The Whitest Beach (Private Joke)

Then, church on main youth camp came. It was a weekend away in Noordhoek, best known for its beautiful shoreline and long, white sandy beach which is about 8 kilometers long. We got to camp early evening on Friday and headed straight to Noordhoek Beach which lies just under Chapman’s Peak. We spent a while there, and I took a swim with some of the boys. I assure you, the water is not warm there, as clear and beautiful as it is. It’s temperature is piercing but feels wonderful in the warm air. Tash, Matt, and I adventured up into the rocks to watch the sun begin to lower. Saturday, after morning service, we took a quick trip to the bakery. Of course, are car was overloaded and thus, per usual, I found a nice cozy spot on the floor in between the passenger back rest and the seat behind it, while Brad sat in the boot of the car. Shoes on? Obviously not. This is South Africa.

After afternoon services, we went back to the beach where Mike taught me the ins and outs of touch rugby. It’s much better to actually experience playing because you learn to read the field…not that I was much good at it. I generally only learn to see what’s in front of me considering running is a straight-line sort of game. But, it was fun nonetheless, mostly because I could poke fun at my friend Simon. Then we headed to a local bar to watch the cricket game. Now that is an entertaining sport, but, interestingly enough, not entertaining for the level of athleticism it illustrates. I say it is interesting because something happens during every play. There is never a null point of lack of progression; the game is always moving along. What a great game it was! South Africa beat India in the very last moments of the game. Plus, Patrick split Marcel’s (froyo) with me!

Saturday night Mike, Dane, Simon, and I attempted to sleep outside under the stars. Problems came when we realized the ground was wet and consequently decided to sleep on a raised platform on the jungle gym. This would have been very successful had a 3-inch role to your right or left not ended in a perilous fall. Yet, during those few hours of attempting the sleepless night, I laughed harder than I can remember. We learned a lot about Dane’s grand sense of humor. At about 2 am, we called it quits and crawled back into our cabins for a good night’s slumber. In the morning we woke up for an early service and cheered on the bikers racing in the Augus Cycle Tour around Cape Town. Because of the race, we had to park our cars several kilometers away from camp, so leaving was quite a process and definitely a funny sight to see.

That week, Ilana, Taylor, and I hiked up Lion’s Head yet again, for Lans’ first summit. Taylor decided it would be a good idea to hike down to Camps Bay, which was great in theory until about half way when we all realized how hungry we were. But, of course, at that point, I couldn’t let us stop, and we somewhat silentely mumbled our way down to the waterfront. For homegroup that Tuesday, we went to signal hill to watch the sun set with a beautiful view of Cape Town. The city is so vast; it’s truly breathtaking.

We've Got Game!

Then, we went on our first all-interstudy outing to the Touws River area. We spent most of our first day volunteering at an elementary school a couple hours away. We completely re-vamped their entire classroom setting, repainting the walls, cleaning the floors, and then putting everything back together again. When a break was due, we would go outside and play soccer or learn new handshakes with the adorable kids that went to school there. It was a very rewarding way to start the weekend away.

Afterwards, we journeyed to the Aquila game reserve. It was a luxurious weekend of animal spottings and pool escapades. I wouldn’t call it a true safari (not to spoil the hopes and dreams of you soon-to-be Aquila visitors), but it is much too controlled to actually mimic real-world wildlife. That being said, seeing such marvelous animals within mere meters –metric does make more sense, you must admit –of you is quite an experience. At the end of the day, we tried our best to remain ignorant of the enclosures around and added protections over the animals in the reserve. The weekend of luxury would not have been complete without a grand buffet, of which we took full advantage, let me assure you. After surviving off of wheatabix, wheat bread, peanut butter, and ketchup, all-you-can-eat dining was much appreciated.

We spent the evening swimming in the pool and creating synchronized swimming routines; and, of course, when I say “we”, I mean those who would lay their dignity on the line for the sake of synchronized swimming. The chatting and laughter went late into the night, and, although I was supposed to half an entire cabin to myself, I chose to sleep in an extra single bed in Britt’s cabin to avoid being so alone. I didn’t come abroad to enjoy luxury by myself, afterall. The next day was spent in the sunshine by the pool, playing games, and laughing hysterically over the little things. As necessary, my schoolbooks were open, but hardly touched. How could I pass up a good ol’ game of Marco Polo?

A Hiker's Heaven

Well, I have much to tell you about. It’s been quite a while. For the sake of time, yours and mine, I will tell you about myself but spare the unnecessary details that I seem to ever-so-unskillfully add into my usual blogs.

Let me tell you about an amazing weekend in UCT. Friday afternoon, after class, Geo, Taylor, Lans and I hiked up Lion’s Head, a short trail that I am all too familiar with now, seeing as I’ve hiked it about 4 or 5 times. Why you ask? Simple: it is the shortest hike for the best view of Cape Town. Apparently, it’s the best paragliding venue azwell. Paragliding on that Friday afternoon was beautiful. The sport is much more thorough and detail-oriented than I imagined, and I spent most of the ride asking him what he was doing at any given moment. Perhaps that is the reason the “thermal winds began to decrease” over an amount of time. The view was breathtaking, even better than I had imagined, and the greatest thing about paragliding is the sense of thrill is minimal compared to sky diving so you can better experience where you are and what you are seeing. After our paragliding session, we all met up at a restaurant called Blues in Camps Bay for Taylor’s birthday dinner. I ordered a mushroom burger…heaven.

Saturday, Dylan, Taylor, Julia and I hiked up skeleton gorge to table mountain. It was a great day for a hike and the company was talkative and cheery. After 3.5 hours of hiking, it’s amusing to run into tourists at the top of the mountain who clearly took the cable car up to sip on wine and take pictures (aka, outfits were starkly contrasting). Later that evening, we went with a group to a professional Stormers Rugby game, in which we stole the win in the last minutes. The players are huge and could probably consume me without chewing. Needless to say, the sport is very entertaining.

The next morning, Taylor and I woke up early to start our next adventure. We started what we though was a short trek up the steep side of table mountain, hoping to make it to the top in under an hour for our abseiling appointment. Of course, about 15 minutes in, we were informed that the path took 2 hours, at a minimum and was quite steep. Inevitably (because I was involved), we ended up taking a wrong turn some way up and took the advanced route up the last third of the hike, only to reach a sign that read “This is not the easy way down” right before our summit. Whoops. We reached the top in time to abseil (repel) down the face of table mountain. The best part about this is that, since you lower yourself, you are able to simply stop and look around and below you at any moment. About half way down, “there is a surprise”, at which point, the cliff’s edge ceases to exist and you simply lower yourself dangling. My rope started to turn me, allowing me a 360 degree panorama of the landscape from the mountain. When we reached the bottom we hiked back up to the top and took the cable car down.

Immediately after our abseil adventure, Taylor and I showered and took a mini-bus to Mzolis, a butchery in the township of Gugulethu. The restaurant opened in early 2003 and has since become somewhat of a socialite’s hangout, known for public drunkenness and lots and lots of meat (so much meat). It is an especially interesting place because the locals in Gugulethu are mainly Xhosa-speaking, impoverished, black people (yes, it is politically correct to call someone ‘black’ here), while visitors of Mzoli’s are often wealthy, white, tourists. During the night, the township is lively but dangerous; during the proper weekend days it is overcrowded with the hustle and bustle of wealth and poverty sitting across the table from one another. It was a refreshing phenomenon. lso, the day was hot, and a nice Hunter’s Dry cider has never tasted better (thanks for introducing me to Hunter, Dyl). After a good nap and a dip in the pool, the church service was the perfect end to a great weekend.