It was so weird waking up on Monday morning, knowing that it would be my last one in Muizenberg. Tim, the director, just so happened to stop by that morning. We have no contact with him regularly, so up until then he hadn't known I was leaving. It's been a rough couple of weeks for Tim, I'm the third person (that I know of) who has left from my orientation group. Just from the new people in my house alone, there are three people who were only staying two weeks anyways, but every single other person, but one, has already moved their departure day up . . . Tim wanted to take me out for coffee, but because I was going to go on the tour, he offered to pick me up from where I was being dropped off early (in order to catch my flight), instead of me having to take the train by myself. I actually really wanted to meet with him to talk about the program and ideas that I have anyways, so I was glad to have run into him. With no cell phone or Internet at the house, I hadn't had any way to even just reach him to say I was leaving, especially with all the running around I was doing to tour the area. I had planned on emailing him from home . . . And sadly, aside from the people living in my house, my leaving would have gone completely unnoticed.
Dave came to get the people form our house going on the tour at about 9am. His friend Andrea was the second driver. I rode with Andrea, in her huge safari Land Rover, listening to Jack Johnson. I think that there were ten of us total going on the tour. Our first stop was at Boulder Beach, where all of the penguins live!
After the penguins, we drove to Cape Point! Even just the drive there was so cool. There were wild baboons and ostriches on the side of the road, and all kinds of great scenery. It was one of those drives where you're right on the edge of a big hill that eventually turns into a huge mountain, with nothing but ocean and beach houses below. So nice!
We eventually made it to Cape Point, where we were officially warned about the baboons that inhabit the area and will come steal your food if you bring it out and they see/smell it. We didn't end up on seeing any, but they were definitely there-- they left all kinds of fresh poop behind everywhere . . . It was so windy up at the top of the point, by the lighthouse! I feel like such a broken record saying this, but the views were great! The water was crystal clear, and all different shades, defendant on where the different currents met and mixed.
The wind at Cape Point was
nothing compared to the Cape of Good Hope! If you didn't have good footing, it would have been so easy to have toppled over. There were a few times I thought I was seriously going to blow over . . . Compared to the other spots we had been, it is really just a big pile of rocks at the bottom of a cliff. We climbed up to an upper level of rocks and just hung out for a little bit. The waves below we're huge because of all the wind that day, literally howling in our faces. Dave said it normally isn't that bad, but that he prefers it that way because of the waves-- being a huge surfer. It was kind of sad for me, because I knew this would be my last stop. Dave would drop me off to meet Tim and everyone else would continue to more places. I was scheduled to leave the house at 4:30, but everyone wouldn't be back until about 6:30, so I had to say my goodbyes to Lesley, Andrea, Saffi, and Danny. We had not known each other for a week and a half, so it was nothing compared to Prague, but still sad.
There must have been some type of miscommunication or something, because I never met Tim . . . Dave showed me where to go to get on the train as a result. It was my first time on the train by myself, which I had fully intended on never doing. If you get a first class ticket, most of the creeps are left behind in the other compartments, so that's what I did. Still though, some creep had to freak me out . . . I was sitting by myself in a compartment with tons of extra room, and two super sketchy guys come in, one sits next to me-- not even across, but right next to me-- and the other stands for a while looking our general direction. Eventually he sat down across from me. Luckily, I only had three stops to get back to Muizenberg. When the train arrived, I stood up and got off. The two guys both got up and left the train as well, but only after I had been completely off and maybe even thinking that I was away from them-- or so they would have liked for me to be thinking. I'm so paranoid though, especially being by myself, so I caught on when they started following my towards Muizenberg Beach. Another lady was going the same direction and walked with me a bit. She was a local, and seemed nice, but I was scared of her too in the back of my mind, despite her nice clothing and designer bag. The paranoia was fully out. All I could think of was how smart it would be for muggers to have another person pose as someone well off, who would be the one to approach the target-- as the lady, who had happened to be in my compartment, had done to me-- and because they appeared to be more well off and not out to get valuables, you would let your guard down a bit. If that was the plan, it didn't work-- I'm way too paranoid for that. I feel bad for the lady even thinking all of these things, but it's so much better to have that mindset than to fall into some trap like that . . . I eventually made it to the beach with no problems, and eventually, back to the house for the last time.
My last day in South Africa had definitely been a success. I really feel like that last two days had really been great for seeing the area. Yeah, shark tank diving, zip lining, or safari would have been amazing as well. But honestly, they're what I would consider to be the "extras" of what you should see and do in Cape Town. And even safari in Cape Town isn't
real safari-- part of what made it easy to miss out on. You do and see some great things, but unless you fly to Johannesburg and go to Kruger (for about $1000), the "safari" experience doesn't include any
truly wild animals, they're all enclosed in huge parks and kept after . . . Had I stayed longer, I'm sure I would have done it, but it definitely wasn't necessary for my 10 days. Seeing all of Cape Town and making it down to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope is what was important to me though. Doing all, or even any, of the "extras" would have been so much fun, but at least this time, they weren't what was important to me for making this a good trip.
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