wind was very heavy (as if in a wind tunnel, which is the effect the split creates).

When I was completely in the split and I looked back to see the path we had walked on, I couldn’t see much of the path anymore. Behind me the clouds were crashing down on the path beneath me. It was as if the mountain was flooding with clouds and they all crashed down as a waterfall, with me standing behind it. A wondrous thing to see. Then I turned around again and got amazed again. As if a stairway to heaven, up at the end of the path the clouds were shining red/gold due to the setting sun. The last few meters I rushed to the top.

Whereas inside the split the wind was heavy and noisy, at the top was complete peace. It was a feeling hard to describe. The clouds had a golden shade and were calm, the noise had faded and nothing seemed to be wrong in the world anymore. After being astonished by the serenity and beauty of the nature around me, I walked towards the restaurant built on top. There we met up with the other volunteers, who preferred to take the cable car to the top. We relaxed and chatted a bit with them, and walked around on top of Table Mountain. Again I could see Cape Town and all what is around it. It wasn’t long till sunset, so as a group we watched it, and it was magical.

It is definitely something I want to do again, and out of all the things I’ve done in South Africa, this is what I would recommend the most. Do it. Before you die. You have to.

 

Spending Christmas and New Year’s away from home was weird, but I had a fantastic experience. 11/10 (yeah that’s possible okay shh) I would give to Cape Town. As a city, as an experience, just AWESOME.

 

 

 

Cheers from South Africa!

Tom

 

 

 

(Also, it turned out we climbed Table Mountain in 56 minutes, instead of the 2 hours it said on the sign. Nice!)