Thursday, May 29th:

Today I visited the south-western most point on the African continent. It sounds unreal to say that because most of the important people in my life will never have an experience like that. Today made me realize how lucky I am to have a family that loves and supports me in countless ways in my life. In my family, I'd like to say I'm the most traveled and most likely to do something on my own like this. But no matter where I go I'll never be able to experience the world; I'm only sampling from an endless buffet of culture. However, I'm grateful for whatever learning is done along the way.

The South African Travel Corporation organized a tour of Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point for us today. We boarded a shuttel early morning then drove the 2 hours around the Western cape. Along the way, Audrey, one of the guides, explained a bit of history of the Cape, its people, and its (somewhat) resiliant rebounds from Apartheid. Also along with the SATC were Dupee (spelling?) the driver and Siviwe - resident comic relief. As we drove along the Cape we began to see why Cape Town is considered by some to be Britain - not Africa.

Side: On the way from New York to Dakar I was sitting across from an older couple from Johannesburg. Maryam, a girl in our group, got to talking with the couple and the gentleman mentioned that although Cape Town may be in South Africa, he considers the town to be part of the UK. Even being an American, his comment kind of offended me and others in the group near us. He basically tossed aside the last century of Cape Town's history. This week, especially, we experienced what makes South Africa's history so rich by visiting the places we did. To neglect Cape Town seems ludacrous.

We drove through a wealthier part of Cape Town called Bantry Bay, where apartments go for around R5 000 per month -- which is around $700 per month. Considering rent in Minneapolis everyone on the trip started to get ideas. Audrey mentioned that there's a type of festival every year in the area where renters will sublet their places for 2 weeks and make enough Rand to fulfill rent for the next half year or something like that. Regardless - sounded like a great idea to everyone. We stopped in Bantry Bay at Maiden's Cove - this place has to be the source of millions of post cards out there.

It was a little cloudy at the time (like most days in South Africa during winter) but normally there would be a massive mountain range in the background. We then continued down the coastline to Bay Harbour where we boarded a boat that reminded me of The Deadliest Catch. The weather was fine leaving the harbour but not 10 minutes into the ride to Seal Colony it began to rain like HELL. I'm surprised no one flipped over the edge of that boat from the waves. We made it into the hull just in time to spare some dry clothes. There were hundreds of seals everywhere. My pictures suck from the boat ride so imagine a seal and you've got the idea.

Upon arrival in the harbour we boarded the shuttel to Simons Town to see the African penguins. One wouldn't associate Africa with penguins, but it's actually a tourist destination to come to Simons Town where hundreds of penguins roam about. We saw a couple trip over branches which made the trip worthwhile.

We then had lunch at a nice restaurant called the Seaforth. I'm trying to eat a lot of the typical South African cuisene so I had Hake and chips, which is a white fish similar to haddock - and chips here are french fries...

We then continued our way to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Once there, we were allowed to walk pretty much where ever we wanted. As we were walking along the path which goes straight to the point, Jesse, David, and I detoured and walked down a few hundred wooden steps to a absent of ANY footprints. We were warned that we shouldn't go near the water because just last month an American tourist decided to go for a swim and the rip tides sucked him under they never found him. So needless to say were were pretty cautious. The beach seemed ot be the windiest place on earth at the time - not to mention the sheer magnitude of the waves. The rest of our group saw us down on the beach so they joined us.

That's a pic from on top the point. On the pic, imagine us standing on top towards the upper-right area. We noticed some storm clouds so we climbed back up to continue down the path to the point. Immediately it started pouring again - raining truly horizontally from the wind - and everyone was drenched. The point was unbelieveable. Everwhere you turned was ocean. Indian Ocean to the left, Atlantic on the right, and Antartica 800km away straight ahead. It was definitely a moment to remember because now someone on the trip mentioned we finally have a cool "unknown fact" about ourselves to say during icebreakers and whatnot: I've been to the south-western most point in Africa (and mooned Antartica). Solid fact I'd think.

Soaking wet and tired, we made our way down the mountain and back to the shuttel. The uncomfortable ride home was tolerable considering what we've just seen. Today was yet another tourist excursion that masked what is to come next week during Township home stays.