AFRICA!

Wow. I knew South Africa was one of the places I was most excited for but I never expected to fall in love with Cape Town as much as I did. I can honestly say it’s the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to… and I know I’ve said how amazing every place we’ve gone is, but this city just blows everything else away!! Cape Town has everything—a gorgeous waterfront with restaurants and shops and boardwalks, hundreds of white sand beaches and turquoise oceans, an awesome downtown with the mountains directly behind it, and valley after valley of wine lands— everything! Not to mention the perfect 75 degrees and clear skies we had every day. I would live here in a heartbeat.
I woke up once again for the sunrise as we were coming in, and it was one of the prettiest yet. To one side was the orange sun peeking over the mountains and through the clouds, and to my other side was the incredible view of the city of Cape Town sitting just in front of Table Mountain. As we sailed into the port seals played in the water around us and we docked at a beautiful waterfront area that looked more European than African. Finally we were at a port which wasn’t a cab ride away from an actual city! So that was extra nice. The ship we were docked next to looked like a really nice cruise ship, except I didn’t see anyone one it. Later I found out it’s the 6th biggest privately owned yacht in the world, and the owner isn’t even there- he just has it parked there waiting for the world cup in June! How insane is that.
So the first day my friend Ashley and I planned on going horseback riding on the beach. We stepped off the ship into the V & A Waterfront, which is a whole boardwalk area with nice restaurants, shops and malls. We stopped in a café for breakfast and headed off to find a cab to Sleepy Hollow Horse Farms in Noordhoek Valley. Besides being WAY ripped off by our cab driver, it was a beautiful ride up through the mountains with stunning views of the city and the coast beneath us. I just could not get over how beautiful everything was! We made it to Noordhoek about a half hour away and found ourselves in a beautiful rural valley of farms and country estates. Two girls about our age took Ashley and I and 4 others on a 2-hour trail through the valley and out to the beach. I got on my cute horse named Habana, who of course only wanted to eat and eat and eat. We started out down the trail, winding through grasslands surrounded by mountains in every direction, and the trail eventually opened up to an enormous expanse of pure white beach—more like a giant white desert—with no one on it but us. One of the girls asked me and Ashley if we wanted to gallop, so we galloped down the beach and I felt like I was in a dream. I had never seen anything like this beach before. I had to laugh as I looked around and realized this was real—to one side of me a valley next to a never-ending range of mountains, to the other side a pure white desert ending at the most turquoise ocean with huge white waves crashing down. We did come upon a few serious surfers- the waves were huge!! But the prettiest color water I’ve ever seen (just as amazing as Mauritius!). I’m trying so hard to describe this but it’s just about indescribable.
So we galloped around and trotted some more, and it felt so good to be on a horse again (except for anticipating how sore I was about to be)! Unfortunately we had to turn around and go back, but I could not have asked for a more beautiful and vitalizing first day in South Africa.
Ashley and I made it back to the waterfront around 5pm, and I finally found something to eat after not eating since 8! It was SO nice to finally have fresh food again. Our ship literally ran out of lettuce for salads, after it being yellow and brown for about a week. Sorry for the complaining but the food was just getting REAL bad- and I’m not even a picky eater. Anywho, I walked around the waterfront shops for a little bit while I was waiting for Allyn and Courtney to get back from Cape Point. We eventually met back up on the ship, got ready, and went out to Long Street in downtown Cape Town for a late dinner and some deeelicious South African wine. Even the cheapest wine on the menu was better than anything I’ve ever tasted. Long Street is the main street downtown for restaurants and bars and shops, so we hung out there for a while and then went back to the ship. We met a guy named Ian Mitchellson at dinner who moved to Cape Town and started his own photography business- sounds like a perfect idea to me! He said to make money here you have to come start your own business, not work for someone else. Maybe I’ll be back in a few years!
The next morning Allyn, Courtney, Mychaela and I had a service visit to the Amy Biehl Foundation and to the townships to see some of the programs the foundation is running for the kids. Most of you probably don’t know who Amy Biehl is so I’ll fill you in a little first -- Amy Biehl was a Fulbright student who was working in South Africa in the anti-apartheid movement, and she was killed by a mob of black South Africans the day before she was supposed to come home. She loved South Africa and was working to end apartheid, but the mob had mistaken her for a white supporter of apartheid. Her parents started the foundation in her name, and they were incredible enough to forgive the young men who killed her and even hired two of them to work at the foundation. They are a nonprofit organization raising money to fund programs for the youth in the townships, providing activities and supplies and most importantly providing them with a happy nonviolent childhood that the boys who killed Amy Biehl never had.
We were really lucky to have Amy Biehl’s mom come on the ship to talk to us the morning we reached Cape Town. She visits the foundation in South Africa about twice a year now so we were lucky she was there then! She’s an incredible woman- she told us how the boys who killed her daughter call her “grandmother” and after a long forgiving process they actually think of each other as family now since they never had a typical childhood or loving family as kids. We also had the surprise of having Easy, one of the men who killed Amy and who now works as the project manager at the foundation, come along with us on our visit to the township and speak to us. We first went to the foundation in downtown Cape Town to see where they work and learn a little bit more about it. They’ve been so creative with ways to get donations and fundraising and I cannot believe how much money they get for this project! We then headed out of the city to the townships—the real South Africa.
As soon as you drive out of the city it’s a whole other world. We drove through miles and miles of flat lands crowded with tin and wooden shacks, people wandering outside through the maze of them and kids playing with each other in the dirt. We first stopped at a primary school where all the kids stood around in a big circle in the courtyard, clapping, singing, some drumming, and a few teachers in the center leading them in a song. The teachers would march around the circle clapping and encouraging anyone to come in the middle and dance. Some little kids would jump in and do the most impressive dances and flips… and eventually some people from our group jumped in, but of course we looked silly trying to do African dance like them haha. It was a lot of fun though to watch them having such spontaneous fun filled with so much energy. I was kind of mad we had to leave so quickly because we had to catch our lunch at this popular township restaurant, but I didn’t realize we had the whole rest of the day to play with kids.
We drove through the township and past the gas station where there is a stone cross showing where Amy was killed, and then to a veryy popular outdoor township restaurant called Mzoli’s. It’s probably the most popular restaurant with the South African township people, and it’s basically a big barbeque. Coincidentally while we were there, the “Football Friday’s Bus” was parked there with a South African comedian getting people pepped up for the World Cup with music and dancing. He was giving away a bunch of world cup stuff so that was fun. Anyway, they brought us out two HUGE platters of South African barbeque (I think it’s called Braai)—I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much meat on a platter—and phutu, a type of ground maize meal, with tomato and onion sauce. This was our traditional Xhosa lunch- pretty delicious and simple, but I don’t think you’d survive if you were a vegetarian.
After lunch we went to a different primary school where the kids jumped all over us wanting to play. They were SO adorable and energetic. Soon they had attached themselves to us and held our hands as we walked over to the soccer field. The little kid who walked with me was so intelligent and spoke perfect English! When I told him I was from America the first thing he asked me was if I knew Rihanna.. haha! He knew a lot about the US though and started singing some of his favorite American songs.. I was impressed! We got to the soccer field which was a giant dirt field with one goal post. We all had our big cameras out and the kids just went CRAZY with them. Haha they were so serious about them! They each took a hold of our cameras and would make their friends pose for them as they zoomed in and focused and were really serious about taking pictures… they loved it. This one kid sat down with a video camera on a tripod and filmed the entire time we were there. It was funny how obsessed they are with cameras and how serious they are about them…. that was definitely the highlight of their day. They would fight each other about holding the biggest one… I had my big lens on mine and they went crazy over it. So needless to say we all ended up with hundreds of pictures that day… really good ones of the kids posing for each other too :)  Anyway, it was an amazing day of playing in the dirt and being with these kids who were so grateful to play with us. We played soccer, relay games, painted tattoos on each other, and played some of their traditional games in a circle like “the horse is on the mountain…” It was so much fun. We spent hours and hours there until the sun was about to set over the mountains, and then before we had to say goodbye we each donated a few Rands to buy juice and snacks for all the kids. I didn’t want to leave- I could come back and play with them every day. I felt so happily worn-out and dirty as we sadly got on the bus to leave- what a rewarding day.
Another lucky coincidence we had in South Africa was that the International Jazz Festival was being held on April 3rd and 4th! And even luckier- the evening we got back from our service visit there was a free kick-off concert in Green Market Square, a beautiful little area off Long Street in downtown Cape Town. So as soon as we got back, Allyn, Courtney and I had a quick dinner, showered, and headed off downtown. The concert had been going on since 5 and ended at 11, and a bunch of jazz bands from all over the world each played a few of their songs—it was so good. There were tons of people in the square and it was such a pretty atmosphere, the buildings around it had restaurants with balconies where people were watching and other people were sitting in trees throughout the square to have a better look. South Africans are crazy for jazz.. and I can see why! It was such relaxing music to listen to- at times I felt like I was at a Dave concert minus his voice. Also, while we were making our way to the front near the stage, Courtney ran into her friend who’s studying abroad in Cape Town! So that was pretty funny and random, and we hung out with her and her friends for the rest of the night before heading back to the ship. I couldn’t have asked for a better day… good people, games, laughter, kids, music, and a beauutiful country.
My third day in South Africa was all about the wine country. Like I said, there’s such a variety of things to do near Cape Town- I could have stayed here weeks and never been bored. So I woke up early to do a “cycling in the winelands” trip with an SAS group. We had a small group which was nice and we took off in a motor coach heading out of the city for a little less than an hour, through the mountains and the valleys, until we reached Franschhoek (which means French Corner). We got out in this adorable little French town with one small main street lined with beautiful churches, restaurants, shops, and a gorgeous backdrop of the mountains. I took my time walking along the street until it ended and I met up with the group as we got on our bicycles. We cycled back down the street and continued along the scenic road for about 20km, passing hundreds of wine estates and guesthouses- it was incredibly beautiful. I was a little worried I would miss the place we were supposed to stop at for lunch but luckily the car was waiting there to stop us. We stopped at Solms Delta, a wine estate about the same distance between Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, another well-known town in the wine-lands. I cycled down the driveway past the vineyards and we all got off our bikes for a picnic lunch at their outdoor restaurant. The atmosphere was beautiful—as always—clear blue skies and a lush green field surrounded by vineyards, trees, and mountains in the distance. We had a light lunch outside of sandwiches and salads and a mini apple tart for dessert. Then the wine tasting began! I’ve never been able to do a wine tasting before, especially not at a gorgeous South African winery. We tasted I think 6 different wines, each better than any I’ve ever tasted. I really had no idea wine could be so good. The guy who served us made us shake our glasses up and down and then smell the wine and pick out the different fruits we got from it. He could pick out like 6 different fruits from each wine! I don’t know if he was just making it all up or if he’s actually that much of a connoisseur. Anyway, we tried a couple different red wines, white wines, a Rose, and my favorite, a sparkling Rose. They all had special names but I know nothing about wine so it made no difference to me. So- feeling good and classy after a wonderful morning of cycling and delicious wine, we had to continue on in the motor coach to the town of Stellenbosch. We drove through the campus of the University of Stellenbosch—which by the way is where I’ll be going next year—probably the most picturesque college campus I’ve ever seen, and then parked on the street downtown where we had time to walk around and explore and do a little shopping. With all the cafés and cute little restaurants I felt more like I was in Europe than Africa! What a gorgeous day. I’ve said that a thousand times but the air was just so crisp and clear, the sun so warm and scenery so perfect- once again I felt like I was in a dream.
We got back to the ship in the evening and I waited to meet up with Allyn and Courtney who were doing a different wine tour. We met up and had a nice late dinner on the waterfront at this traditional South African restaurant called Karibu (“welcome” in Swahili). I tried a salad with Biltong, which is like dried spiced beef, a lot like beef jerky. It was delicious!
The next morning I woke up early to go for a run along the waterfront. I started running, having no idea where the path would take me, but it took me along the shore and opened up to a beautiful boardwalk that must have gone on for miles with green parks and small hotels and restaurants across the street. It was a beautiful run- people were out walking their dogs, the blue ocean was crashing below me on one side, and on the other side an awesome scene of Table Mountain behind the city. Not knowing if the boardwalk would ever end, I eventually turned around and ran back, exhausted and feeling good. Allyn and Courtney had gotten up super early to go shark cage diving so I decided just to wander around the waterfront by myself for the day. After showering I gathered my postcards and went to an outdoor café to relax, write to everyone, and enjoy a spectacular vanilla milkshake for breakfast (seriously the best milkshake I’ve ever had). I feel like I don’t get much time in ports usually to sit down and enjoy my surroundings (since there’s always so much to do in so little time) so it was really nice to enjoy this beautiful morning to myself, with nothing to do for the whole day. I walked all around the waterfront, looked in all the African craft stores and markets, went into a few bookstores (yes- I actually read some books!!), and did a little food shopping in the mall. There were also groups of African drummers and dancers performing on the waterfront so I watched them for a little while as well. It was a perfect day by myself and I later met up with Lauren, Zach, Allyn, Courtney, and her other friend who is studying abroad in Cape Town, and we went out to a “Cape Malay cuisine” restaurant-- also super tasty.
I was starting to feel really sick that night so I went to bed after dinner, so I’d be ready for our early Table Mountain hike on our last morning (Easter!). Courtney, Allyn, and I got up and headed straight for Table Mountain, unfortunately on the most windy day of our trip. They closed the cable car that goes up and down the mountain because of the extremely high winds, and they were warning everyone not to hike up. We decided to go anyway, and I’ve never felt like I was literally going to be blown off a mountain like this before! There is no “easy” hike to climb up Table Mountain, each trail is basically straight up. We started up and realized we should only go part of the way because it was actually that scary. We still got up high enough to see some crazy views of the entire city and coastline below, and I got some incredible pictures. Hiking back down was even scarier- I had some pretty close calls to being blown straight off the mountain, not even kidding! Anyway, I’m glad we got to at least climb halfway up, and I guess I’ll just have to finish it the next time I’m in Cape Town :)
At the bottom we took a cab ride to Long Street, where nothing was open because it was Easter Sunday. We walked over to Green Market Square where merchants had a big African market set up and I bought some neat jewelry and handicrafts. After that we had the lovely idea of walking back to the waterfront, buying food at the supermarket, and having an Easter picnic on the shore! Anything that includes fresh food is always a winner for me. So we went and bought fresh baguettes, brie, chicken salad, raspberries, apples and had the most perfect Easter picnic on a cliff overlooking a sparkling black sand beach. We layed there for a few hours in the warm sun, enjoying our last few hours in this amazing country. It was a more appropriate Easter than I was expecting to have, a hike and a picnic on a clear sunny day, but ended quite sadly as I boarded the ship for the last time in Cape Town. We were supposed to start sailing around 8pm, but they closed the port due to the intensely high winds. Of course I didn’t mind being stuck in Cape Town, but when I woke up the next morning and looked out the window, there was the glorious Table Mountain- we still hadn’t left! We couldn’t leave until late afternoon, and luckily because if we didn’t leave by nighttime we would lose a day in Ghana! I can’t believe Ghana is our next stop- only 2 ports left…. I can’t even talk about it! :(
Well, a few more long days on the ship before we get there, a few more papers to write, and a lot of getting excited for a whole new part of Africa!!!!!!YAY
-michele