A week to heal and hang with D

My last post I had just dropped Karina of at the Capetown Airport and was no on my own so it was time for another adventure. Once of the things I hadn't yet seen and always wanted to was Penguins. I had my chance in Australia but never made the effort.

So off I went in search of penguins, which I could find at Boulder's Beach in Simon's Town. I had a brochure that showed some of the roads of Capetown and the surrounds. Having a slightly shoddy memory for the name of the town and figuring since this was a tourist destination that there would be a name on the map "Boulders Beach" and that perhaps it was just off the map since most people said it was 30 minute drive.

I started off by heading in the completely wrong direction up the coast and ended up at driving to table view beach where I took a picture. Eventually, I asked a man at a beach pullout how much farther it was and he set me straight. In total I spent 2.5 hours driving in the wrong direction and back.

Picture: Devil's Peak (left side), Table Mountain (center), Lion's Head (right side)

I finally arrived in Simon's Town at 3.5 hours later and made my way down to the beach. Penguins everywhere! Those guys are hilarious. I love how they walk! One trundled right past me on the beach, only 3 feet away. I soaked my ankle in the Ocean to help with the swelling then rested it up on a rock meditated for about an hour.

Picture: Penguin on Boulder Beach, Simon's Town.

I grabbed lunch, phoned Dion (friend from Wilderness), and started making my way to the highway. It was around 2:45 PM when I set out. After a series of bad calls on which route to take to get to the N2 I really started my journey at around 4:00 PM.

I picked up a hitch hiker on the way through Somerset West. The guy it turns out live about 1 km from Dion and was turning his life around. He had just resolved a dope possession case after 2 years and had broken his Meth addiction which is why he had moved away from Capetown. Really encouraging story and I was glad to give him a ride.

I made it to D's at 8:30 PM in time to have dinner and watch the Euro cup soccer match with him. My ankle was not happy with all the driving but we got the tensor off and it raised nice and high. I was totally exhausted so we both went to bed early.

The next few days was relatively uneventful since I was incapacitated with the ankle so I spent most of it focusing on writing update in the blog. Yes, it does take a fair amount of time to write down the experience of the trip. The entries from Boven to this point took a few days of solid writing to cover so that game my ankle time to heal.

That weekend was Dion's Birthday so we set about celebrating. Saturday, June 28th was the date so we got up and went to see Kung Fu Panda with his friends who had children. The movie was hilarious, it was both beautiful and irreverent, it pointed out how some people mistaken Zen for being seriousness and self discipline. Quite funny and a wonderful message.

That night there was a gathering where a potluck ensued with dancing and talking till just after midnight.

My ankle had been improving and after a week I was walking on it with only a minor limp and no tensor. Much of the swelling had gone out of it.

So on Wednesday July 2nd I went out to do some very easy climbing with a friend of Dion's named Brad. We went to the Tauw river to a park and climbing location called Ebb and Flow. Since this was my first time back after a little over 9 days since I injured it I was definitely going to be cautious as a fall on it at this point could put me out for quite a while.

Neither of us had any topos for the area so I stuck to some easy 5.7ish climb on trad then did a second one that was maybe 5.8. Both climbs were lots of fun and it

Picture: Brad at the top of the 5.7ish climb at Ebb and Flow.

We only did these few climb then retired to Brad's house to spend some time relaxing and catching up with him and his beautiful wife Elaine. Brad is an artist and I also got to see a lot of his work. I was amazing, if I wasn't on this trip and had the ability to carry it with my I would have looked at getting one.

Since my ankle was doing better I decided to do a hike on the beach and take a picture of myself there to send to Karina since she was home and I know misses this place dearly. After breakfast I headed down there to find that there were a pair of Humpback whales just off shore. They were swimming in circles and I could see their tails fins sticking up and there heads. I watch and photographed them and then went down to test the waters to see if I could swim out to them. They were really close to shore.

Picture: Humpback whales slightly left of center at the beach 100 meters from where I was staying.

By the time I had reach the water they had decided it was more fun to move on and had started swimming down the beach. I followed along the shore with my ankle in the water hoping the cold would help it. It didn't take long to lose the whales as they were finish their business and I just enjoyed walking down the beach in the cool water for several hours. In the afternoon I went up to see a 800 year hold Yellow Wood tree and do a hike in the forest that surrounded it.

That night I went out with Dion and friends for a goodbye dinner at Knysa Heads. We all enjoyed some very tasty pizza's and then had a few beer at the local pub before calling it a night.

The next day I took my time packing up and took one last walk on the beach before heading up to George. On the way I stopped to take one last picture of Wilderness to say goodbye.

Picture: Wilderness, on the road from George. Saying goodbye to this beautiful place.

In now time I was on the play flying out of George on my way to Johannesburg to meet up with Bertrand and Michelle friends I had made in Waterval Boven. To see the related photo album for this segment click any of the pictures or here.