Happy New Years: 24 Windy Hours in Cape Town

View of Table Mountain From Lion's Head

Happy New Years! We hope everyone had a great New Years. Ours was averagely hectic, extraordinarily windy, and very enjoyable in Cape Town, South Africa.

The wind plagued us in Capetown -- culminating in money literally being blown out of my hand on January 1st. I stuck 100 Rand ($11.73) out the window to pay the 33 Rand toll to drive the coastal road south of Capetown. And the wind tore the money from my thumb and 2nd and 3rd fingers. The money flittered swiftly down the steep road and within 3 seconds, it was gone, out of sight.

Our wind adventures all started 20 hours earlier when we learned that the Overland Truck group's plans of spending NYE on Cape Town's 3300 foot mountain, Table Mountain, were cancelled. The cable car running up and down the mountain was closed due to gale force winds. We had planned to hike the mountain, and then ride the cable car down after New Years.

True to form, because we were deprived of one mountain, we decide to hike a different mountain.

At 4:00 pm, we are hiking up another mountain -- Lion's Head -- with two friends from the Truck, Claire and Robyn.

4:30 pm -- Robyn is cursing Muriel because we are lost and bushwhacking through sharp and prickly brush.

6:00 pm -- we have all made it to the top. Yea!




6:10 pm -- Wilson's face is stinging from the wind as we negotiate the rocks down.

10:00 pm -- after making it back to the hostel, cooking some delicious food, and meeting up with the rest of the group, we have ventured out into the wind again. We are 14 strong (5 men, 9 women) with varying levels of fatigue and we have set off to walk a mile or so to reach a NYE party.

10:30 pm -- we pass people huddling waiting for NYE parade.

10:45 pm -- as the wind becomes stronger, we decide that it is much easier to run with the gusts rather than walk slowly. This technique leads to mixed results, including losing the group at times, being slightly afraid that you might not be able to stop, and eventually someone (Robyn) lost a shoe in the middle of a street.

11:30 pm -- After reaching the party, 7 of us decide to not go to the party and instead run back into the wind, spend NYE out and about, and find the parade.

11:35 pm -- Due to weather, parade is cancelled.

11:50 pm -- we find a party! Freya posted a video to FB. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200336156911838&set=vb.1391997761&type=2&theater. Not sure if the link will work.

MIDNIGHT -- We rock it until we don't know when. Everyone was dancing in the street (literally) on Long Street. The culture here is quite segregated and this was one of the first places that we have been that was truly mixed across the four main ethnicities (White, Black, Indian, and Colored -- in SA, there is a "Colored" ethnicity).

6 am -- We wake up to climb Table Mountain. And the wind was a bit much. As we hiked, I was scared, but Wilson was too far ahead of me to ask if we can turn back -- so I just grasped onto the rocks and moved forward.

Sun is coming up over the mountain.

8:30 am -- View from the top and it is COLD!

10:00 am -- back in town, and I pick up the rental car to drive on the wrong side of the road, with a stick shift, no power steering, and I really am not used to driving anymore. Happy times.

11:30 am -- View from Camp Beach of the wind pushing the waves back.

January 1st, 2pm: Money is lost but here is the view from the top of the toll road -- it all ends well. :)