Oh, the Places We'll Go

We arrived in Cape Town at the tail end of an extreme heat wave. Temperatures were at or near 100 degrees and the whole city was moaning and groaning in discomfort. Though the thermometer had dropped a few degrees, it was on a still very hot day that our fit and ambitious group attempted to climb Cape Town’s famous and beautiful Table Mountain.

Our host at the Lodge had tried to deter us and told us that we needed to leave early in the morning to avoid the direct sunshine on the path, but we merely smiled and nodded as we continued to enjoy our leisurely breakfast.

Upon reaching the trailhead, we were greeted with some rather steep stairs and very minimal shade. Within 90 seconds I was pretty sure that it was going to be too hot and/or difficult for our group to make it to the top however, I kept my mouth shut and we pressed on.

Nearly 1 hour into what is supposed to be a 2-3 hour hike, the group had a pow-wow to discuss our options. My mother, who is in great shape, was extremely uncomfortable in the heat and wanted to head down to the take the cable car up instead. I offered to go with her. My Dad, was determined to press on to the top, as was Ted.

View from the trailhead - a long way to go!

Mid-way up, getting real hot...

Looking back as we near the top

After nearly losing my mother to heat exhaustion (I swear the woman doesn’t sweat), we made it safely to the bottom where we promptly consumed one Powerade and one bottle of water each (as we’d sent most of our water on with the men). Once I was sure that neither of us were going faint, we bought our tickets for the cable car and ascended the mountain like 99% of the tourists do.

Once we got to the top, it had been over 3 hours and I was almost expecting that Ted and Lar would be up there waiting for us. When we arrived and there was no sign of them, I decided to go looking. I plopped Sal (who was quite worried at this point) at our planned meeting-up spot, bought a couple of liters of water and went running down to trail to rescue my husband and father.

But no rescue was needed. I didn’t get more than 200 yards before running into to them. They were tired and had run out of water so were thrilled to see I had some (though Ted had been wishing for it about 30 minutes earlier). However, they were there in one piece and were happy to have successfully made it to the top.

After a group refueling, we finally got around to taking in the amazing panorama. The view of the city and the surrounding beaches from the top is different in every direction. We had a blue-sky clear day and we could see for miles.

Northward views from the top!

Southward views from the top!

Graces on top!

The rest of the day was rightfully spent napping and relaxing before heading out for a much deserved celebratory dinner!

It’s very exciting to be driving into a big city on the other side of the world and to know your parents are waiting for you when you get there!

Sal and Lar (my Mom and Dad) had made the long trip to the southern tip of Africa and we were thrilled to have them there. Lar had done a lot of the organizing for the trip and hit a home run finding the Rutland Lodge for our home base (Sal was busy first-time grandmother-ing in Minnesota during most of the planning). Situated up in the highlands overlooking the whole city and the ocean, the Lodge is just a short trip from the base of Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain.

View from Rutland Lodge

View of Table Mountain from Rutland Lodge

Cape Town is an impressive city that has many things going for it, from beautiful secluded beaches, to mountains as a backdrop, to a multi-cultural mix of people and music and food that is incredibly intriguing. It’s part San Diego, part Sydney but all South African. However, Cape Town isn’t all sunshine and good. Like the rest of South Africa, crime and safety are huge issues. Most houses and businesses in this beautiful place are behind tall walls with security alarms and electric and/or razor fences. It is something you are aware of at all times, but more so than in any other cities we visited in South Africa, you actually feel quite safe.

I guess you have to have at least one negative thing to say about the place or otherwise it would just be too perfect. We were excited to be there and have nearly a week to explore it with my parents.

Cape Town Beaches

Arrival in Africa - Welcome Graces!

Apparently, there is a tourist demand for packaged elephant crap.  Who buys this sh*t?!? 

Like all good things in life, safaris must come to an end.  After an extremely long day of travel that involved 17+ hours, 2 countries, 3 flights (stopover #2 of 10 in the JoBurg airport), 1 car rental and a 1 hour drive – in the pouring rain, at night, on the other side of the road – we made it to our hostel on South Africa’s coast in Durban.  It was New Year’s Eve and Ted and I were pumped to go out and party! Yeah? No.  We were asleep by 11:15pm.  In our defense, the hostel bar closed at 10:45, and the nearest bar was miles away – too far to wander in the un-walkable night streets of South Africa, and too much of a pain to wait for a cab.  We woke up at midnight to the sound of fireworks and dogs barking and wished each other a happy 2011!

The next day we hit the road driving west to check out the famous Garden Route with the goal of being in Cape Town on January 5^th to meet up with the Graces.  The Garden Route is a scenic coastal drive that has been compared to California’s Highway 1 – lots of lookouts, beautiful beaches, coastal National Parks, cute vacation towns and plenty of tourist attractions ranging from snake museums to butterfly gardens to bungee jumps.

Jeffrey's Bay, Garden Route

Tsitsikama National Park

Tsitsikama National Park

We had quite a lot of ground to cover so most of our sight-seeing was from the car.  However, we were able to stay 2 nights in the cute, little town of Knysna and overlap with Dave and Jesse, the American couple we met in South America (who are also doing an around the world trip).  They happened to be in South Africa coming from Cape Town and we were headed to Cape Town so we decided to meet up in the middle.  We had a blast eating seafood, exploring ocean-front cliffs, sitting on the beach, and hearing what they’d been up to since we’d last seen them.  We even brazed the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean one day just so that we could say we swam in it.  We’re hoping to pull off another meet-up in Asia – we’ll see if we can make that work.

Knysna Heads

Beach day, cold water, cold beer

Knysna

Mmmmm...Oysters!

After a whirlwind couple of days at Iguazu Falls we arrived back in Buenos Aires in time to explore one more neighborhood of the city and eat one more delicious steak dinner at our favorite parilla before heading to the airport for our overnight trans-continental flight to Africa.

Our flight from BA to Cape Town, on Malaysian Airlines, was a surprisingly short 7 hours. And Malaysian Airlines – top notch service and plane.

We had one quick afternoon and night in Cape Town before heading up north to Zambia and Botswana. After some much needed napping, we explored the lovely – though extremely touristy – V&A waterfront. We were treated to some Christmas-themed live music being performed in a band shell near the water and we enjoyed it while eating our first (of many) meals of fish and chips.

Holiday cheer at the Cape Town Waterfront

Santa, made from Coke crates at the waterfront

Cape Town Waterfront

The next day we headed back to the airport and flew via Johannesburg (stop #1 of 10 in this airport) up to Livingstone, Zambia (yes, named after David Livingstone the famous British explorer). Driving from the airport to our hostel was definitely a glimpse into the Africa you might imagine – mommas with babies tied around their backs, women carrying unbelievably large loads balanced effortlessly on their heads, men trying to sell you anything from sunglasses to cell phone SIM cards, barefoot children playing on the side of the road, vans exploding beyond the brim with passengers, and trash along the side of the road.

Zambian kids

Traditional village home

We arrived at our hostel and were welcomed into a little oasis. You would never guess from the street that this place would provide such clean, comfortable rooms and come with fabulous perks such as wireless internet and a fabulous swimming pool.

Great first hostel in Africa!

By the time we arrived, we were pooped. In the previous 7 days we had slept in 7 different places with 3 of those nights spent “sleeping” on public transportation (2 on a bus, 1 on a plane). We were happy to have arrived safe and sound and looked forward to seeing more of Zambia when we had our heads on straight.