One Weekend, Two Mountains

I can't believe I've already been in Cape Town a month. Everyone told me that this trip would fly by, and they were SO right. The past four weeks have been some of the best of my life, and I already feel so fulfilled by what I have seen and learned during my time here. This past weekend was incredible. On Friday evening we climbed Lion's Head, one of the smaller mountain peaks in Cape Town (about a 45 minute hike) for the full moon festival. The view from the top was phenomenal, and watching the sun set on one side and the full moon rise on the other made it even more spectacular. I could have sat and watched that view for hours, but our lack of flashlights forced us to climb down early before it was completely dark.

The Beach Side of Lion's Head

Lion's Head at Sunset

Saturday we took a day off from hiking and spent some time doing my favorite activity: beach bumming. We decided to be adventurous and took a Kombi to Camps Bay. A Kombi, for those of you who don't know, is a large, often old and somewhat broken down van that shuttles people to and from different locations. This is not your ordinary taxi. There are usually two people running any given Kombi: the driver and the money collector, whose job it is to "recruit" people (as I like to call it) to take their Kombi and then collect their money. As a White (and obviously American) girl, I am the Kombi recruiter's favorite target. If a Kombi passes me when I am walking down the street, they will yell out "white girl, white girl, where are you going?!?" and often stop, open the door, and offer you a seat even after you repeatedly tell them that you don't need a ride anywhere. Usually this is just a normal (if somewhat annoying) part of my day, but on Saturday it was extremely useful, as we didn't have to wait more than three minutes before a Kombi came along that was headed to Camps Bay. We hopped on, paid 11 Rand (less than $2 USD), and thirty minutes later we were at the beach! Not too shabby for my first Kombi experience.

Sunday we dragged our relaxed, sun-tanned selves out of bed early and took on the hike up Table Mountain, aka the big one. Being a Pacific Northwesterner and the daughter of two very outdoorsy parents, I've hiked a few trails in my day, but this hike puts all other hikes I've done to shame. It took us about 3.5 hours to get to the top, the last hour of which was basically straight up. The best thing about it was how varied the trails were--one minute you were doing switchbacks and crossing bridges, the next minute you were climbing rocks and ladders straight up the face of a peak. We crossed dams, navigated through some heavy brush, and took a lot of much needed water/breath-catching breaks. It was easily the most difficult hike I've ever done, but also the most rewarding. The view from the top was breathtaking, and the pictures don't even begin to capture how high up we were!

The Coolest Place I've Ever Eaten Lunch

View From our Lunch Spot on Table Mtn.