Howzit guys,
Welcome to the first blog of trip 2 of 2010. Wow what a busy first few days in Cape Town it has been. In three full days we have had three surf lessons, played football against the local football team on the beach in Kommetjie and climbed up and down Table Mountain.
Needless to say everyone arrived safely on Tuesday, with arrivals throughout the day those who arrived early had plenty of time to acclimatise, whilst Matt who was working on New York time and arrived at 23:20 had an initially tougher time getting into the Cape Town groove. We had a great braai (barbecue) on the first night and a few local beers were sunk while the group got to know each other. From the start the group gelled really well and it is exciting as the trip leader to see such a great bunch of people on the trip with us. It definitely reminds me how good my job is!!
With all the enthusiasm and excitement the group to the water really well for their first surf lessons, and Pete and myself were really impressed with how well everyone did in their first surf lesson, with everyone standing and some of the group getting good rides across the clean faces. In the following two sessions everyone was onto hard boards and the rapid improvement from everyone was very apparent. The wind has come up onshore giving our arms a bit of a rest, but it looks like we have good waves coming from Sunday on.
A good football show was put on at the beach down the road from the house, where the riders played against a team from the local township (shanty town). Whilst the riders were very impressed with the skill of the locals, and would definitely have feared playing them on a proper field, the unpredictability of sand somehow worked to their advantage and they beat the local talent!! Some very impressive skills were also shown from our group and the Norwegian Henrik surprised many with his talent. We will certainly be playing more beach football in the days to come in Cape Town.
Onto today, and the mighty Table Mountain. Well I call it mighty, to be fair in stands at 1000m which is high for some and low for others, but either way it certainly isn’t a walk in the park and trainers were certainly chosen over flip flops for this walk. I was very happy to see that it was a clear morning, as the day before the mountain had been covered by its “table cloth” of white cloud which ruins the visibility from the top. So we set off with the sun beating down and plenty of water in our backpacks. The walk is not a long one (1-2 hours) but is a particularly steep and strenuous one, and after the first five minutes you begin to wonder if you’ve made the right decision! I was very impressed that with a lot of determination everyone made it up. The ‘path’ consists largely of steps which are about half a metre each and you wonder how long the legs were of the person who designed it! On the top the views make every step worthwhile, with views all over Cape Town, the ocean and great views down the Cape Peninsula including the very suburb we had driven an hour from to get to the base of the mountain. With strong winds the cable car had stopped which created a whole new element. We had to walk down too! Usually we have the luxury of the cable car to get us down. Either way everyone embraced the challenge and there were good debates as to whether the walk up was worse than down or the other way down. I would definitely rather walk up than down with it being very steep but each to his own.
So, as you can imagine the group are rather tired but proud of the achievement today. I am certainly expecting to be stiff for the next few days and think I won’t be the only one! The guys are just finishing dinner now then we are heading out to a seaside pub to sample some of the local beer and rest our weary legs. With penguins and possibly Cape Point tomorrow and then good waves coming on Sunday Cape Town really is a non-stop stop on our trip!
Well hope you’re all well in your respective parts of the world. Check back on Sunday for our next blog.
Cheers
Chris