Gone With the Wind

Read Up on Table Mountain!

Howsit (South African short hand for "whats up") everyone?! I hope that everyone has been enjoying their last month of freedom before school starts! But wait, I START TOMORROW! When did that sneak up on me? Somehow I forgot to buy a pencil somewhere between bar hopping on Long Street and one of the most intense hikes of my life up Table Mountain. I'm super siked however to have a routine forced upon me... I don't do well in the long run with this much freedom. Not that I'm complaining of course, I'm just starting to feel like mountain lion by day and a cocktail vampire by night. My arms are sunburned and permanently stamped with venue entrance IDs. Cape Town is still treating me right and thrusting upon me a different adventure each and every day. Earlier this week, 18 of us clueless Americans decided to take a leisurely hike up Table Mountain. And let me just preface the rest of this post by saying it was ANYTHING BUT leisurely. Beautiful? Yes. Breathtaking? Positively. Hard? Ummmm, yeah. Scary? The biggest understatement EVER.

We started off the morning by having a savory omelet at Cocoa Wah Wah, breathing in the nice breeze and cloudless morning. Blissfully unaware of what we were about to get ourselves into. While the 18 of us stood along Main Street, in a rut trying to figure out the best way to affordably transport 18 people to the gardens where we wanted to start, we were approached by possibly my most favorite South African yet... Boogie Steve. Boogie Steve Boogie Steve, what a guy Boogie Steve! He offered to transport all of us in his painted "Boogie Bus" with over 1,000,000 Kilometers on it. The inside was decorated with old CDs, Records, USA license plates, and just about anything else that would transport you right back to Woodstock in 1969. The bus would only go about 20 Mph on the highway, thus ticking off everyone around us I'm sure, but we had a great time! Boogie Steve informed us that his bus was THE ONLY legal place to indulge in some Ganja. Yeah... well we didn't, seeing as that was likely a tempting lie, but he was the bomb anyways. After paying about $1 for the ravetastic ride and plastering ourselves with sunscreen, all 18 of us set out on our hike for the day.

We decided to make an attempt to climb Skeleton Gorge, little did we know that it was in fact one of the more difficult hikes on the Mountain (aka is was ENTIRELY up hill). It was beautiful and fully shaded for the entire trail. There were small waterfalls and magnificent foliage. All was going well until my lungs decided to have an asthma attack half way up. Perfect timing right? We were in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere with no albuterol, no morphine, no meth, no divine intervention... NOTHING would help me out of this one. After a series of breathers, I was able to pull through it alive, but that small episode ended up being the least of my worries that day. Once we breached the tree line and made it to the top of the mountain, all of us noticed a bit of a pick up in the wind. We were thrilled to be on top of the world and able to see the whole of Cape Town around us. And I mean it when I say, what an unbelievable site! Once again, no picture could do this any justice. Eventually, someone looked off in the distance and pointed out an extremely fast paced cloud formation swallowing the tops of the smaller mountains in the range. We knew that we needed to make some moves. As the clouds started to coil around the mountain, we found our way to another trail that took us right alongside the top of Table Mountain on what was basically a 4 foot wide goat trail. NEVER in my life have I been so afraid. Along with this trail we were met with Gale Force winds and absolutely nothing to hold on to. Whilst leaning heavily into the Mountain and taking hold of extremely thorny bushes, we literally held on for dear life. When the wind allowed us a 10 second breather, we would sprint as fast as we could and then be blown right back into the mountain face. Had the wind changed direction, we would have been sent plummeting back into Cape Town from the top of the mountain. All I could hear were my friends frantically yelling that we should go back (which we couldn't at this point and it was getting dark) and all I could see in my brain was newspaper headlines about 18 stupid American's being swept clear off the top of a Mountain.

Regan and I were at the front of the pack and once we were able to spring from the cliffs edge and make it onto a more central location, we ran, literally, across the top of the mountain like something out of Lord of the Rings in order to catch a group of about ten more unknown people in front of us. Praying to God that they were regular hikers, thus making us feel like less of morons, we were shot with dread the minute they opened their mouth... more idiotic American student they were. I glanced down by my feet and on a little 12 by 12 inch plaque, there was a worn engraving that read "Caution: this trail can be dangerous and deadly in rain and high winds." Fabulous. We were almost to the point of dialing the SOS number located right below these words when we then realized that we had chosen the right course and had made it to a wind-proof gorge that would allow us to descend on a very rocky and moderately steep path. After allowing reality to catch up with us, we were again able to appreciate the unbelievable beauty of the gorge.

The descent was tiring, but I've never felt more ALIVE then I did once we reached the bottom. And for the next few days... I was as good as dead anyways because my quads felt as if they'd been hit with a sledge hammer and the hurricane wind combo with a side of asthma please had given me an oh so pleasant head cold.  However, did that stop us from continuing on with enjoying a great night life? No sir-ee, we were out that night, enjoying jugs of who knows what at a local bar with the other group of American Idiots. Conclusively, I'm so happy that we hiked the trail... however I think I've learned my lesson: DON'T TAKE AMERICAN ADVICE IN SOUTH AFRICA! We spent the remainder of the weekend going through a grueling 4hr long registration process that, luckily enough for me, ended in a successful signing up for classes and what not. The next day the lot of us rested indoors and then enjoyed some amazing Techno/ Trance and socializing at a couple of places downtown. We also ate a fabulous dinner at a really modern and fun hotel called

"Cool Daddy Hotel." They really know their music and club life here. Friday was by far the most fun I've had out in a long time. People just dance and enjoy everything without reservations here, I love it! Keeping up with the never-ending stream of surprises here, five us decided to hit the mall for some leisurely shopping and a good lunch. It didn't take us long to notice that next to us, there was a guy with a MASSIVE lizard on him. CORRECTION: It was, and I quote, a BEARDED DRAGON. Who in their right mind takes their pet dragon to an Italian restaurant? Ew. He obviously knew that everyone around him was staring, especially our table, and after he told us what it was... I had turned back around to focus on more important things (aka the menu) when he walked up beside me and PUT the thing on my arm. All the other chairs at our table flew backwards as the girls jumped on top of our neighbors' pasta. Trying not to seem too rude/ freaked out/ grossed out/ dramatic, I faked a smile and lightly lifted my arm up to our friendly zookeeper and handed back the dragon. This was one of those "Thanks but NO THANKS" scenarios. South Africans love their extremities, which is normally fun! But when someone puts a dragon on your arm, your perspective might change a little for the moment.

Anyways, I start class tomorrow!! Yikesabee, but it will be nice to have routine, as previously stated. Its going to be so strange being in a class of 200+ people considering that classes at Richmond tend to stay below 20 students. However, it will be an experience I'm sure. Everything else here is still going great and luckily I brought a lifetime supply of cold meds so this head cold doesn't really stand a chance, but I'm sure I'll be back shortly with a post about the academic side of life!

Yay for Mind-BLOWING experiences ;)

Hopper X