cape town, pt. 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v&a waterfront

one saturday we got to cape town bit late for coffee, all (good) coffeeshops close at 2pm on saturday. the only choice seemed to be going to the v&a waterfront which is pretty much one big shopping centre which happens to have one nice food shop / cafe (i was outrageously happy to see they were selling home made ginger beer as i used to make it myself). what we forgot about was that there was a big mountain bike race starting next sunday and there were a few events at the waterfront surrounding that - including some bike trial stuff. the guy on the slackline tho... yeah, he was good, but with the yellow t-shirt, sunglasses and a constant smile he just looked like an advertisment.

 

 

it was all just one big fucking shameless plug for the three stripes brand really, but i've been hanging out with some kids doing bike trials back in primary school and hopping on and off stairs and benches in the neighbourhood back then is my favourite bicycle-related memory.

 

 

 

 

 

clifton beach

clifton beach #4. posh place. quite a few people with cameras (big dslr's that is) who seemed to be just taking pictures of random people on the beach, haven't seen that before...

 

world naked bike ride

the first edition of world naked bike ride in cape town was great! got into some minor trouble with trying to go to the city centre with bikes - no, you can't take them with you on the train... fortunately after a few minutes of talking to security we managed to blag a blessing for our 'bulky baggage' additional tickets and got to prestwich memorial 10 minutes before the start.
more info on wnbc here (tacky rainbow coloured website - you have been warned)
and about the capetonian chapter here and here.

muizenberg peak

muizenberg literally means mouse mountain. the peak was covered with a perpetual cloud for the vast majority of the time so after two days of clear skies over the mountains i decided to walk to the top.

 

 

woke up a little bit too late and the perpetual cloud was yet again on and off the top every few minutes but decided to go anyway. only realised how sunny it is (noon-ish) when i stopped for a short break and got blinded for a while by salt in the sweat flooding
my forehead :)

 

 

it was a good idea to hike regardless. i was wondering how does it feel from the perspective on the peak when you're in and out of a cloud every few seconds/minutes... the clouds did seem to fade quite a bit once i got to the top though (and were nowhere to be seen once i got back). one of the windiest places i've ever been to, little bits of cloud zooming past seemingly like past a plane that's just taking off.

nothing puts your local geography in order like a birds eye view too - public transport makes you feel like all the areas are more separated but it is one enormous city stretching from table bay to false bay. the long straight line you can see in the photo above is main road, stretching all the way to the centre of cape town through the southern suburbs for about 25km and then almost double that via fishhoek and simon's town all the way to smitswinkel bay where the road turns around and the gated southernmost part of the cape point section of table mountain national park begins.

 

 

boulders beach