November 29th

Yesterday was a laid-back, relax day. We had a bit of rain in the morning, so thing cooled off the day some. The only other things of note: we had taco salad for dinner, and saw the big, full moon. 

Today is a different story!! Today we climbed a mountain! 

We awoke just before five, waited til we had power before we got around. It was already light outside, but bathroom was still darkish. Power came on at 0511. We got around and out the door by 0549. I thought this was pretty good!! We ate our PB&J sandwiches on the way. We are climbing Table Mountain, which is one of the backdrop mountains of Cape Town. It took us one hour to get to the parking area, where we met up with two brethren from the North congregation. One was our guide, and the other gave the sermon this past Sunday. They both are friendly and have climbed the mountain. Our guide said this was his third time to climb this month! 

Anyway, as we pulled in a parking spot – they were in the car next to us! That made it easy to start. We trekked up the road a bit to the trail head, Platteklip Gorge. It looks a little daunting as it is up, up, up; but doable. It was stone rocks mostly arranged in very exaggerated steps. At least for my comfort, they were exaggerated! Where we parked was at 500 meters (1,640 feet) above sea level, and the top is 1,010 meters (3,313 feet). There weren't any technical maneuvers, or ladders. It was just unrelentingly up, mostly straight, with a few switchbacks. But we had good company and talked the whole way, which made the task seem to go fast. The views were spectacular overlooking Cape Town and Table Bay! The mountain is composed of three layers of stones. The bottom and foundational layer is granite; the middle and smallest layer is sandstone and mudstone (this rock has purple and red hues); and the top layer is sandstone (this is most of the steps we climbed up!). As we were reaching the top, the wind picked up a bunch, but this helped cool us down! This is a “neck” area (the term one of our South African friends called it) we go through to reach the top and this is where the wind was funneling through. When we reached the top, it was with a great feeling of accomplishment. We took some celebratory pictures and looked back to the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape Town side; and then over to the Indian Ocean, the False Bay and Strand side. WOW!! 

Then we all went to the restaurant for coffee and just to relax. It took us 2.5 hours to get up to the top! After we finished our coffee and were relaxed, now it was time to descend!! But here we forked over some money and took the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway down! This was stunning and well worth the money. We could enjoy the scenery without worrying about path. 

Once we reach our cars, we parted ways with our new friends. What a beautiful morning God blessed us with – taking in His creation, and developing relationships. How awesome it was!

As we were leaving, we decided to take a longer route home and went to Kalky's for fish and chips at Kalk Bay. We both ordered grilled fish this time: one tuna, and one yellow tail. Again both were excellent. We headed back to our place, arriving just in time to have to climb 12 flights of stairs! Because, well we hadn't climbed enough today… HA HA! No, it's because power is out, yet another scheduled blackout.

Anyway, it is siesta time. I wrote this and Jeff read. Tonight will be a light supper, and as always watching for sunset glory!