america....fuck yeah!

wooo uncle sam!

so the plan was to hike table mountain, which, if you didn't know, is like the trademark landmark [haha] in cape town. seriously, look a picture of it up its incredible. or look here.



there's many routes up, but we decided to hike the longest one, which takes about 4-5 hours. indeed, we started at 11:30am and didn't finish until around 4-4:30pm

it was the single most exhausting activity i've ever done in my life, but it was also the most refreshing, invigorating and beautiful 4 hours of my life.

the first part of the hike was your typical mountain forest landscape with a stream/small waterfalls running down. the steps turned really steep about 20 minutes in though--way more steeper than anything in lion's head or any mountain i've hiked period.

after about an hour up like this [which was the hardest part of the whole hike], i'd say we were about halfway up vertically to the highest point of table mountain. but we decided to take another route to see the table mountain reservoirs, which serves as the pool for cape town's water supply. from there, it was a short hike up this one hill which had literally no path to take. i'd say the angle was about 70-75 degrees steep and there was no solid ground to step on; it was all loose dirt. terrifying but amazingly, only a few of us slipped a few times. another thing that struck me about the whole experience was how natural they kept it. none of the plants/foliage were trimmed...meaning even when we were walking on a wider path, the flora would be all in our way and i felt like an explorer in the african jungles...definitely got scraped a looooooooot.

side note: african plants are PRICKLY jesus christ.

but we made it to the reservoirs...and i was completely shocked. it was like a mini-beach. it was a giant lake and the shores were nothing but soft, white sand much like you would find on a beach. like really? a beach on top of a mountain? kickass. so we took a break there and kept hiking. we went through rivers, waterfalls and caves and after another 2 hours later, emerged on the very top of table mountain, which is about 1090m or so high at its highest point. the wind was freaking crazy at the top. i'd jump down to a lower rock but the wind was so strong it would shift me a few inches so i'd land painfully. i actually banged my knee up pretty bad...

but the view was obviously incredible. i could see cape point (the very southern trip of africa as previously mentioned), all of cape town and the surrounding cities for miles to see. absolutely amazing. it was strangely serene, standing at the very top of a mountain looking out at the landscape with the sun's reflection gleaming off the atlantic and indian oceans as the winds howled past.

once we got to the top, the hard part of the hike was over and it was a relatively flat, level trek to the cable car/restaurant area. it was so exhausting we weren't about to hike down the mountain. and again i'm really serious--the whole way it was so fucking steep. and they don't trim down the path at all for you. if you have to climb a vertical rock face, you're doing it. if you're wading through foliage that is chest high and full of prickly spiny plants, you're doing it. if you're jumping down a bunch of wet rocks as a waterfall roars past you and into a slippery cave with no support and one misstep means you fall down a huge ravine, you're doing it.

but after 4-4.5 hours, we finally made it to the cable car area and took it down [after a delicious double burger and a beer of course]

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afterwards, we showered and rested a bit...then headed out to a manor a few minutes away where some interns lived for the 4th of july braai (BBQ). good food, good music, good ppl...we all face-painted american flags, played some pong and ate delicious grilled food and then hit the town for some drinks.

we went to a bar called neighbourhood, where after ordering like 5 drinks in 20 minutes for myself, i decided i was really tired from the hike and my knee was killing me. so for a final big bang, i gathered a bunch of ppl to do some "red, white & blue" shots.

it's a series of 3 shots in succession. red is vodka/grenadine, white is vodka or peach schnapps and blue is rum/blue curacao. we started chanting USA USA USA but these other guys were shittin on america haha. figures. the rest of the world really don't like us.

which brings me to now. sitting at home, completely exhausted from the hike and drinking. all in all, a great way to celebrate america's 233rd birthday.

happy birthday america...and as much as i love south africa, america will always be my home. fuck yea.

cheers mate.