Hello Friends!
Say hello to truck!
After an endless search, over several months, I finally found a pickup truck I actually wanted to buy. In the next few weeks I'll be replacing all the broken bits and pieces, and hopefully she'll keep running till next year when I'll probably rebuild the engine. Keep tuned ;D

We're home!

Oh, we've made it!
We left for the airport at 9am Capetown time Friday morning, and have just arrived home at 10pm capetown time saturday. That's a long long time. We're showing, unpacking, and decompressing.
More once the travel crack wears off!

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This is going to be a post about Gran Turismo, Capetown Aquarium, and Lions Head peak

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This will be a post about Stellenbosch, Franshoek, L'Orimarins, and Lavender Garden

Table Mountain

We spent our weekend outside in the sun and outdoors. In order to beat the sun and heat, an early wake up needed to happen Saturday morning. The trail head to hike table mountain, which is one of the many tall flat peaks the surrounds Capetown, is just behind Rob and Amy's flat. We hit the trail around 8am and were able to experience beautiful vistas and have a nice sweat, before heading to the Biscuit mill for breakfast.

The biscuit mill is a combination between a farmers market and a brunch. The mill is a large semi covered market filled with vendors selling beer, cider, and food for most of the day during the weekend. I enjoyed some local beer, an ostrich burger, and many samples of things like cheese, biltong (dried meat), and honey name just a few. After a few hours of hiking, nothing satisfies quite as much as a hearty snack.

We have penguins!

Well, its become Wednesday in a hurry. We head home in just a few days, already. I have a lot of catching up to do on this blogus.

PENGUINS!
We spent a day in Fishhoek to see the sights. We stopped into Pisces Divers where Christie took her Nitrox certification, and obviously we visited the penguins.
We had barbequed fish lunch (he cooked it right in front of us) with prawns and squid at a little cafe on the water, and we strolled around a few small touristy towns. This killed most of the day, and we went out to a small local pizza place for dinner (colcachio). At this point I discovered a play station2 in the basement, Gran Turismo 4 ensued!

How far does $30.00 US take you?

We had planned on scuba diving today, however the winds have been blowing well in excess of 25knots (gust) the last few days, and 10 foot seas turn the sea floor into whirling washing machine of sand and seaweed. Our 2 planned dives today, as well as all of tomorrows dives are scrapped due to the wicked wind.

The upshot, is that for $25 US you can hire a 1.5 hour sailboat charter with unlimited champagne.
You need the booze to be unlimited, because only about 47% actually makes it into your mouth. The rest is lost to wind, wave, and unsteady balance... We had an epic sunset cruise, complete with drunk singing norwegians and exceptionally fast sailing on a twin hulled 50 foot racing cat. I was glad to have my waterproof rain shell as the waves came crashing over us (smart wool underneth, ftw!!). The gulls were diving into the water for their last meal as the sun came crashing into the ocean. The silhouette of the city as well as friends new and old was the perfect and fantastic back drop for the end of an initially disappointing day. Its only 9pm here, and I'm only just starting to sober up enough to head out for some dinner, and then an evening at the bars! Capetown is a wonderful and wild place.

Dirt bikes Rock

Today we woke up at 630a. The alarm was set for seven, however there was a palpable anticipation each time we heard a vehicle drive up our quiet road, so we gave up feigning sleep and started preparing for our day a bit early. A van was coming for us at 730a to take us to our ATV adventure in the Elgin valley. Yesterday we hired a coach to drive us the 1.5 hours to the town of Grabouw, home of Nature Discovery tours. There we were to receive two 250cc Suzuki dirt bikes and a guide. From there where could explore the Feynbos and mountains on a private 6 hour tour.

We rode on all sorts of road varying from hard packed sand double track to pine forest to fist size cobbles on steep technical mountain trail high above the tree line. The views were fantastic, our guide was a fountain of knowledge, and we go to rip around on atvs at 60 kph! After a few laps on the test track, christie indicated she felt some hesitation about being on 2 wheeels, so she swapped out her dirtbike for a quad-bike at the last moment. This worked for her and she confidently maintained speed with a bit more stable riding platform for the entire tour. A few rocks sprouted legs and crossed her path, however aside from those foolish pedestrian jaywalkers there was no incidents.
If our guide had gone 100kph, I would certainly have followed, the exhilirating adrenaline, loud engine notes, and whipping wind were just fabulous. Christie has already informed me, after taking note of my affinity for two wheeled vehicles, that if I am planning on buying myself a dirt bike I had better purchase a second for her as well!

We're back in Cape Town now, freshly showered and ready for our evening entertainment. Fantastic day of adventure, now some wine and food await.

A day in the Sun

Today was our first day in South Africa. We woke up around 7am, me refreshed from my melatonin supplement, C suffering from a lack of sleeping as a direct result of NOT supplementing melatonin. Amy cooked us some banana bread while we snacked on homemade granola and greek yogurt. There was coffee. Delicious steaming black coffee! There was also Sunshine, and a pool, and blue skies, and it was 85. Not a bad start. The view of Camp's Bay and the lions head are amazing from up here on the back side of table mountain. We are in a fabulous location. The house layout is open with patio spaces and sliding doors to let in the fresh ocean breeze.

We toured the open air trinket market in Green Market square today. We scoped out where we will most likely be buying gifts for our friends before leaving. There was an assortment of carved wood in various animal shapes, belts, bowls and all sorts of high quality hand crafted stuff. Lots of beads and jewelry, quite creative and all of it appealing to the eye. We walked along the beach at Camp's bay, had a few beers before catching sushi at "Beluga" for Lunch. From there we made our way home and relaxed for a few hours, booked our dirt bike tour for tomorrow.

We tried to do a Sunset sail on a large catamaran, but we got 5 minutes out and a very thick pea soup fog descended cold and impenetrable, so the boat turned around and we came home for a refund. We had a few quick steaks and we're back at the house.
I'm really looking forward to our 6 hour dirtbike excursion tomorrow, and diving on friday. Amy, Christie, Rob and his two room mates are all here having a beer at the dining room table. I'm going to sign out and join the conversation, but I suspect the day will soon be coming to an end !

We're There! (Here!)

No amount of preparation can really set the stage for spending 20 hours on a single plane.
Lots of dry fruit and some baby wipes do go a very long way and an endless free bar lubricates the cogs as well. At the end of the day, given the choice between freedom or an endless open bar w/ one cubic meter of space, I know the immediate response!

We flew from Seattle to Dulles, at 7am pst, which meant a 4am wake up, 430 departure, 5am arrival for gates and such. The flight to Dulles on United was a 6 hour leg with no personalized video, and dour faced barking attendants. My personal bias against United extends across multiple bad experiences, so I just went to sleep for the entire flight rather than pout.

I woke up for a 2 hour stop in Dulles, where we found some sandwiches before our first long leg to Dakar. After 8 hours of intermittent sleeping and quite a few movies, it was nice to stop and stretch my legs in Dakar, Senegal. I didn't get far however, because the plane just stopped on the tarmac and we were left there to sit for 1.5 hours while the big airbus was refueled and cleaned. It was 75 degrees, and 5am local time. We weren't allowed to leave the plane, and indeed we didn't even go near the terminal. At some point a bus arrived to drop off a few passengers and pick up those who deplaned, and then we were off again towards Joberg. Another 8 hours of movies and some very uncomfortable sleep positions and we were in Joberg for another 2 hour wait. At this stage, I had slept very little, and been awake for a very long time. I let Christina know that I'd talk to her once we arrived, and until then I'd very much like to left alone. Sleeping in odd positions on odd furniture for 2 hours lead to getting on our last leg, a quick 2 hour hop to Capetown! Amy and Rob received us at the airport, and we made it to their cute house on a hillside overlooking Camp's Bay. I took a Melatonin tablet, had a glass of water, and was asleep before Christie turned off the light.

Today is Tuesday Feb 24 here, and we are off to visit the market, have some sushi for lunch, and then a nice sunset sail. Tomorrow with any luck we'll have a dirtbike tour in the hills an hour north, and some scuba diving on Friday. Our dry suits and regs made the trip without incident, and we'll likely have plentiful opportunities to use them given the blue skies, sunshine, and 80 degree gentle breeze. More to come.

Woops

So I forgot to continue posting. Whoops. Fast forward. I've been in Seattle for my second September, and its been a wild time. C is out here now, we've gotten a new car, joined the Mountaineers on some great trips, and explored the mountains and water all over Washington. And we've only just scratched the surface. We are embarking on a journey to South Africa in a few weeks, and I've decided to do a mini blog feature to try and record some of the trip happenings.
With any luck, I'll be able to post some images here along with my thoughts and any links that might be relevant.