Crash course in Stick Driving and hiking up Table Mountain

The three of us three thousand feet up





Bruce and Nick at the beginning of our hike up skelaton gorge










Here I am enjoying a respite after hiking up lions head.





















Table mountain from Lions head











A view of the lions head from minor peak



The rhodes memorial























A view from the window as we drive to Capetown






8-24=06
I tell you, there is no better crash course in driving stick than a 15 hr drive. Yesterday I made the long drive between Cape Town and Jo-burg with Bruce. Driving across these vast lands of emptiness was quite striking. The Karoo, which is the large empty province in the middle of South Africa, has a harsh beauty that was reminiscent of driving through Nevada. There were long stretches of brush and then later of amber waves of grain.

It has been a great stay in Cape Town. I became a regular at one of the local cafes. They had filter coffee! Everything seems to be Nescafe around here, so it was nice having a decent cup of coffee. Waking up to Table mountian in my Backyard everyday was spectacular. Meeting Bruce’s friends and family was also quite splendid.

Our last Sunday in Cape Town we went to the student service at Kolbe. The music was excellent. Once again, this is a church service that is often sung in at least 5 different languages. I, loving to sing, give my try at pronouncing each of these languages. It is difficult, but I hope I get an A for effort. Bruce met a German Law student on cultural exchange here. Nick only has 2 lectures a week, so we spent the whole next day hiking Table Mountain. We set foot on the trail at 9:30 am with great anticipation for the long and difficult hike ahead of us. This was one of the most amazing hikes I have ever been on in my life. Table Mountain is located right next to Cape Town. From the top you can see the sprawl of humanity in one direct and the open ocean in the other. There is a cable car that reaches to the top from Cape Town. The ice cream that I ate at the top was amazing. To justify our difficult ascent we talked amongst ourselves about how much better it was hiking than taking the cable car. We had ascended essentially 3000 feet. At one point hiking up skeleton gorge we were only hiking up a stream. At the top it was barren, but beautiful.
We had slightly misjudged the amount of time it would take to complete the hike. Bruce and I had a coffee meeting with a friend of his at five and Nick had lectures at the same time. Rather than hike to where we parked on the far side of the mountain, we decided to wander down platerklop gorge and hike around the contour of the mountain until we reached our residence where we could pick up Bruce’s car. Well, we arrived at 4:30 and all was well.
I can tell you, my legs are only now relaxing. On our 3000-foot descent my knees definitely started feeling the hike. I found out that if I ran down the hills and stone boulder stairs Well, I could tell you that only now, three days later have my legs begun to feel normal again. That may sound a bit dramatic, but I felt like my muscles were pulling away from my bones any time I walked up or down stairs.


Well… That seems like a fairly worded update. I will try to get some photos up now. Friends and family, I miss you all.

Peace,
Mike