Date of Entry: December 10th 2016
Date of Writing: June 3rd 2017
Africa. It’s been a beautiful trip. And luckily I’ve got time for one last hoorah before my flight back to brazil the next day. I’m excited to go back, but sad to be leaving so much of Africa unseen. I definitely plan to be back again, hopefully before too long,but I’ve still got something to do in cape town, head up to table mountain for some incredible views of the continent I’ll soon be leaving.
Rather than take a taxi or bus up, I choose to see more of the city and walk up from my hostel on Long street. It’s more arduous than I expected but very much doable and once I’m up I have a choice to make, do I hike up Lion’s head for views of table mountain, or take the cable car up table mountain itself. In the end laziness and a sore leg wins out and i find myself waiting just a few minutes inline for the popular cable car (which only operates in good weather) up cape town’s most iconic landmark.
The cable car is built very cleverly with huge glass windows (some open) and it rotates as we’re transported up above this beautiful vibrant and diverse city that I’ve really fallen in love with. I’m happy it is bookending my first trip to Africa.
It’s a short and relatively smooth ride up to the top of table mountain which is interestingly enough among the oldest mountains in the world, and up there waiting for me is a near endless array of incredible views of the mountains southern edge of Africa below us. There’s also a cool rodent creature that I’ve never seen before which apparently traces it’s lineage a long way back.
Up at the top of this incredible tabletop mountain is a national park and a series of short but beautiful hiking trails, and with the strong wind breaking the heat, I see nothing better to do than walk around for a a few hours in search of different views and more exposure with the unique plant life found here atop the mountain. Once upon a time cape leopards also roamed this place but now they have receded further back into the mountains.
As I set out at a good speed along the rough hewn but easy to follow rock trails zigzagging across the top of this mountain I find some beautiful flowers, a cool lizard and more stunning vistas. I’m feeling incredibly good and very happy to be up here, the euphoric feeling only tempered by the thought of leaving Africa tomorrow.
I’m Amazed that I almost gave this adventure a skip burned out from almost seven weeks of fast paced travel which has let me see a lot for such a short time. It’s stunning up on the mountain, and not just the views, the whole place teems with life, water funnelling across the flat top and plants clinging to the mountain top against the near constant wind.
I reach some monuments marking some observatory type landmarks and a sundial and eventually decide that I’ve come far enough. I’ve been walking for about two hours and I don’t want the weather to turn making for a rough cable car trip down, so I take a few pictures of some beautiful flowers I’ve found then start heading back. (For what it’s worth if they think the cable car might close they blow a horn that you can here all around the mountain so If you hear it head back quick as you can.)
Looking down at one of the many beaches around Cape town and I start to think of my mother. Maybe because the vegetation on the mountain top reminds me of Terrance Bay, or maybe because she always dreamed of going to Africa and never made it, or maybe just because I miss her. Either way I dart of the path a little bit and make an Inukshuk, one of several I’ve made during this trip, hopefully giving her vistas of this beautiful world and connecting me to her. Who knows if it’s true, but it certainly can’t hurt.
Back towards the more populated edge of the mountain near the cable car I find some very cool black and orange birds and also get some Finnish tourists to snap a photo or two of me with one of the many impressive vistas in the background.
It’s the late afternoon by the time I decide to head back down into the city to buy a few more last minute souvenirs at greenmarket square and enjoy a last amazing hamburger and milkshake at The Royale Eatery. By now there’s quite a line of tourists waiting to take the cable car down. Luckily there’s more of these fascinating and playful rodents to keep us entertained in line.
Eventually I do get into the cable car and enjoy my last views of cape town from above, choosing to walk back down again, though the walk down is much much faster and easier than the walk up. Hooray for downhill slopes.
I take a slightly different route back down and find an odd independent south African version of a 7 eleven on my way to the hectic hustle bussle of green market square where tourists gather and bargain with salesman from all over Africa hawking every touristy souvenir imaginable. I buy plenty to decorate my life back in brazil and hopefully to one day decorate a hostel I hope to open with Renata.
As I settle down to sleep after a delicious last dinner and peanut butter banana milkshake I have a hard time doing it. Africa was everything I hoped it would be and more, and I’m heading home to Brazil, that said I’m excited for what the future holds. Three days with my Brazilian family, a flight home to Canada and two weeks and christmas there, new years in brazil, then a trip to Colombia and Panama with Renata, and continuing northwards through central america to Mexico for January and part of February. Exciting times, and lots more blogs to come. Goodbye Africa, you’ve been amazing, and I can;t wait to come back and explore more of your less travelled paths.
