Lion's Head

And ironically, I chose the picture in which you can't actually see Lion's Head. I'll post another one in just a minute. 

South Africa - Day 1

I am sure this story is getting old by now, so just skip ahead, you won't offend me. The night before we arrived in South Africa I was too excited to sleep. Plus with the terrible rocking of the ship there were times when even though I was laying down, the angle of the ship made it feel as though I was sitting up in bed, and then it would sway the other way and I would feel as though I was about to slide head first into the wall. Basically, imagine laying on a seesaw, only more comfortable. Fun times. I finally gave up on sleep around 0430 and went to await the sunrise, as has become tradition. Due to the insanely rough seas though, all the outside decks were chained off, much to my disappointment. So instead I snuck into the Teacher's Lounge. There is a lounge, on the 7th deck forward, with floor to ceiling windows on every wall providing the most breathtaking view out over the ocean in our path. This lounge is reserved for teachers, staff, and lifelong learners. Students are not allowed this particular luxury. But who is around to care at 0430 in the morning? So I snuck in, and as expected, it was completely empty. I found a comfortable window seat directly front and center, and watched as the minuscule shoreline of lights far off on the horizon slowly came into view. The most stunning moment of these early hours was when out of the pitch blackness, the outline of the mountain range suddenly popped into view out of nowhere. One moment there was nothing but a line of lights on the horizon, the next, table mountain was there, towering above them.  Around 0530 a couple other people slowly began to show up in the doorway of the lounge and after enough of us were gathered and frustrated over our confinement, well, I probably shouldn't post that to the general public (they like to stalk us online for bad behavior.) Sometime after 0600 they finally let us outside and the rest of the story you have heard many a time. 

 

 A group of my friends and I were off the ship as soon as they would allow. Unfortunately we had to take a shuttle to the Waterfront. V&A Waterfront is the port area where all the shops and restaurants and tour agencies are. There's even an entire mall there, with the types of expensive, designer stores you'd find in Cherry Creek, and easily bigger than Flatirons. Basically you could spend a fair few days there without ever getting bored (except if like me, you loathe the very concept of spending time abroad in something as American as a shopping mall). On previous voyages, the MV Explorer has always docked directly in V&A so that you can literally walk off the ship and into the fun. This time we got bumped to yet another shipyard which was a disappointment. We learned pretty quickly though that the shuttles provided were unnecessary; it was a quick enough walk, even if it was a little sketchy. 

We quickly found a dozen tour operators offering everything from shark cage diving to helicopter tours. I'm sure you know me well enough by know to know what we made a beeline for: sharks! We reserved enough space for ourselves and a few other friends we hoped to round up. We also asked if there was any discount to book both a shark dive and a helicopter tour. "Oh yes! We will pick you up in the helicopter, fly you to the shark diving site, drop you off to do your dive, and then pick you up and fly you back at the end of the day!" Guess how much that would have cost? Over USD $1000 per person. I guess I know where to go for some fun now if I ever win the lottery. 

At that point one of our group of five had to go to catch an FDP and the rest of us went to find lunch. We found this little fish n' chip shop on the waterfront and stopped for a bite. I'm always one for trying the craziest local food you can find, but everything here was fried and I was feeling something I have not tasted since I left home: pizza! And boy was it divine, with its perfectly thin, crisp, crust, and a layer of hot sauce under a very generous amount of cheese and then sprinkled with prawns. Heaven. I have started making a list of all the foods I can't wait to eat when I get home. After my mom's perogies, Cosmo's is on the list, with some good spicy ranch. Mmm. But that is much to far away to be discussing (or should I say too soon? I got a rude reminder of how fast this trip is going when I looked at the calendar today and saw that it is already March. Where did February go?!?). 

After lunch two more of our group left us to go on FDPs and it was just me and Perry. We quickly figured out the bus schedule and headed for Long Street, one of the main streets downtown. We walked around for a couple hours, shopped at a couple little stands on the street, and then made our way back to the Waterfront and ultimately the ship. 

We'd made plans to meet back up at 1800 to set out for a sunset hike up Lion's Head. Our group had grown quite considerably by this point and we were forced to split into two or three taxis. One of my downfalls is that I am incredibly impatient when it comes to time in port. I am not going to wait around for girls to do their makeup or whatever the people we were waiting on were doing. In real life I am an incredibly patient person, but I have realized that the pressure of only having a small number of days in port leads me to not want to waste a moment. So I left with the first taxi of our group. We were dropped off at the base of the mountain and there was no sign whatsoever of the rest of us so we began the ascent. I don't think I've ever hiked a mountain so quickly in my life; we were on a mission! We were practically jogging up the mountain in a desperate attempt to reach the summit by sunset. We saw the sunset on the way up; and just barely missed it by the time we found ourselves at the top. But on the bright side, we climbed that thing it what couldn't have been more than an hour. And it was a serious hike too, with chains and ladders at points because it was so steep. 

The view from the top was like nothing I have ever seen, and I'm sure like nothing I will ever see again. I hiked Bear Peak in Boulder not too long ago and thought that view was incredible. This completely blew it out of the water. Because the top is so small (and you literally can go to the very tippy top), you can stand there, do a complete 360, and see for miles in every direction. And the view is spectacular, with table mountain in one direction, and mountain ranges far off in the distance, and city with the ocean just beyond on two different sides. I wanted to stay there forever, and we did stay there for quite a long time, before the others decided we should find our way to the bottom before we found ourselves immersed in complete darkness. 

On the way down we finally found the rest of our group we had left behind. I let the guys I was with finish the descent without me and went back up with the others. What can I say? I don't know if I'll ever be in South Africa on the top of Lion's Head again; I was in no hurry to get down. So I hiked back up with them and we sat on top of Lion's Head until all the other various hikers had left, and took pictures, and watched the stars come out. I saw the Southern Cross for the first time, which was an incredible moment. I've been waiting to see the Southern Cross this entire voyage, and there it was, clear and bright. 

After a long time our group began the perilous decent down. I say perilous because we were now immersed in the pitch black and facing a hike that was nothing but cliff with random spots of chain to hang onto for dear life. It was an adventure to say the least. And the adventure didn't end when we reached the bottom. Our one person who had a phone with an international plan discovered her phone wasn't actually working and so we had no way to call a taxi. I'm just glad we were such a large group. Before I left home, my dear friend gave me an intense rape whistle. There's a little pin you pull out and this crazy siren goes off. I clutched that thing in the palm of my hand until my knuckles turned white. Several others picked up rocks and we slowly and quietly as possible began our journey along the dirt road. We saw a couple scorpions along the way, but nothing more sinister. At long last we found a park ranger building and the officials there called us a taxi. 

We had the taxi drop us off at a restaurant called Mamma Africa, which turned out to be this really incredible place, with rustic decorations and a live band playing. We ordered wine and enjoyed the atmosphere. It turned out there was wifi at the place, and normally being online during dinner would be considered incredibly rude and just overall tacky, but it was such a rare treat for us. One of our group had a phone with Skype on it, so we all took turns using it to call our families while we waited for dinner to arrive. I tried calling my mom, and then my sister, but no one picked up. Next time you see a random crazy number show up on the caller-id, it's probably me! Pick up! 

Food arrived and it was phenomenal. I ordered this prawn curry and the spices were just perfect. There is actually a fair amount of Indian influence in South Africa, which means I encountered some pretty incredible curry. This only made me all the more excited for India!