stellenbosch

We did Table Mountain in four different ways: cable car, hiked it, rappelled it, and rockclimbed it! It was slammin'! I know, cheesball so elementary school slang. First time I did a multi-pitch climb, made me appreciate how much the quartz-marred granite of Carderock and Great Falls suck. It was AMAZING to be up so high, see gorgeous views of the cape, the 12 Apostles, the beaches (Camp's Bay) while trying to avoid the blister bush (causes blisters as big as much as the gooey sap can get on you--we'll see if we really escaped it by tomorrow morning).

Now we're in Stellenbosch, the Western Cape's second oldest town, in the heart of South Africa's Winelands, and started our bacchanalia already, staying at a very charming B&B Victorian mansion. And I swear at Fishmongers, our waiter looked like Dougray Scott, although my sister swears it was the wine goggles.

I have to admit I fell asleep on New Year's. My sister insisted on going to an alcohol-free halal restaurant for dinner that night, we were already worn from hiking up Table Mountain on a hot hot day, and after trying to navigate around all the minstrels performing in the parade, we gave up on finding place to actually celebrate and retired to the hotel rooms for my 'nap.' Didn't wake up until the next day, and only a moment to say New Year's to my sister before passing out again. Then we did the tradition Capetonian New Year's Day thing and spend a good chunk of the day on the beach, saw Elizabethtown (the movie), which sucked, and once again went to bed early to wake up for our Cape Point day tour.

We saw adorable African penguins, also called Jackass Penguins, went to a Nature preserve/park, biked down to a beach, where some of our compatriots swore they saw a shark (False Bay is notorious for Great White sharks), hiked up Cape point, and then onto Cape of Good Hope where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans currents met, got chased by f.o.b.s (freshies of the Asian subcontinent sort), and stood at the most South Westerly point on the African continent. On our ride home, we saw baboons, zebras, elants, ostriches, and some strange form of tail-less rodent. Alright, well that's been the adventure so far.

Hope you all have an awesome adventurous year 2006!