The baboon hike and Nico in SA

I was already more than a month back in South Africa, when I went joined my host parents and the parents of my host mother for a weekend to Hermanus. Peter my exchange student, couldn’t come, because he was in India, Luke (my new international brother, who has a wonderful nickname for me) couldn’t come neither, because he had to work that weekend. That weekend I was able to speak mainly Dutch, due to the parents of my host mother “Marianne” are from Haarlem. We stayed in a lovely house near the beach and close to a wonderful cliff walk. It was still extremely hot that week (temperatures were around 35 degrees), but the sea was freezing as always.

While Peter was in India, I organized a farewell surprise party for him. When he got back from India, Peter organized to go on a hike with his friends and of course exactly the same weekend that I organized his surprise party. I first had to make sure they went on a Friday and not on a Saturday, before I decided to join them. I’m not a big fan of hiking, but I thought let’s give it a try. Peter fetched me and prepared as I was I didn’t forget to pack my sun block this time.  We fetched two friends and headed off to a place in the middle of nowhere. We had to hurry because it was already dark and they wanted to reach the cave before it would become dark. I was already less excited because I was told all the stories what to do if you spot a snake or baboon. The beginning was quite hard (for me with my perfect balance), but after a while I got into it. We reached the cave just before it became dark and prepared dinner after we had built our camp. Maybe I wasn’t that well prepared because I didn’t have a mat, where I could sleep on and I managed to forget my pillow as well. Anyways, I finished quickly and chose the spot which was the farthest removed from the hole in the cave. I expected that we could get company of a snake that night.

After dinner we went straight to our beds. I was very comfortable lying on the rocks and the sound of fighting baboons made it even more comfortable. I couldn’t sleep properly, but felt sometimes asleep for like 15 minutes. Every time I woke up, I looked on my phone to see what the time was. I didn’t put my phone in my bag, because I had heard stories that baboons steel bags, and I didn’t want that they would take mine with my phone in it. Around 00.30 I woke up again, hearing the lovely sound of fighting baboons. I tried to look for my phone, but I couldn’t find it. I thought it would have fall out of my pocket and looked in my sleeping bag. Eventually I found it, but when I pressed a random button, it just showed me a white screen with a black line. My inside screen was cracked. The benefit that this happened was that I wasn’t worried anymore of baboons or snakes.

The rest woke up at about six, lay down till eight and ate some breakfast. Me and mine phone were totally broken. We continued our hike at 8.30am. The day before I was so proud that I didn’t forget to pack my sun block, but unfortunately it was raining that morning. We had to climb a waterfall; I couldn’t be bothered to step from rock to rock, so I walked through the water. Because of that I wasn’t able to follow the others when it became more difficult, it was quite slippery and needed often help from the others. I hated it and gave up 150M before the end. I told them to continue without me and that I would wait on a random rock. While they were away three rocks felt down off the top and almost hit me. I was afraid the baboons were hunting me and decided to climb in the direction of the waterfall. I was very glad when I saw them again and could started our way down. Conclusion: I hate hiking!

That evening we had Peter’s surprise party, he didn’t expect it at all, so I was glad. That night we went to Claremont and the next day at 1pm the farewell party which Peter organized himself. The next day me, Peter and his parents went to the Clifton beach to have a picnic and on Tuesday we went to the airport. Peter went to Holland!    
5 Days later a friend from Holland arrived to visit me! He arrived on Saturday, Sunday we went to Franschoek, a small little villages on the wine route. It was very beautiful and I did mine first wine tasting ever. On Monday I showed him around the school. I was supposed to coach a tennis team, so I had a plan to cycle to school around a quarter to two. Unfortunately one of the bikes broke and we had to walk all the way (45min). Of course the tennis was cancelled, due to the rain, but we were invited to have supper at a teacher’s place which was very nice!

Nico
On Tuesday and Wednesday Nico and I were real tourists. We took the African train to town and walked from there to the waterfront, where we took the red bus (with our American friends). On Tuesday we went with the bus on a trip through the town. We also went on the table mountain and had a cocktail/ late lunch at camps bay. That evening we went out for a dinner with the two other gappers. On Wednesday we started off in Kirstenbosch gardens. We wanted to do a township tour, but unfortunately they were fighting in the township over there, so we decided to take the bus to the waterfront and walk from there to Cape Town stadium. We finished the day at the Constantia wine farming.   Thursday we went to the beach at Fishhoek and in the evening I showed Nico one of the Captonian clubs. Friday we went to an Afrikaans play in town and Saturday my host family took us for a nice ride past Chapman’s Peak and the coast all the way down to Simon’s Town. That evening we went to the Stormers game! My first live rugby match ever! We didn't understand everything, but it was nice tough. The week that Nico was down in South Africa went so quickly, we had lots of fun, it was amazing!

 In 1,5 week me and Fearghas are going to Johannesburg , where we going to watch the Feyenoord-Ajax from South Africa, Orlando Pirates against Kaizer Chiefs. On Sunday we will go to Sun City where we stay for a few days! One week later me, Fearghas and Elise are going to Durban. From there we going to travel along the coast all the way back to Cape Town and we will also stop in a few cities. In My next blog I will write about all my experiences from the different parts of South Africa. March is going to be a very exciting month, I’m looking forward to it!

For more pictures see my photo albums "South Africa / Cape Town 2011-2012" (album 1 & 2)