kirstenbosch

Last Saturday morning was the most perfect day to visit a place I've eagerly awaited. 

The sun treated us well for a beautiful day with good friends.

Who isn't!

Perfection has a new name: Kirstenbosch Gardens.

boomslang caves

On Friday morning the guys' group from the Y originally planned a Table Mountain hike for that afternoon and invited anyone the ladies' group to join. We thought it'd be a great time to finally conquer the beast that day, though I definitely wasn't sure that I'd be able to handle it. Though there are different paths up, some members from my program had gone several months back and took a much more treacherous journey up that took all day. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous to climb Table Mountain but one cannot come to Cape Town and at least try (if not they've always got cable cars hah)!

Got a group together with the rooms, Sonora, and Rachel and we headed over to meet everyone at the Y bright and early. Turns out the hike had been changed into a different peak on the mountain, down South of Cape Town in the Kalk Bay area. I had taken this trip down several months ago (remember this?) so it was surely nice to travel into this town again.

This excursion was to the Boomslang Caves, but it first started out with quite a bit of a hike. Definitely much less than Table Mountain itself would have been, but it was certainly a good incline all the way to the top. Enjoy the views!

The hike started right off a random road with these steps, but got 'real' soon after. (photo cred: Nichelle)

 

After much of the incline was over there was a bit of rock-climbing required, nothing too scary but it definitely was not easily suitable for short legs. You win some, you lose some :)

Please take a moment to appreciate Fritz and his lovely choice of headwear.

And, finally, we made it to the top with no injuries haha. And I've only been cave exploring/spelunking once before with Cru, but since then I love me some caves! The second I found out we were no longer hiking Table Mountain but would be in caves I couldn't handle my excitement.

Though it was plenty of dark and wet, inside was rather warm compared to outside. We also took time to turn out all our torches to properly hear the bats squeal. 

Though the cave exit you see below is seemingly spacious, right before this we literally had to lay flat and practically army crawl through a narrow space for a good ten meters. I was all sorts of dirty with sand but it is so worth it!

The descent down the mountain was so incredible. Right as we emerged outside of the cave exit of Boomslang we face Kalk Bay and the town. The area is called Echo Valley, and it's namesake rings true. We took the time to yell at the top of our lungs, one of the sweetest memories I'll take back with me. And the view was ridiculous as always.

photo cred: Sonora

We'll see if I get time to do Table Mountain, but Boomslang was such a great alternative for the day!

rhodes

Last Saturday morning I took myself on a little hike up to Rhodes Memorial. Wanted a bit of quiet time by myself to take this hike, but unfortunately I soon found out that it was a very popular tourist destination so I was most certainly not alone on this excursion (do not fret my dear parents!).

To enter into this great escape you simply catch a Jammie to the main campus a then you see the latter below right on the side of the street. It crosses over a fence into this not-so-forbidden forest to enter into the part of campus that is almost like a nature reserve in itself. It's UCT's own Bridge to Terabithia.

It is then a short hike--no more than ten minutes--up to the memorial site. It's incredible too because as you continue up Table Mountain/Devil's Peak you can't even see Rhodes at all, then suddenly it appears out almost out of nowhere.

Alas, I stumbled upon this perfection. When I first arrived there were a slew of angsty tourists so that did not make for suitable photo opportunities. 

And this cheesin' is for the ma and pops!

Thus, I had to wait a good while and be attentive to sneak photos when no one walked by.

The view from base of the memorial.

And the view from the top.

And quite clearly, the most epic of all of the scenery is this statue of a horseman, a work called Energy. The scene does drama on its own.

Almost managed to not get anyone in this one :(

Lovely day roaming off campus. Next goal is to make it up here at sunrise! We shall see haha.