Table Mtn. Hike and Aquila Safari

October 5, 6
South Africa

As you probably saw, I put some more pictures up on the blog, including ones for past posts. Hopefully, I’ll get some more up on the Photobucket site.
Yesterday, my roommate, my rugby friend John, and myself hiked up Table Mountain which ended up taking all day. That morning my roommate (he goes by his initial which is E) and I sat in front of the hotel adjacent to the boat and utilized the internet. We woke up our friend John and took a cab to the base of Table Mountain. There is a cable car that takes people up to the very top in about 5 minutes. We were pretty set on hiking it but we wanted to do another trail first. We walked further down the road, found a rocky gully and followed that up the side of the mountain. That eventually intersected with a path and we followed that. That led us up to the peak next to Table Mountain which was called Devil’s Peak. It was gradual and therefore not too hard and it took about an hour and a half to get up. At the very top, we were in the thick of the clouds and it was really windy. I felt bad because I made my friends stand in the windiest spot so I could set up a timed camera shot of the three of us (this took a while because I had to balance my camera on a rock while figuring out the timed feature). We made good time coming down and found a connecting trail to the main trail to the top of Table Mtn. Unfortunately, the sign said it was a trail to another point (which later connected to the trail to Table Mtn.) and so we mistakenly kept going down the same path which took us further across the mountain and to the east end of the mountain. Here we did have an amazing view of the coastline around the cape and a better view of Lionhead Rock (significantly shorter than Table Mountain). This is where we realized we passed the trail head and we backtracked about a mile and a half to the main trail.
By the time we started this trail, we had already hiked up Devil’s peak, across the base of Table Mtn., and backtracked which is approximately a total of like 6-7 miles (part of which was up hill and all of which was on uneven terrain). We started the climb up Table Mountain around 2-ish. Looking up it looked like incredibly steep switchbacks all the way to a narrow gorge at the top. It started out okay, but what limited energy I had soon was gone and my legs burned like crazy. John who was the most athletic of us got a big lead while E my roommate fell behind a little bit leaving me in the middle. The trail was probably a mile total but it got progressively worse as we went up. The rocks became more stairlike and spaced higher and higher apart. Imagine Al Roker (pre-surgery) is strapped to your back and you’re forced to march up a steep hill with no food (except Al Roker) and that’s kind of what it was like while going up Table Mtn. Normally it probably would’ve been only a mild hike but we were all hungry and there was food at the top of the mountain. John made it up first, followed by me, then E over a 45 min. time span. The trail went on for about 15 more minutes then ended at the cable cars and more importantly food. We decided to wait till dinner at the boat (by this time it was 5:00pm) and grabbed key foods to keep our energy up (slushies and cookies which I have to say tasted absolutely amazing). The view from the top, though mostly limited by clouds, was well worth it. We took the cable car down in a coach full of Chinese tourists. After taking a taxi back to the boat, we had dinner and then my roommate and me watched the Bourne Identity on TV and went to bed early.
The next day we had both signed up for a safari at Aquila Reserve. We had breakfast a little before 6am and left a little after. The ride was about 2 hours and took us through the outlying suburbs of Cape Town as well as some very scenic wine lands. The landscape changed drastically from fertile farmlands to a desert-like region with lots of small scrubs. We arrived at Aquila around 9:00-ish and received breakfast (again) which was amazing and had a huge variety of breakfast foods. We then walked over as a group to some fenced enclosures where some lions and cheetahs were. We didn’t see the cheetahs at that time but the lions we did see napping. We went back to the main lodge area and waited for some jeeps to pick us up in groups. My roommate and I got on a jeep with my other friend and we set off. During our safari we would see all of the Big 5, which are lions, Cape buffalo, the leopard, the African elephant, and rhinoceros. Our first stop which was close to the lodge was the main watering hole. The first animals we saw which were at the water’s edge were Springbok which are S. Africa’s national animal as well as the mascot of the rugby team (more importantly). We then continued along and our guide pointed out a group of hippos which we all thought were a clump of rocks in the middle of the water hole. We drove further around the whole and saw two ostriches. One of them started walking in front of our car, blocking our way. The guide commented that they were not the smartest animal, but apparently could be ridden. We then saw a group of zebras walking around and then a second group of zebras later on. We continued on and saw some water buffalo. It was a group of 5 females with one main male. After this we drove on and saw in the distance a clearing with 2 rhinos lying in the middle of it. We drove right up to them and got within 40 feet of them. Like many of the other animals, they simply laid their content with napping all day. After watching them for a while we drove further down the road (we were in a wide open valley) and I saw in the distance what looked like 2 large rocks but were actually African elephants. Our driver took us right up to them and told us they were both young males. I remember back in fourth grade when our class had to do a report on animals and my animal was the African elephant. We spent a while here because the elephants got slowly closer to us. We eventually left the elephants and went through an electrified fence into the lion area. As we drove through we could see ribcages and leg bones of past meals of the lions. The lions, as it turned out, were being held in a small containing area because repairs were being done to the fence. We saw seven lions total, but just like the other ones, they too were napping. On the way back to the lodge, we got a very close look at the water buffalo which were grazing on the side of the road. Our driver then took us back to the lion/cheetah enclosure where we finally saw the cheetahs who (of course) were napping. Our driver took us to another adjacent enclosure where we saw a leopard which came out of its hut when he called it. He told us he feeds the lions and they come when he calls them.
We drove back to the lodge and had lunch which included lamb lasagna, lamb, chicken and many varieties of cheese. We then left on the bus and drove back to Cape Town. My roommate and I walked around the mall and the Waterfront- I was comparing prices for a rugby jersey and he wanted to buy some biltong. We came back to the ship and had dinner. Tomorrow is already our last whole day here which is crazy because I thought this port might drag on when really it has zoomed by. One thing I’d like to mention is everyone here (like in Ghana) is really friendly and polite and especially welcoming. Inside Cape Town and outside Cape Town, I have not felt unsafe at any point (I know that doesn’t mean much) and have not heard any incidents from other people. I’m still trying to grasp that these are my last days in Africa and soon I’ll be leaving the continent as well as the people. Tomorrow I’m doing a field trip for something called the “!Khwa Ttu Route” which sounds interesting.