Anyway when we got there, I put my bandana on my face and my hood over my head and my sunglasses on.  I thought I was ready to bear the wind and sand but boy was I wrong.  We started climbing up this monstreous sand dune.  i think it was approximately 400 feet tall, but when you are climbing a 400 foot sand dune, it is quite diffiicult.  You would literally take one step and often times, take a step or two back.  It was absolutely one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life.  After stopping numerous times, with Sarah and I helping Hannah get to the top of the duned, we arrived just as the sun broke over the top of the mountain.  It was a glorious scene and well worth the strenuous hike up the sand dune.  Hannah kept stopping because she was nervous that nothing was on either side of her to help her.  Basically we walked on the pseudo flat part of the done along its back, but with the extreme winds and sand blowing it was quite difficult at times.

We sat up at the top of the moutain for a little while, snapping photos and enjoying the magnificent view atop dune 45 in the Namib desert in Namibia.  Also I apologize for Namibia lovers as I have spelled the country about 5 differnet ways, and I think the way I spelled it in this entry is correct, the others times I have spelled it, it was completely wrong, I think.  I’m sure cousin Leonard has taken notice of my numerous spelling and gramatical errors, just kidding.

Once we got to the top of the dune we had to get down and the only way to do so was to run down.  I was able to put my camera and stuff in a bag that Frank had.  Frank is a teacher from Germany.  Sarah, Eva, Hannah and I said “one, two, three,” and then I took off like a bat out of hell running and jumping down the side of this huge sand dune.  It was so much fun.  You could run and jump so high because the sand broke your fall and absorbed the damage.  I was screaming and shouting in exhiliration after I just made this hike up the side of the mountain.

W

When we got to the bottom we were all laughing and we took some great photos along the way, and not at the bottom including one photo which Nomad, the tour company must put on their brochure.  It is a picture of six of us all jumping in the air on the side of this dune.  Frank took the picture with my great camera, which appeared to have survived the sand dune and didnt not get ruined.  I used shutter speed priority to make the shutter go quicker and capture this mometnt.  Everyone was completely in the air when the photo was taken and only Harriet’s face was covered by her arm.  Harriet is Hannah’s friend from the UK, same age as Hannah and is a medicine student as well.  When I first met them on day one or so.  I asked where they were from and stuff and they said they did medicine, to which I said “oh you must be smart.”  They laughed and I felt that was a good way to break the ice.  I mean in reality what are they supposed to say.  So far the overland adventure as Jabu puts it, has been fantastic, and I am having the time of my life, camping in Africa!  When we returned back to the jeeps after taking numerous photos along the way, Jabu, Mike and Narissa prepared us a proper english breakfsat, excpet with beef sausages just for me.  Every meal except for one has had beef instead of pork to accommodate me and have even made separate side salads for me when meat is being served that didn’t have milk in it.  I think these guys will be getting a very nice tip from me, for all the great work they have done so far.  Of course at this point the overland adventure is only at its infantile stage and there is a long way to go, as of right now I am quite pleased.

After enjoying the breakfst, our day was long from being over..  From Dune 45 we drove another 15 kilometers further in to the desert. From there we were herded like cow again on the back of a truck 5 more kilometers deep in to the Namib desert where would we go on a three hour desert hike.  The hike was led by a tall local man who called himself “bushman,” but that had to be a joke or something.  Bushman took us all around this part of the desert to teach us about plant life, wildlife, and about the people called “bushman” who were like 4 feet tall or shorter and who lived in this desert.  I tried one particular plant called a salt salad, and it was so salty that as soon as I bit down on it and the influx of salt rushed in to my mouth I spit it out just as fast.  It was terrible but something that of course I had to try.  We went up smaller dune and down in to this lake, well it used to be a lake which had 6-900 year old dead trees still standing.  Ironically enough this dried up is the cover of the Lonely Planet Namibia and Botswana book.  Also the first page when you open the book is a picture of a tree which  I took myself, not knowing that either were in the book, especially not on the cover!

When we were hanging out walking around the dried up lake I decided I wanted to make a foot print in the mud after seeing one just before.  I left my water at the top of the dune before I walked down in to the lake, so my being so brilliant, decided to pee and then take my foot and make a footprint using the liquid that I had just produced from my urine.  When I got back I told the girls who were with me and they were abolsutely disgusted.  I told them if they thought that was bad then I should tell them some of my other stories, but I didn’t.

After the desert hike was over, we drove back to the campsite where we had a few hours to chill out, and do whatever we wanted.  This was the first time in our first few days we had free time to sit back, relax and reflect.  I took down the tent with Rob, and then broke out my book and read.  I played some music using the little battery life left in my iphone and really enjoyed the beautiful desert weather.  There was a mild wind, not a cloud in the sky and comfortable temperature.  Before we left, Sarah and I went to get water and essentials in case we didn’t stop on our way to the next camp site.  Of course before we left the truck made a stop at the campsite shop and Sarah went to me “told you so.”  She had questioned whether it would stop at the store and I brushed off the idea of the truck doing so.  The walk was far and I wasn’t happy when we made the stop before leaving.  Anyway we left around 3pm and had to drive 100 kilometers to the next place which was called Solitaire.  This was just another stop before heading to one of the two major cities in Namibia called Swakomund.  It has about 200,000 people in it which is huge considering the country only had 2 million and most of them are in the capital called WIndhoek.  For hundreds of miles we see nothing but the scenery and ocassionally animals.  It is mostly just desert, mountains and open land.  The air is fresh, warm, and the wind has appeared to die down significantly after the first few days.

When we arrived at this campsite, Frank help me set up the tent which Rob was taking a coffee at the bar.  When we got to the campsite I had some of their famous apple pie.  It was good, not great and could have used some vanilla ice cream on top, but it was definitely worth trying.  Then I set the tent up and chilled out.  Dinner was really good and I make it an early night.  I only had one homemade drink and one cider when we first arrived.  I wanted to be well rested for the next few days which could include some adventure sports like quadbiking on sand dune and potentially sky diving, but I doubt it.  I once went skydiving in Wanaka, New Zealand where the air was crisp, the mountains were snowy and it was awesome, and I don’t want to lose that feeling.  Even though I don’t have visual proof of this sky dive, since at the time I was too cheap to get the video and I lost the picture of me sitting on the wing of the plane in Australia on the home computer of my apartment in the International House, it would be nice to have some visual proof, but I think i’ll pass and go quadbiking which should be great.

I climbed in to my tent I guess before 10 and was really knackered and wanted some sleep.

Our next stop before settling in to the campsite was going to a canyon which wasn’t fish river canyon but a baby canyon formed millions of years ago.  I took my flipflops and camera along because I wasn’t sure if this waqs a point and shoot stop or a hike.  It turned out to be a hike.  The canyon was really cfool.  We were able to walk down in to the depths of the canyon where the air was substantrially cooler than at ground level.  The formations of the rocks were cool, as were the trees that were at the bottom of the canyon.  Some years there is more water than others at the bottom and this year there was just a little pool of water half way around the canyon.  The water was nothing special but the hike was cool and a got a lot of great photos, including one of myself in a cave like structure.

After we hiked but up and out of the canyon we proceeded to the campsite where it was time to set up shop.  At this point I wasn’t feeling that great,and it was really, really cold out.  After dinner we all squatted around the campfire and then I went off to the bar after having a few homemade drinks myself.  A bunch of us were there including Sarah, a 21 year old Swiss girl.  I started chatting with her about where she was from and getting to know her better.  Her english isn’t great, but isn’t bad and she doesn’t really speak it much in Switzerland.  She lives up in the mountains near Matterhorn and told me I should come skiing there.  Sure, I should just go to the most expensive place in the world to ski in Switzerland and ski 10000 foot mountains when I’m used to 3000 footers at Stratton in Vermont.  She said there are plenty of baby slopes but I reckon those beginner slopes are pretty challenging.  We will see you never know.  If I can get my pro bono requirement done before the semester maybe i’ll flight over there and hit up the slopes, one never knows with me!

The wind was really blowing and I walked back to the tents with Sarah and Linda.  Linda is also from Switzerland, the same age as Sarah.  They met in University two years ago and have become good friends since.  They called each other “new” best friends since they just met and clicked pretty well.  The night was really miserable.  The tents were blowing all over the place, in fact when I got back to my tent, it was half collapsed on the floor becuase the wind was blowing so strong.  I was really miserable, with all the dirt and dust blowing all over the place that I actually just slept on the mattress in all of my clothing including my sneakers and sucked it up.  I wasn’t feeling too hot and must have been worn down from the extremely early mornings and lack of sleep.

After lunch we packed up the truck and headed for fish river canyon.  To get to fish river canyon we had to cross in to Namibia and this would mean that I would be going to country number 37.  I was very excited.  We first had to go to the departure point in South Africa, made sure we got stamped out and then proceeded to the Namibia border.  When we got to the Namibia border, Jabu our guide made it seem like they would be so strict.  I was willing to take my chance and I wore my bauge and multi brown colored lungi, which looks like a dress.  I got my stamp and stared at it for a few moments. Every time I get a new stamp I get a real sense of accomplishment.   Even when I don’t get a stamp like Kuwait, but get to go a country even for a few hours, I still love it, I don’t care if I don’t get out of the airport.  My rule is simple.  If you touch ground you are there and it is checked off!

We stopped along the side of the road to see a few animals, our first animals traveling.  We saw a weaver bird make a huge nest in the tree, ostriches, and sprinboks.  Later on we stopped for  lunch along the side of the road with pretty scenery.  We broke out the football and kicked it around for a while.  Lunch was sandwiches and the weather wasn’t that bad.  The ride continued and we finally arrived at Fish River Canyon and we had to race to see the sunset.  The sunset was alright, I felt it was a little overrated and I couldn’t get decent photos of the canyon.  We then got back in the bus, arrived at the campsite, put up our tents in the freezing cold and all huddled around the campfire hanging out.

Becca started a game where you have to remember a poem using hand gestures.  For example “one brown hen,” and the gestures was flapping your wings like a hen, or “two running bears,” etc…That killed time before dinner which was a great meal.  The food has been great so far and I have been very surprised.  Don’t worry dad there have been plenty of greens to eat.  Lots of salad and some meals are just veggies prepared in different ways.

I retired early this night and it was a damn cold night.  Thank g-d my sleeping tent is warm, which allows me to enjoy the night.

Mike showed us how to pack up the tent, but I when I was taking out the poles to keep the raincover down, I wasn’t thinking and just pulled them out, then pulled the raincover off leaving the poles to not be found.  I had already lost something even after Jabu told us that whatever we lose comes out of his salary.  I actually think that is a tactic to make us feel guilty, to take care of the things, and not lose them.  But if it is really the case then I will be compensating him for the 40 centimeter, 90 degree angle poles.  Oh one more thing, last night we had like an hour or more orientation meeting where Jabu explained the whole trip to us, and everyone gave a brief introduction.

Anyway so after breakfast, and packing up the trunk it was time to start our 600 kilometer journey , well maybe 500 kilometers to our next stop.  The ride was long and we stopped at several shops along the way.  When we arrived at the camp site we set up our tent and headed straight to the bar.  The campsite was located on the orange river, and I snapped a few photos of the sunset and then went to the bar.  Tonight was a really fun night.  We took a lot of shots as a group, had drinks and got to know one another.  The bar was outside, and it was a little cold but not that bad.  Again Rob snored real loud and I think many other people in other tents heard him.

Stephen and Juliana were splitting the taxi with me which made the cost of it extremely low.  We arrived at Nomad, which was the company running the tour in plenty of time.  This time when I arrived there were two trips leaving that day, one that was all accommodation based, and ours which would be camping for the three weeks.  I was a little nervous at first that there were no young adults on the trip, but after the accommodated tour left, the majority of the kids were around my age give or take 3 years.  I was MUCH happier with my decision to change the tour even though it basically cost me 900 bucks.

After I gave them my health insurance and paid the extremely hefty fuel surcharge which was more than I expected it to be, we had a little meeting with the tours and then grabbed our bags and set off on our journey.  Our guide’s name is Uncle JB.  He has a really long African name, and his father gave him another name and the initials are JB so it is much easier to pronounce.  He is also our cook, guide, father, mother, brother, sister, he can be whoever we want him to be.  He is 27 I believe and has been on the road with Nomad for 7 years.

Our driver’s name is Mike.  He is from Zimbabwe, but says he is from Jamaica.  It is a running joke and it is pretty funny to hear him put on a Jamaican accent.  We also have a guide in training on our trip, which is an extra helping hand but I cannot spell or even pronounce her name.  Our first stop would be the tableview mall.  I think that was it’s name.  Basically we had 1.5 hours to shop around, get some supplies, like food, water and money.  I picked up all three.  I got bandaids, water, food and money.  I also tried to find a pair of sweatpants around but no store seemed to have them.

We ended up waiting about an hour after most of the chores didn’t take much time.  That was quite boring, and we definitely did not need 1.5 hours at this mall.  My seat was in the front sitting sideways along with three other people.  In the middle was a metal table attached to the truck and a cooler which was tied down to the floor of the truck but not bolted.  Uncle JB has a very interesting rule while on the overland trip.  Every time someone calls Marilyn, a bus and not a truck or Marilyn, they pay 1 US dollar.  That is pretty steep and in the end I think we use the money for a little party.

I had already called it a bus twice I think but that was before the groundrules were laid down.  Our ride to the first campsite would be roughly 3 hours or so.  Tonight we were stopping at the Cederberg Mountains.  This is about 600 kilometers from the Namibia border.  We stopped twice for the bathroom and petrol and for most of the trip, six of us played cards on the metal table.  This was a great way to get to know some of the people on the bus.  When we arrived at the campsite it began to rain.  Before we disembarked off the bus, Jabu asked us who wanted to camp.  Of course I was the only person who raised his hand, and everyone gave “ohhhhs and ahhhhs” because it was quite cold out and at the time it was raining.  Jabu asked me if I was sure about the camping and I told him “I came to Africa to camp, if I didn’t want to camp, I’d be sleeping in a hotel right now.”  He said “ok” and later in the day showed me how to put up the tent.

Once we all got settled and had a drink from the campsite’s bar, which was also a small hostel called Gekko Backpacker, seven of us decided to play monopoly.  I ended up lasting a while, but only had one monopoly and no money so I didn’t last that long.  The game ended up taking almost 4.5 hours and Christian from Austria won.  After meeting everyone I think I counted 24 people from 10 different countries.  This is by far and away the most diverse tour I have been on.  Usually it is either all British, Australian, German, Kiwi.  This time we have people from, Australia, Columbia, Germany, Austria, Switerland, England, Ireland, Holland, France, and I am the sole American, which I highly prefer, and the guides are from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

After our late lunch which included chicken hotdogs, Mike and Jabu showed me how to put up the tent and in no time it was up.  It was raining, but the tent was properly sealed with an additional rain cover on top. I hoped that this would be the first and last night that I slept outside in the cold and rain.  The rest of the night was spent getting to know everyone.  I had a few more drinks, played some darts with Stephen, and just hung out.  At the end of the night, I was avoiding heading in to the tent, I played some pool with my would-be roommate Rob, and then sat at the bar talking with the bartender Wilhelm.  Wilhelm had spent 13 months based in Kentucky training horses.  He said he got to travel to 48 states in America, which is more than I.  I was quite impressed and he said that if his visa had not run out he would have done it longer.

Well it was getting late and I had to wake up early, so it was time to venture off in to the tent.  It ended up not being as cold as I thought it would be.  I was able to sleep in my underpants, but was woken up by a drunken Rob, and then he kept me up from 4am on because he is an incredible snorer.  I even had my earplugs in but his snoring pushed right through them like Mom and Dad snoring.  I realized that I would probably be tentmates with him for the next three weeks and would have to suck it up.  He’s a real cool kid and I think the next three weeks will be awesome.

After food we all walked around the mall.  I ended up buying two really cool shirts, one from billabong that says “billabong Capetown” and the other from Element that says “cape town, south africa element.”  I also bought a really sweet pair of flip flops from a company called Kustom.  I had a pair of those when I went to Australia, but they wore down to nothing several years later and my feet were never blessed with those luscious soles again until now.  Rusty and I initially wanted to see a movie, but the times and what were playing did not work out, so we bid adieu to Helen and Helen and took a taxi to Long Street to check it out.  We walked up it a bit in to a surf shop with a heavy discount on a large selection of their inventory but I didn’t buy anything.  We then stopped and both got nice haircuts.  I am quite pleased with mine and it was not that much money and the lady who cut it was nice.  We then went in to another surf shop where I bought Haviana’s that are green and say “South Africa” down them.  Next to a brand called “Rainbow’s”, this brand Haviana is my second favorite flip flop to wear.  I also had bought a pair from Australia, but in college when we stormed the basketball court after beating UCONN my senior year, I lost them in the mess of it all.

After the surf shop Rusty and I grabbed a pint of Peroni at the Dubliner where a bunch of us went several nights ago.  After the pint we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel.  I hung out for a bit, had a few hard cider’s, cooked my leftover lamb chops and mushrooms.  This time I used worcestershire sauce instead of the balsamic and it was quite good, but I think I used just a little bit too much garlic.  After dinner I played one game of pool, took a quick power nap, because I didn’t want to go to sleep at 930pm and have just bummed around the hostel enjoying my final night here.  Very rarely in my travels over the past 5 years have I spent this much time in place and one hostel.  I enjoyed it, and got a chance to meet people for more than one night and really bond and connect with them.  Now I have more people to stay with and meet again in the future.

Tomorrow I have to get up bright and early at 7am, make sure everything is packed up, that I haven’t left anything behind and take a cab with Stephen and Juliana to the departure point for the second time in 4 days.  This time I will be leaving for sure don’t you worry!

We spent about twenty five minutes in the museum and our second stop was our first township called Langha.  Here we visited a local illegal beer shop in the alleyway’s of the township.  It was dark, smoky and these women make this low yielding alcohol to sustain their livelihood in the township.  The original purpose was not to make this beer commercially but with the unemployment rate of the township at over 50% what choice do they have.  They poured the beer in to this metal bucket and we all took a taste.  To tell you the truth it tasted horrible.  I took a very little sip and did not enjoy it one bit.  From the beer shop we made our way on wooden planks above dark, black sludge that is supposed to be a road of some sort through the township and in to someone’s home.  Basically in this hostel type living accommodations, it is three family per room.  One family per bed, three to four beds per tiny room.  Some families can be up to eight people and our guide Djonga basically said that it is about 30 rand per month per family plus how much electricity they want to pay for.  He also said that these are popular with single males, as it is cheap, space is tight, but they get a bed for 30 rand a month which is roughly $3.35 per month.  Djonga also told us that a lot of these shared rooms are being converted in to slightly more expensive one family apartments.

After that we went to a local craft shop in the township where I purchased a bracelet made out of Elephant’s hair (don’t worry no animals were harmed in the making of this blog).  We got back in the van and were then taken to a children’s center that was built by the tour operators and others.  There we played with young kids and it was so much fun.  They were jumping on us, I was picking them up, sometimes two of them at a time. They were so happy to see us it was one of the best experiences of my entire trip hands down.  They didn’t speak a word of english, but that wasn’t necessary, since our actions spoke louder than our words.  Our next stop was to see this local medicine man.  The store had no lights, one area had candle light and basically this guy makes herbal local remedies using plants, roots, and animal skin.  He learned the trade through the spirits of his grandfather.  Apparently the ability to learn through spirits skips a generation and therefore skipped his father and went to him.  Truthfully it was nothing special and then it was back in the van for our final stop.  We went to a cooperative shop where local women have the ability to make crafts like handwoven rugs, mats and other sorts of things.  They are given 75% of the money made off of each item they make and 25% goes back to the NGO for supplies and other expenses they have.  It is a great system and here I bought a cool guitar made out of a recycled 7up soda can.  I doubt it will make it home as it is quite fragile but I will try my best to do so.  It went to a good cause so I didn’t mind how bad I was ripped off by it.

The rest of the tour was just driving by the rest of the townships and then we went home.  All of the townships are near the airport in the outskirts of Cape Town, just what the government and the white people wanted.  The government is trying to knock all the shanty’s and slums down and put up low income housing so your first impression of Cape town aren’t these townships.  It is really hard to describe with words these townships.  It is clear what has happened and how segregation between blacks, whites and coloured still very much exists in South Africa.  Oh “coloured” is a term which describes offspring from a white european and a black individual.  They are classified differently from whites, and blacks.  There were separate areas and there still are separate areas for coloureds, whites, and blacks.

I was dropped off on Long Street at my travel agency.  They told me the day before I could come and set up shop to try and get a plane ticket home.  After about two hours on the phone with Etihad airways and another travel agency I was able to secure a ticket home.  Unfortunately I was NOT able to get a refund on my previous ticket for some reason, and was forced to buy a one way ticket home for 6950 rand.  It is too painful to say in US dollars so you can convert it if you like.  To finalize the ticket I had to go to Flight Centre the travel agency and fill out some forms.  Of course it started to rain which made my life that much harder.  It ended up being about a fifteen minute walk since I wasn’t quite sure where to go and where I was.  I hadn’t spent much time in the centre of Cape Town so I had to do my best to find the place.  At around 315pm I got a taxi, who ripped me off, because I didn’t use a metered taxi, back to the hostel just in time to say goodbye to my new friend Nicola Day from the UK!

After she left, I basically bummed around the hostel the rest of the night.  Had a few drinks, played some ping pong, watched “I am Legend” which a bunch of people from the hostel and went to sleep.

When I got off the phone with him, I went back upstairs and pulled the lady who was in charge aside and explained to her my situation.  I came up with the idea of trying to get on another tour that was not specifically for german translation and family tour which is the one I was booked on.  This time I don’t blame the tour company at all, Detour which is a fantastic travel company located on Long Street in Cape town, because it was just a big miscommunication among everyone.  After some talking, negotiating and moving things around Nomad, the tour operator was able to book me on a tour leaving July 9th, instead of today July 6th.  This meant though that I needed to get a flight home.  Last summer the same thing happened but this time it would come at a much greater price.  I had mom get on the horn with my airline Etihad and basically there were no flights the month of August back to New York at my economy level ticket.  The prices are really inexpensive so they are hard to come by and sell out quick.  Anyway as long as I was on a better tour I was fine and would work out getting a ticket back home tomorrow.

I took a taxi in the pouring rain with all my stuff back to Big Blue and when I returned I said “I’m baaaackk.”  Guido the manager was able to give me my same lower bunk in room 5 and I made myself right back at home.  I like this place, its really homey and cool.  Plus most of my friends here would still be here for a few days so I could enjoy it with them.  After I told about three people my story I got over it and went to this special African Market with David and his girlfriend (who’s name I keep forgetting sorry).  It was only a few minutes away down the hill and make a left near the 2010 Greenpoint World Cup Stadium.  There wasn’t anything that really peeked my interest, especially after Rusty told me that in other countries I will find the same stuff and at cheaper prices.  Funny thing was that we saw our driver that takes people to and from the hostel Peter at the market.  On Sundays when he isn’t driving he has his own stalls.  We looked at them but I didn’t buy much.  I haven’t bought as much as last summer and I am saving it up for the rest of Africa!  After the market we were all hungry so we went across the street because we saw a couple of decent looking restaurants.  We first went to this nice restaurant that was grille and steak place.  I hadn’t had a nice steak in ages so I didn’t mind spending a little for a nice piece of meat.  When we got in the restaurant it was a nice place, white table cloth the whole nine.  We asked to see the menu and then said that we wanted a table for the three.  The host/waiter came back and said “sorry there are no tables available today, maybe tomorrow.”  Clearly we had just been rejected from this restaurant because two thirds of the place was empty!  When we left I went to David and his girlfriend “did we just get rejected from that place?”  I think we were all in awe as to what had happened.  I mean we weren’t dressed to impress but it was early in the day like lunch time 1230 or 1PM and they basically told us to get lost.  We started laughing about it after a few minutes and then found a completely empty Japanese restaurant that looked really good.  It had a solid menu and I ordered some chicken dumplings and a combination of Tuna and Salmon sushi.  Since we are on the coast and the restaurant looked pretty local in terms of who was running it, I was willing to trust the sushi.  I was very happy with my meal and afterwards I picked up some water and soda and made my way back to the hostel.

The rest of the day was really quiet.  I watched some tv, a movie or two and then in the evening Rusty and I went to pick up groceries.  I wanted to get some bread, peanut butter, cheese, juice and whatever else.  You know the basic essentials you need while traveling, stuff that was not easy to find in India.  I ended up getting some lamb chops, fresh mushrooms, gouda cheese, loaf of really good hearty grain whole wheat bread, and a cartoon of apple juice.  When I got back home I made my chops, seasoned them and then used balsamic vinegar to get up all the lamb juices and sauteed my mushrooms in that base, oh and added a little water.  It was delicious!  Gourmet meal.  Afterwards I watched parts of the Wimbledon Tennis Final between Federer and Nadal.  In the end I fell asleep at the rain delay and ended up going to sleep before 10pm.  I had been up so early and up late the night before that I couldn’t make it any longer.  It was nice to get to bed early but yet again I would have to be up early as I was going on a Township tour of Cape Town, South Afrika

We left at 915am and picked up a bunch of people. I think the tour had 16 total. It was us five from the hostel, 6 irish kids traveling together and two other couples from random hostels. Our driver and guide was named Stephen and he was cool. When we got to our first winery it was before 11am and I had six tastings! He gave us a mini crash course in tasting wine and the basics, which I found really helpful and then we were on our own. I am not going to go through all the wines I had, but after the wine tasting this particular winery had amazing cheese. Soft cheese, gouda (goat cheese?), and cheese with cranberries mixed in and all this wonderful cheese. Now I’m by no means a huge cheese fan, but it was darn good.

Overall the wineries were great. We went to five in all, and in one of them stopped to eat a decent lunch. I was craving food by the time lunch rolled around so I was thankful for the food. The last winery we went to called Spier had a cheetah rehabilitation center as well as an eagle one. I paid to get in to both and actually had the chance to hold a huge live eagle! It was great. I snapped several photos and then went to the place to have my final wine tasting. I think in all I had roughly 25 tastings. They glasses were small so it wasn’t that much alcohol don’t worry gang. During the trips to the different wineries our driver played like dance music and music to keep us awake and having a good time, which we all had. We got back to Cape Town at around 5pm or later. I played some pool with Gile and then Rusty and I went to a sandwich shop for dinner. I had a tuna melt and he had a soup and sandwich combo. It was a healthy, organic type food shop and it was good. We came back and then I started to update my blog which is what I am doing now. I will probably play some more pool, pack up my stuff and then maybe go out for a big night. I can always try to sleep on the bus tomorrow and anyway I haven’t had a big night out since Mumbai. Also I want to tell everyone that updating my blog will probably be very scarce the rest of my trip. I will be keeping a journal by hand that my mom scrapbooked for me and will update it when I can. Realistically when I get back to Jo’burg and have sometime there I’ll find an internet shop and try to update the camping trip in groups of 4-5 days at a time. As everyone knows these entries take my awhile so hang in there and at the very least it will be updated when I get back home in August.

Anyway after I relaxed a bit from the wine tour, a bunch of us hung out at the Hostel bar.  I played ping pong with David, Pedro and then Gyle.  I beat them all of course.  My game with Pedro was intense.  Pedro is awesome, he is 26 and from Rio de Janiero, Brasil and plays poker for a living.  He basically can travel wherever he wants and as long as he can find wireless internet for his laptop he is set.   We all had a few drinks, I didn’t really have much myself as I was really full from the tour.  I gathered everyone and convinced a bunch of us to head out to the famous Long Street.  Long Street in Cape town is basically like a Bourbon street in New Orleans (from what I hear, never been there) or other big cities with a strip of clubs, bars and hostels.  That is what long street here is.  We started at an Irish pub called Dubliner’s and I had to catch up with my drinking from everyone else.  I had a beer, then started drinking a hard cider called Savanna.  It is native to South Africa and basically I used to drink it in college until they stopped importing it to America.  When I saw it for the first time I had to email my friend Grossman to find out if this was one, which in fact it was!  I was in heaven as it is so good and I love it.  Dubliner’s was nice but really crowded and not really my scene.  It had a decent live band and husband and wife duo that sang pretty famous songs ranging in year and genre.

At around 130am or so, we left Dubliner’s and headed to a “club” called Jo’burg that was suggested by Pedro.  Being from Rio I figured I would trust his judgment in picking a club, since there are so many in Cape Town.  Well his judgment sucked, the place wasn’t very nice and at around 330am I left with Rusty.  We went next door to a place that had Mediterranean food.  I got a beef sharwarma in a pita.  It was NOT as good as the Middle East I can tell you that, and the next morning I was definitely feeling it.  After we scarfed down our food we had to bargain for a taxi which I managed to do a little bit.  Since it is late it is hard to get a driver to turn on the meter.  Lots of people, late at night, equals a bad combo for us.  I definitely could have harassed several more drivers but Rusty wanted to get home so I settled on one of the first driver’s we bargained with.

We got back pretty late, and I had to wake up at 7am to leave the hostel and head to the departure point for my overland tour…or so I thought?

The movie was decent.  I enjoy big action blockbuster movies and Will Smith is the man.  After the movie I tried to find our way out of the mall and after 15 minutes we ended up back at the movie theater!  I had taken us in a circle.  Before I led us on this journey I warned him that my sense of direction was terrible.  After I failed in the attempt to get us out of the mall he took over and we eventually found our way out and back to the hostel.  When we got back to the hostel we wanted to see what people were doing.  Since Dana, Renatta, Sophia, Rusty and I decided to do the famous Stollenbosch wine tour tomorrow, we all thought that we should stay in and not have a big night.  I was perfectly fine with that.  The rest of the night we played pool, and hung out in the bar with some light drinking.  I went to bed again quite early because either way I had to get up early tomorrow.  Either was going to Robben Island (which I highly doubted because of the wind and weather), or at 915am I was going on the wine tour with the gang.  Inside I hoped that the Robben Island tours would be canceled and that I could do the wine tour instead.