Hiking Devil's Peak!

Saturday morning, the fellow girl interns and I decided to hike Devil's Peak. Devil's Peak is the mountain below.  It is right next to Table Mountain and offers views all the way down to the Indian Ocean.  Devil's Peak stands at 1000 meters or 3,281 feet, just 87 meters shy of Table Mountain's height. There is a great story that I posted at the end of my last blog post about Van Hunks and Devil's Peak... definitely read it if you haven't yet. 

The night before the hike was extremely windy and rainy.  That morning the rain clouds and sun were competing with each other leading to this beautiful rainbow!  This picture does not do this rainbow justice... it was the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen! I had a bit of a "Double Rainbow" moment like the guy in the YouTube video with my "Perfect Rainbow"!

Lion's Head behind the perfect rainbow. I felt like I could see where it started and ended. I was tempted to try and find the pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow! Okay enough of the rainbows... I thought we weren't going to end up hiking because there was clouds on the mountain and wind and a bit of rain, but we decided to give it a go since the weather here is so fickle... one minute rainy and windy and the next minute sunny and beautiful.

 Here is a picture on our hike up.  That is Lion's Head in the middle, Table Mountain on the left, the Atlantic Ocean in the background and you can just see a bit of Cape Town city centre in the middle. Luckily, on the way up the weather wasn't too bad... but as we climbed it became colder and the wind got more ferocious.

The photo above was taken about 2/3s of the way up to the top of Devil's Peak.

You can see Green Point stadium in the background.  You can also see the Castle that I visited last weekend in about the middle right. It looks so small from up there!

 From the top of the saddle you can see all the way to Muizenberg and mountains all leading to Cape Point. That is the Indian Ocean in the background on the left.  That is the end of Table Mountain on the right.

 Same view as the picture above, but it doesn't do the view justice.  It was magnificent even on a day with low visibility like Saturday.

 That is Table Mountain in the background with fellow intern Katie. I think this picture is really cool.

 View from about 10 meters to the top.

 Kelly made it to the top first. The ugly white pole signifies the highest point.

 View from the top. Beautiful!  It was so windy up there!

 Literally about 10 seconds after I got to the top and snapped this photo the clouds rolled in.

 By the time I had someone take a photo of me... the visibility was almost 0%... you can barely make out the city below.  We all joked that we could have taken our photos from the top anywhere that had an ugly white pole... we could have just been on the streets of Cape Town somewhere.

Until I came to Cape Town and hiked Lion's Head and then Devil's Peak on Saturday, I had never hiked a mountain before.  I absolutely love it! There is a huge amount of satisfaction in climbing a mountain and reaching the top.  As corny as it sounds I think you can relate it to life a lot. You push hard, dig deep in many sections to get to the top.  Once you are there you know there is still a lot of work ahead of you but the satisfaction is amazing. Then you head down the mountain, and it's not easy.  On our hike down, the wind picked up even more and it rained a bit.  I even fell a few times. Once you are down, all you want to do is go up another mountain sometime soon. I really love hiking and hope to continue it with Beth and Shawn in the Appalachian Mountains this fall.

 Picture from on the hike down.

 Table Mountain on the left. Atlantic Ocean in the background.

 So I know I already posted this photo, but I just want to show you how fickle the weather is here.  This photo was taken just an hour after we finished our hike.  Blue skies and sun! Then about an hour or two after this... there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

These are photos of the view from the top on a perfect day. Above is the view of the Indian Ocean, Table Mountain, Lion's Head, City Centre, and the Atlantic Ocean (from left to right). And below is a picture of from city centre, Atlantic Ocean, and the Northern Suburbs (left to right).

District 6 - Castle - Harbour Boat Ride

Saturday started as a rainy day but I was determined to not let that get my spirits down.  I had planned to go do some of the touristy things that I had not yet checked off my list of things to do.

First, I headed to the District 6 Museum. If you don't know, District 6 is an area that is pretty close to the center of Cape Town. It originally was an area where non-whites lived. Then during Apartheid, the leaders of Cape Town decided they wanted this prime real estate for nicer housing for whites. During Apartheid they forced almost all people living in District 6 out of their homes and made most of them move to Cape Flats including many townships. [Khayelitsha (the township we have our offices in and the largest township in Cape Town) literally means New Home because many people were forced to move there, especially due to overcrowding and violence in other townships]. The government went house to house and forcibly made residents of district 6 move out. Then they bulldozed much of the area. That is the short, very paraphrased version of what happened.  Evidently that alien movie called District 6 is a "present day" version of what happened using science fiction to demonstrate.  I haven't seen it but sounds interesting.

Sometime between the District 6 Museum and walking to the Castle, the sun came out, the clouds all went away and it was one of the most beautiful days in terms of weather since I’ve been here!

The Castle of Good Hope is a star fort built in the 17th century. The purpose of the Dutch settlement in the Cape was to act as a replenishment station for ships passing the treacherous coast around the Cape on long voyages between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies (or Indonesia). 

The head man's quarters with a Dolphin fountain

Every good castle needs a torture chamber!  They said that they would torture people until they confessed, whether they were actually guilty or not!

Had to take pictures of the cannons!  It is a fort after all!

Inside the fort was quite lovely... I wasn't expecting that!

View from a top of the castle.

This picture of the cannon is for you Dad! I thought the whole time I was there how much you would enjoy being there!

View of the inside of the fort with an amazing back drop of Table Mountain!

I thought this was a great picture because that mountain in the background is called Lion's Head... then  the statue there is of a Lion... perfect!

I went to lunch at the Eastern Food Bazaar.  This corridor of Indian and Middle Eastern food places is cheap and amazing!  The whole place is also decorated with ornate designs. I had Indian food for lunch :) 

Since it was such a nice day I decided I wanted to go on a boat ride so I walked down to V&A Waterfront. I wanted to go out on the actual sea on a catamaran sail boat but they said the swells were between 8 and 10 feet and were too big :( But I still plan on going out on one before I leave!

I ended up going on just a 30 minute harbour boat ride. The views were spectacular!

From left to right... that's Table Mountain, Lion's head (which I hiked) and then Signal Hill.

Took this sail boat picture for you Dad!

I will say I am was upset when they told me I couldn't go out on the ocean because of the swells... I was thinking oh come on they can't be that big!  We went to the edge of the harbor and sea was rolling with huge swells... the boat rocked back and forth like crazy!  At that moment, I was happy that I wasn't out on the actual sea! 

This is a picture back of V&A Waterfront... it reminds me a lot of Pier 39  and Fisherman's Wharf. 

I ended the day with some yummy sushi on my balcony.  Not a bad view!  Also, Table Mountain looks so different depending on the time of the day and light that is hitting it.  I love this picture because the light on Table Mountain is so cool looking.





Sunday

On Sunday, I slept in and then went to a local cafe/bar and watched the men's final of Wimbledon.  I really  wanted Murray to win for Great Britain but it didn't happen.  During the first set, I had the most delicious smoothie... it was a Mango Mint smoothie... I am definitely going to try and recreate this at home.  Then later on I ordered a Van Hunks Pumpkin Ale which was a bit sweet for my liking but was still delicious.  Read the story of Van Hunk below that was on the bottle. 

“Centuries ago, Van Hunks is rumoured to have lived on the slopes of Table Mountain. He loved hiking up the mountain to sit on his favorite rock, to smoke his pipe and watch his pumpkins ripen in the fields below.

One day, he was startled to find a stranger, dressed in black and wearing an odd hat, sitting on his rock. Surprisingly, the stranger greeted him by name, so Van Hunks sat down beside him to brag about his smoking prowess. The stranger, however, claimed he could easily out smoke him. Van Hunks took up the challenge – and the smoking began.

They smoked and smoked and smoked. Below, the worried citizens of the Cape watched a billowing cloud sweep over Table Mountain. Still on they smoked. At last, both men began to feel ill and, as the stranger toppled over in defeat, his hat fell off to reveal his horns. It was the devil in disguise, yet Van Hunks had prevailed!

Ever since, when clouds cover Table Mountain, it is said that Van Hunks and the devil are dueling again.”

Sunday Soccer and more

Every Sunday all the interns from Grassroot Soccer get together to play soccer.  Usually we play on a field in Cape Town, but this past Sunday was special in that we went out to the township of Khayelitsha and played at our Football for Hope Center field. We got to play with locals and even had a pretty large crowd watching.

One of the poorer districts in Khayelitsha

We watched the Euro Cup final at the Italian Club of Cape Town with about 800 Italian fans... well I was rooting for Spain which made things a bit awkward!  But in the end I got unlimited delicious pasta and Spain won! :)

Lion's Head from my new place :) Amazing Views

Not a bad view to have my morning coffee and look out at Table Mountain

Devil's Peak and the deck :)

View of city center and the financial district from the new place.