Well the title only tells half the story as will this blog, the photos will again do these tales more justice than i can, and untill i figure out how to get some photos onto this thing you'll just have to take my word for it.
Safe to say i was pretty hungover after the wine tour but it was definately worth it. So the plan was i would have a quiet day, chill out at the hostel, feel sorry for myself and wallow in my self pity. Which almost happened, i decided to go outside for a walk with no particular direction or destination in mind, i have been doing this a bit recently and it has been leading to some quite extraordinary little adventures, more on that later, so long story short i ended up at the Jewish Museum here in Cape Town, why the jewish museum you ask, well one guess....they had an exhibition celebrating the contributions the Jewish Community have made to South African Rugby and in particular the Springboks.There habe been 10 Jewish springboks, the most notably being Joel Stransky who you might remember was the man who kicked the winning drop goal against the All Blacks in the 95 World Cup final, in fact he scored all South Africa's points in that game and wrote his name in the history books forever in doing so. Johnathon Kaplan who is the most capped referee in the world at the moment is also jewish, his story is quite funny, he was no good at rugby but loved the game so much that his mother rang up the Rugby Union and demanded her son be allowed to attend some referee clinics, the Union thought it was a practical joke and hung up on her, only to have the phone ring staright back, they eventually allowed him to attend and the rest as they say is history, he promised his mum that if he ever got to ref at Twickenham he would fly her over and give her a kiss outside the stadium gates, which he eventually did some 25 years later. The museum also showcased the trials and tribulations the Jewish people faced when arriving here in the mid 1800's after the discovry of firstly diamonds and then gold, it is however quite obvious that all immigrants to this continent faced the same challeneges, hardship does not discriminate and was not monopolised by the Jews, but they seem to have done very well for themselves. I was told not to take photos inside the museum but couldn't help myself once i got to the rugby section, luckily nobody saw me so no harm done there. Rugby is so very entrenched in the national physce here, and through this they have a tremendous amount of respect for all New Zealanders, they see us as a tough, uncompromising nation who are both humble in defeat and in victory and we thus carry alot of mana here, so us younger generation owe alot of the friendly interaction we have with the locals to the rugby teams of yester year who forged this great relationship with the South Africans, in fact in one of the freedom songs they have here they sing about Graham Mourie and his relinquishing the All Black captaincy because of his stance on Apartheid, freedom songs were songs sung by the opressed people in the townships, that made them feel they were not alone in the fight against apartheid, these songs are still sung to this day and resonate throughout the townships to this day.
Next day did exactly the same thing, got up walked out the front door and just started walking, it was a reasonably nice day so i found myself being pulled towards Table Mountain, the colossus that dominates the skyline here in Cape Town. Instead of taking the Cable Car to the top, i decided to climb it by foot, seemed innocent enough, but it didn't quite turn out that way. The walk to the foot of the mountain is about 1 hour from the hostel and if she looks big from a distance she is quite menacing when you are standing at the bottom looking up. The Notice said 3 hours to the top, i looked at my watch 1o'clock...plenty of time. So off i went the first hour was pretty flat and took me along the side of th mountain, the sun was shining, the views were spectacular as were the waterfalls you walk under, then came to a place named Platteklip gorge, this is where the real climbing took place. I started off o.k one foot in front of the other on about an 80 degree angle, 30 mins passed then an hour. I noticed the sun had dissappeared and assumed it was the mountain blocking it out, as it turned out it was the clouds from the approaching thunder storm. So 1 mintue walking in lovely sunshine and the next thing i know the clouds started rolling in, then the rain, then the hail and sleet. I kept pushing on up through the cloud line and got to the point where i could only see a few feet in front of me as the cloud was so thick, added to that i was soaked through to the bone and my legs were starting stiffen up and get really sore, i found a hiding place under the lip of an overhanging rock and managed to find some shelter from the elements, the rain wasn't so bad, but the wind.. it was freezing. I didn't know how much further i had to go and the longer i sat still it seemed the colder i was starting to get, luckily i had my thermal underwear on( don't get too excited ladies, in fact this for many of you girls out there is probably the highlight of the story, go on admit it, me in my Thermal underwear, what an image) otherwise i swear i would have froze to death. Anyway i had a couple of bannanas and a mandarin which i hoarsed down, and then had to make a decision do i wait for the weather to blow through or do i keep going, problem was i didn't know if the weather had settled in for the day or was just passing through, the weather here, especially around table mountain can deteriorate in the blinking of an eye, as i had just found out, not to mention i was starting to feel quite tired and contemplated just waiting. Luckily the energy from the bannanas and the mandarin kicked in and i decided to plough on up, i knew i still had a couple of hours to go and most of it was vertical. It was quite difficult from there because i could not make out any landmarks or see how much progress i was making because the cloud was so thick, my only hope was to just keep going. Then up in the distance i saw something metallic about the size of an A4 piece of paper, its metallic colour giving off a reflection that i so easily could have missed, anyway i got closer to it and then saw that there was writing on it which read " Cable Car 15 mins in that direction" you little ripper, after 4 hours, 15 mins was going to be a doddle. I had reached the top and was walking now along the flat of the mountain in which it got its name. But i still wasn't there yet and still couldn't see anything, i was concerned they had closed the mountain which is what they do in bad weather which would have meant me having to stay up there or climb back down, neither of which was very tempting. Eventulally i could make out a door, which said "Push to Open" i was pretty buggered and leant on the door not realising i had over done it and fell inside on the floor, when i looked up there were about 50 people sitting at there dinner tables having a meal in stone cold silence, you could have heard a mouse fart, i picked myself up and assured everybody i was ok, not that anybody actually seemed to care, but then again neither did i, i was just happy to be in civilization again, i walked around a little disorientated for a while and found the ticket booth and promptly brought a ticket to get down the mountain, i then jumped in the cable car and was safely delivered to the foot of the mountain.
Turned out i was quite lucky 30 mins later they closed the mountain and had all visitors vacate the place, if i had stayed any longer i would have had to have found my own way down either that day or next day in the morning, because i hadn't told anyone i was going up no search party would have been sent either, in future i think i might tell someone before i go climbing. The Mountain itslef is 1020m high and weather wise very unpredictable, it claims lives every year, 8 have died this year alone trying to climb it and many more have had to be rescued especially what they call J.A.G's (Just another German). Ignorance is bliss, if i had known that i might have thought twice about climbing it. So it was back to the hostel for a nice hot shower a nice meal chased down with a glass of red, safe to say i slept like a baby that night.
Next day i did a champagne sunset cruise, i think i was the only person on the boat by themself, everybody else were in groups or as couples, so i probably looked like a bit of a wally, sitting there with my glass of champagne watching the sun sink down through the sky.
Next day i was asked by the owner of the hostel if i wanted to go and protest against Global warming outside the state government, unfortunately no tear gas or riot squads with this one, very peacefull and quite lame really, some people just don't know how to start a good riot in the name of peace and global harmony.
Well bit tired now, will write again soon, went to a Currie Cup( South Africas National Rugby championship) game at Newlands stadium with my South African mate Brendan, went to the casino, climbed lions head and some other cool stuff that i will write about later. I head off on my 42 day overland tour tomorrow so i am pretty pumped for that.
Take care verybody and will write soon,
