Hi and welcome all to our first full Cape Town blog of the September Ticket to Ride South Africa trip. Everyone arrived on their different flights throughout the day on the 12th of September safe and sound in the beautiful city of Cape Town. Once everyone had been picked up they settled into the rooms at the Beach Lodge, which is on Muizenberg beach where most of the lessons in CT take place.
It was dinnertime, so in a warm South African welcome Chris and myself (Chad) bought meat and potatoes to have a traditional South African braai, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t playing its part, so we had a good old fry up in the kitchen instead!
After a good meal and getting to know each other they headed off to bed for some much needed rest after many hours of traveling.
Day 1 arrived and we awoke to a 2-3foot clean, glassy and great conditions out at Muizenberg beach. The group stocked up on breakfast, got into their wetsuits and went downstairs to Lifestyle surf shop where they grabbed their hired surf boards for their first lesson. The lesson went well. A few people struggled at first, but everybody got the hang of it slowly but surely. After a few hours of surfing and coaching everyone was feeling pretty tired and hungry. Considering it was lunchtime we got out the surf and had some food to fuel up and gain some energy for lesson number two.
Lesson two started in the crowded, higher and a little more challenging tide. Despite the crowd of school kids surfing most of the guys got waves and had a couple good rides. So after a long day of surfing we headed out to a food market for some different types of curries, sushi, sweets and beer. After the market closed we headed to the Brass Bell, which is a well known pub and grill in Kalk bay as it was Andy’s birthday. We had some drinks and watched a live band play some great cover songs.
We retired from the Bell to get some shut eye for day two of the trip.
The morning of day 2 everyone woke up feeling a little stiff but still in high spirits for their first lesson of the day J. The swell had dropped off a foot or so but conditions continued to be ideal for learning. The lesson started off with a warm up run, making some of us (including myself) realize how unfit we actually are! After a warm up run, stretch and a 30 second football game with an old tennis ball found on the sand, the group paddled out to the backline accompanied by Chris, myself and a resident seal. A solid 2 ½ hours of good surf had passed so we headed in for lunch.
Lunch had come and gone and it was time to get back into the water. Everyone had a good surf getting some long rides whilst being filmed by Chris on the beach.
Day 3 was upon us and the group had been told to wake up a nice and early 6 o’clock in the morning for there long 2 hour hike up Table Mountain.
After breakfast and a bit of a drive through Friday morning traffic we all finely got to the foot of the mountain.
The walk was long and tiring, but after a couple drinks of fresh mountain river water, a few good laughs at the crazy ‘Lion King’ poses that were happening on some of the rocks we made it to the top. The gents had a well earned beer at the ‘Shop at the top’, the ladies some water and coffee and we all just marveled at the beautiful view of the Cape. We decided it was time for lunch so we all headed on down the fastest cable car ride of our lives to the bottom of the mountain and went off to the waterfront for some good chow (food in South African slang) everyone had filled there belly’s and were keen for a free surf out in front of the lodge.
Its been really a great time so far. Despite the busy few days behind us we have an equally busy and exciting few ahead with penguins, wine tasting, community work and more surfing to come
Chat soon and will keep you posted!
Chad