That’s what we’d heard, but no shark attacks at Muizenberg for 5 weeks so we felt safe enough to attempt a day of surfing at the beach. After hiking Lion’s Head for a sunset over the Atlantic on Friday night and then braving Newlands stadium for the only tri-nations game of the year in Cape Town on Saturday, we were definitely prepared for any intruding sharks. Friday night was spectacular to say the least, the only snag in our plans being that the clouds blocked the full moon’s bright light we were counting on to guide our way down the mountain (a small setback). About fifteen of us began hiking around four and made it to the top in an hour or so just in time to enjoy a spectacularly pink (and purple!) sunset. Wine, music and wonderful new friends surely made for the best evening in Africa so far. Most of the group decided to make the trek down in the near-dark after waiting patiently for the moon to light the way, but a few of us were more determined that the full moon would suddenly burst through the cloudy African night sky. After some time and some unsuccessful (but still enjoyable) moon-dances atop the mountain we carefully (and I’m sure hilariously) made our way back down without injury. We stopped often to sit with our iPod player blasting to gaze in awe at the pitch black sky lined with constellations I could never see or begin to understand until now.
jamie climbing up (imagine going down in the dark)
Saturday afternoon was the anticipated Springboks match against the Wallabies and it was phenomenal to see South Africa win. We had standing room tickets so needless to say it was crowded with the craziest fans decked out in green and the South African flag waving high. After watching matches the past few weekends I’ve somewhat begun to understand how rugby works but have also found screaming loud to be very acceptable no matter how confused I am.
Sunday was Women’s Day here in South Africa which is definitely why it needed to be the most exciting and adventurous of the long weekend. Women’s Day! This is seeming more and more like the perfect place for me. We took the thirty or so minute train ride to Muizenberg (a tiny surfing village in False Bay), checked into our backpacker (hostel), and were off to the pristine beach. We rented boards and wetsuits for about $12 for the afternoon and got a 5 minute briefing on the shark siren and how to paddle hard and fast to get in front of the waves and were off into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Surreal? Definitely.
never thought this day would come
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