Day 2 - Table Mountain

Jeff - Woke up early to get on the hiking trail to the top of Table Mountain (huge mountain overlooking Cape Town, 1000 meters high). Immediately began to regret the vodka screwdrivers we had last night playing crazy eights but soldiered on, had a quick breakfast and packed a camera, a few energy bars and plenty of water for the walk. Think it will be a challenge but I'm sure we're all up for it.

Jess - Key learning #1 from the trip: I am not a hiker. As we started the climb, I quickly realized that I had not thought this through whatsoever and became pretty worried about what I was in for. As we got higher and higher up the mountain, my ears continually popped while I was gasping for air in search of the shadiest resting spots. I could hear in the distance Andrew, Jeff & Lois yelling encouraging comments to me while all I could think of was how much I hated them for this part of the trip. Ok, some slight exaggeration. When we finally got to the top (roughly an hour and a half later) I was pretty grateful for having done the hike since it was probably one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.

Lois -This hike was amazing!!! With every twist and turn we were rewarded with views that I have only previously dreamed of. The african vegitation as well as the hopes of seeing wildlife captured my imagination andencouraged us to persist. As we neared the top we were extremely lucky to see a mountain goat (goat boy) delicately perched on a cliffs edge. The mountian goat climbed out on a very narrow edge with unbelievable balance and camlness.

The view at the top of the mountain was indescribably beautiful. We were extremly lucky to have a clearday which allowed a fanatstic view of the whitesand beaches, distant mountains, and city skyline. We could not have asked for better weather (25 degrees and sunny with clear skies). The serenty was overwhelming and shortlived. The feelings we were about to encountour would be those of fear, awe, concentration and adhrealine. Jeff, Jess, Andrew and I were about to be lowered off of a cliff face 1000M above ground convinced we would nbot live to tell the tale. Our lives were entirely dependent on a thin piece if rope connecting our tiny bodies to the top of the cliff face. This activity is called abseiling. Jeff and I were first up and it wasn't long before we had many on lookers form above calling out hings like "are you guys &%¤#¤ crazy???". We were secretly wondering the same thing ourselves. Jeff (now pale as a ghost) turns to the organizer and asks "Have you guys done this before?" this was met with "hahah are you crazy we would never do this". This was not quite the reassurance he was looking for so he promised that if he were to survive the activity then he would marry her. She wasted no time in hooking us up to the cord and forcing up to slowly walk our way back and down the mountain slowly. We hung off the side of the cliff a put our trust in the system. half way down the cliff we gained the courage to turn around and appreciate the view that could only be earned by doing something this stupid. This is by far one of the best experiences I have ever had and I manged ot come out of it with just a scraped leg. this is suprising given that as we watched Andrew and Jess come down later we notice dthat the "saftey guard was fast alseep with no one attending to the ropes. hahaha some times you just have to laugh it off.

Jeff - Once all four of us had our feet squarely back on the ground it was time to make the short hike back up. We set off with the simple instructions of "stay to the left" and soon passed a sign meant for decenders of the moutain stating 'NOT AN EASY WAY DOWN'. We hoped it wasn't necessarily true for heading the other way and began questioning whether we should have read the fine print on the waiver form more closely. It turned out the hike up was more exhilerating than the orginal. With no set path we had to manuver ourselves over rocks and make decisions about which direction to take. Other than the scenery from the other side of Table Mountain the entertainment came when I passed a stick while climbing up one section. Knowing that Lois was right behind me and her fear of 'snake attacks!' I casually threw the stick behind me yelling "snake" causing Lois to panic and nearly pushing Jess (who was behind her) off the mountain side. Luckily Jess had more wit about her and held her ground, I apologized through my laughter and promised never to do it again. We made it back up safely and met up with Jes and Martin to take the 360 revolving cable car back down.

Andrew - That night after a nap that lasted to long (i.e. we woke up 8 min before the cap arrived, we went out to a really cool restaurant called beluga in the city centre and then to a couple other bars in Cape Town. We had a table in the wine loft which was pretty cool. Jeff and I had osterich for the first time and it was delicious. We had too much wine with dinners, unecessary mojitos, and more beer then we needed, but had a great night out. At the third and final bar they played Bryan Adams 5 minutes after we got there which set the tone for the night. It was good times. We left the last bar a 3am, not the smartest idea considering we had book sharked cage diving pick up at 9 am the next morning.