South Africa - be warned, this is a long post!

This post is an amendment of an email I sent to a friend as a recap of my South Africa trip. It's very long, but I hope you enjoy it!


Let's see, we started with the longest amount of traveling I have ever experienced. We had about 23 hours of flight to get there. We arrived on Sunday afternoon, got to the hotel and showered and unpacked before heading out to walk around the city, even though I really just wanted to sleep. Becky (my coworker) has a friend (Torben) from Germany who is living in Cape Town working in a home for adults with disabilities as his year of civil service required by the German government, so we hung out with him and his other friend (Till) from Germany. Torben and Till met up with us Sunday afternoon and walked around downtown Cape Town with us, had a coffee, and then we went back to our hotel for dinner and an early bedtime! Monday was completely full of staff meetings, which were held in a conference room in the hotel. Yes, the meetings were fairly boring, but I did enjoy meeting the international staff members with whom I have been corresponding the past 3 months and had never met before. 

Tuesday we had meetings in the morning and then went on a staff group tour. We took buses out to Fish Hoek and Hout Bay where we took a boat out to Seal Island. It was pretty sweet. After Hout Bay, we drove along Chapman's Peak Drive, which is breathtakingly beautiful! After Chapman's Peak Drive we drove to a township where we visited a ministry center there that runs several homes and medical centers for AIDS patients. It was kind of strange to arrive in a tour bus, walk around their township, and simply get back on the bus. I did not really enjoy that. And every time we got on the bus, I fell asleep pretty much immediately, so I missed the vast majority of what the tour guide said. After the bus tour, we went back to the hotel for dinner and another early bedtime. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all meetings all day. We started at 8 am and went until 6:30 each night. We had tea breaks and lunch, but it was an incredibly tiring week.

Friday evening after the last meeting ended, Torben and Till picked me and Becky up in the car they had rented. It was a 1971 VW Beetle, with the hood painted as the South African flag and the doors were the American and Italian flags. It was both amazing and a piece of crap. I took photos, do not worry. We went with the boys and their friend, Freddie, to a soccer game at the Cape Town stadium. It was super exciting, even though it was less than a quarter full. The two teams were from Cape Town, so I would have expected more fans, but no. After the game we went to a bar downtown, but we were dead tired and had a big day planned ahead of us, so we each had a drink and then went home.

Saturday the boys picked us up and we went to Muizenberg Beach. It was gorgeous, but I quickly learned that literally everywhere in Cape Town is gorgeous. After strolling along the beach watching for sharks and finding none, we continued on to Boulder Beach and the penguin colony. The penguins were cute yet smelly. We walked around a bit there then went over to the part of the beach where you could swim. We did go swimming, and the water was unbelievably cold. Frigid. Icy. I could not believe that such beautiful water on such a lovely beach could be so cold. So Becky and I swam for a few minutes then stood on the shore while the boys took turns diving off the rocks. The water was cold, yes, but the weather was spectacular. It was about 75 degrees, and throughout the weekend it got up to the low 80s. Unbelievable! 


After having a quick picnic by the car, we headed to Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope. It was about a 45 minute drive from Boulder Beach through the national park, and it was beautiful. We saw baboons and whales and ostrich. Ridiculous! We hiked up to the lighthouse at Cape Point, took pictures alongside the loads of people there as well, then hiked down to this tiny beach between Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. There were literally hundreds of stairs, but it was definitely worth it. The beach was very isolated, with maybe 4 other people down there while we were there. We drank wine, waded in the frigid water, and while the boys decided to go swimming (are they crazy?!), I took the best nap of my life on the beach. We hung out there for a couple of hours, then hiked back up and then up the point on Cape of Good Hope. People had told us that it was going to be unbearably windy, but it was just kind of breezy and the sun was shining the whole time. We couldn't have asked for better weather the whole day. We took our tourist photo by the Cape of Good Hope sign, then headed back towards Cape Town via Chapman's Peak drive and Fish Hoek. This time we were driving this route at sunset. It was even more beautiful than on the bus tour on Tuesday. Becky and I then had to switch from the hotel from the previous week to a guest house where we stayed that night (and to a new guest house the next morning), and once that chaos was sorted out, I met up with Jedd and Janelle Schroy who live in Johannesburg and had dinner with them and their 2-month old baby, Reagan. After dinner they dropped me off on Long Street to meet up with Becky, Torben, Till, and some of their friends for a bit of a night out. Unfortunately I was basically asleep as I was standing up, so we only stayed out until about 12:30. It was a pretty busy place and could have been fun (Torben and Till stayed out until 3:30), but Becky and I were simply too exhausted to be any fun.

Sunday morning we were up and out at 8 am (crazy!) to take the cable car up Table Mountain. Our car died as we got to the cable car station, so Torben stayed to sort that out while Becky and I went up the mountain. Till, crazy kid, climbed up the mountain in just one hour, met us at the top (we had been up there for a while), and then the 3 of us hiked down. Oh. My. God. I thought I was going to die. Not just because of the intense incline and the unstable rock steps down, but because it took and hour and a half. I was not prepared for a legitimate mountain climb, and my shoes gave me blisters, but we made it down. By the time we reached the bottom, I was not sure that I could stand my knees were so wobbly. Till must have been in much better shape than I suspected, as he had climbed up AND down with seemingly little effort. It was also about 85 degrees on the side of the mountain, so all of our clothes were drenched with sweat. The drive home was absolutely disgusting. They then took me back to the guest house, and I showered for the meeting I had that afternoon with my department from work. Becky and the boys picked me up as soon as I finished and we drove to some beach that starts with a "B" to watch the sun set and view the iconic image of Table Mountain, Lion's Head, and Devil's Peak. We had loads of fun on that beach.

Monday I had meetings all day, and Becky and the boys had a tour of the winelands. I am a bit jealous, yes. They came back to the guest house that evening with pizza and we hung out there for a while. Tuesday morning I had meetings again, then Becky came back in the afternoon for the dinner our organization was hosting at this international conference (approximately 5000 delegates) that was in Cape Town that week. The dinner presentation was a large reason that I got to go to Cape Town, so it was pretty important. When we got back to the guest house, the boys came over and we looked at our pictures from the week and then watched Zombieland.

Wednesday morning the boys had to work, so Becky and I went shopping and then the boys came over to the guest house for about an hour before we had to go to the airport. And that is all! The trip home was really long, but relatively uneventful. I do not like such long flights, but I got some sleeping pills and they helped immensely.


The trip was amazing, and I am incredibly grateful to have this job that provides opportunity to travel! I will not attempt to summarize since this post is already way too long. BUT - here's a link to my photos on Picasa!