coveringthecape

Climbing (and Rocklands)

Climbing is a major part of my life here. OR at least it is now. During the first part of this semester, I was so distracted by South Africa that I often forgot about climbing. There was just so much to experience and so many wonderful people to meet. Climbing is usually my escape, but here I don’t have anything to escape from.

I started to get serious about my climbing again, just as soon as I planned another climbing trip.  But this time I don’t this I’m escaping from anything. Rather, climbing is an entrance into another experience and another community in South Africa. And I’ve met so many amazing people and seen so many beautiful places than I wouldn’t have otherwise seen.

Last weekend I finally got to do the one thing I had on my to-do list for South Africa (prior to coming here). I climbed at Rocklands. To anyone who doesn’t climb, this probably doesn’t mean anything to you. Just open land full of lots of little rock. Cool. Those are everywhere, right?

Yes. But the rock at Rocklands is unique. Hard bright red and orange sandstone (or technically, as the climber geologist corrected me, quartzite).

It helped that the weather was spectacular, the climbers so fun, and the landscapes absolutely stunning. Each second felt like a still out of all the climbing films I had seen about Rockland. My climbing dreams were becoming real.

I climbed well at Rocklands and since the trip, I’ve become re-obsessed with climbing.

I went climbing outside again today, at the base of Table Mountain. Though the rock is nothing like Rocklands, the view is spectacular, the climbs interesting, and even though I wasn’t feeling strong, I climbed the most difficult climb (in terms of universally-applied technical grade, not subjective personal difficulty) I’ve ever climbed outside. Climbing cures any sickness.

You probably wouldn’t know, but I am going to school here. Between climbing and seeing friends and exploring in general, I do a fair amount of work. I’m just finishing up a major research project that’s basically a mini thesis- it’ll end up being 40 or so pages.

As soon as that’s done and I take a couple finals, the idea of going home is going to become very real. It’s strange to imagine that this place that I can nearly call home, where I’m meeting more and more people every day, and really becoming part of the community, will cease to exist in my everyday life back home. Hm.  

HOME (in Cape Town)

I just got home late last night from a trip so mind-boggling that I don’t want to do it injustice by trying to label it with adjectives or sum it up in a couple words. I’ll let my photos do the talking. 

I’m trying to get back in the swing of things (i.e. catch up on the massive amount of work that accumulated while I was gone- and do some much-needed laundry- and buy some shampoo too get rid of my dreads), but I’ll try to post some highlights ASAP. I’ll post a more extensive album on fb, so check there too. 

It’s good to be back!

Caving

Today wasn’t any more special than any other day (because each night I declare that the day was “the best day ever”), but I’ll share it with you to give you a taste of my daily life here. I woke up early to do some work while I waited for Abe to get out of class so we could begin the adventure we had planned. Usually, I climb on Fridays, but since there was quite a bit of rain, the trip was cancelled and Abe and I decided to go caving instead.

There’s an extensive cave system in the Silvermine area (the mountains above Muizenberg, where I surf). Some quick online research led me to Boomslang Cave, a big cave (500m long) full of large grottos, dead-ends, and bats. The website warned of the dangers of caving and advised against entering Boomslang without a guide, long pants, a headlamp, a backup torch, food, and a full day.

We knew we wouldn’t be able to start our hike until later in the afternoon because we had planned to meet with a local fisherman, so we sidelined the caving adventure until Saturday morning.

We headed to the Kalk Bay harbor to meet with Mervyn Lewis, a fishermen who learned we were environmental studies majors, proclaimed he “loved environmentals,” and told us we had to come out on his boat. We had exchanged numbers sometime last week and he’d been calling us ever since. Mervyn was out on his boat when we got to the harbor, so we spent some time watching the fishermen haul in their loads to sell to the fishmongers. The fishermen’s haul today was big because of the rainy weather- and the fish all looked fresh and delicious.  The only thing that kept me from buying more fish was the fact that I already have two fish waiting for me in the freezer.

After witnessing the fish sales and watching the seals play in the harbor, waiting for fish, we decided to check out the hike up to the caves, just to suss out the approach before our trip the next day.

Well, we made good time and got up to the top of the mountain with plenty of daylight to spare. So of course we had to check out the caves. After checking out some small caves in the area, we made our way into Boomslang. It was just as cool as expected: full of twisting corridors, promising paths that led to dead-ends, huge catherderal-like grottos, and LOTS of screeching bats. We had a great time and were sad to see the daylight after our army-crawl exit from the cave.

Now, I’m back home and about to braai up some cape salmon, curl up with naartjie (the cat), and see where else this day takes me.

I’ll post some photos as soon as I get the chance, but in the meantime, here’s a map of the cave:

http://cpss.caving.org.za/wp-content/uploads/Survey/Boomslang%20Cave%20-%201982_December_28%20(2000%20Edition).gif