CapeFOUND

ARRIVAL

Our arrival at Cape Town International Airport was one of the most efficient travel events of our lives. Our checked bag revolved around to us in stride, and our World Cup tickets printed out for us at a kiosk en route to our rental car. After getting lost in the asinine maze of the Frankfurt airport or waiting in kiosks at Johannesburg for an hour because someone requested a vegetarian meal on their flight, the wink and a smile of the airport employees was a welcome change. Well done airport, well done.

Cape Town is so beautiful that cars are filled with oohhs and aahhs while driving in the dark. The city illuminates the sheer granite face of Table Mountain with zillion candle power spotlights at night, and there was a feel of Christmas downtown where colored World Cup lights stretched overhead the wide boulevards.

Oohh . . . Aahh.

Our B&B style hotel had a balcony facing the Atlantic Ocean. In the darkness, we could see the headlights wandering the coast below dark rocky silhouettes and the night carried a warm and salty breeze.

Ahh . . .

DAY 1

The plan for the day was to find some Cameroon attire and see the town during the day, then watch some sort of soccer game at night. We wandered the VA Waterfront and picked out some crafts to buy before returning to Windhoek, and found some Cameroon scarves. We also wandered Long Street with its secret brothels, bars, and backpacker hotels before attending to our growling bellies. We ate in a Thai Restaurant while it was closed and were served by a Dutch man in a T-Shirt and high tops. Despite the bizarre environment, the rumors of amazing food in this city were confirmed.

Oohh!

That evening we hopped a shuttle from Camps Bay to the Cameroon vs. Netherlands Game. Africa vs. Colonial Africa. The fact that we would gain entry to Green Point Stadium was still in question. We applied for tickets on FIFA.com in the last minute sales phase and received an e-mail saying, "Congratulations! Your tickets are subject to these 29 things!"

Oohh?

About a week prior to our alleged game we decided to call FIFA and were told that tickets would be waiting, prompting us to book flights and hotel in a flurry. The FIFA tickets were waiting at the airport, but surely it could all be a practical joke yeah? After being fondled at security, we were beyond the gates. It was true. We were here.

For those of you who have been to Lambeau during hunting season, you know blaze orange is just as, if not more so, prominent as the green and gold. The Dutch travel well, and they were costumed in blaze. We were supporting Africa, and therefore Cameroon, and were certainly in the minority.

The atmosphere was exhilarating. We found ourselves surrounded by dialects from all over the world, the phlegmy Afrikaans, abrupt German, drunky English, frat English of Australia, the warm fuzzy Espanol of Mexico, the debutante Espanol of Argentina, and the varied tongues of the African continent. Costumes of every tournament country were speckled with the deer hunters.

Our seats gave us a birds eye view of the developing play on the pitch, and the energy of the stands. The stadium was beautiful, modern, and efficient, and the beer was Budweiser. The vuvuzellas maintained a constant background noise; they surged in syncopation urging the players, or sudden gains of decibel aligning with the emotions of the fans after a close goal.

Towards match end, an ocean fog slowly filled above the game. We had hoped for a Cameroon win, but it would have only served as icing on the cake.

VA Waterfront

Cameroooooooon

Camerooooooooooooooooooooooooon

Atmosphere

Sunset From the Hotel Before the Game

Moonrise in Camps Bay Before the Game

Green Point Stadiums During Deer Season

The Tickets Were Real

Cameroon

2010 World Cup 2nd Place Team

The Dutch

Corner Kick

DAY 2

The plan for day 2 was to hike Table Mountain but the fog from the night before had thickened, so we thought, "Lets just drink instead."

We took the long route to wine country, wandering through coastal towns harboring fishing boats along streets adorned with colonial buildings filled with antiques, old books, and steaming seafood soup. We borrowed a book from the B&B and picked wineries based on the pictures. We started at Neetlingshof winery where the long reaching trees still misted just before the inland fog burned away. We drank lots of reds and tasted mulled wine better than Simon's at Christmas.

We also visited the oldest winery in the region, Boschendal in the Franschhoek region. While sipping and feeling grand at an outside table, Krysta got excited by a flower and bushwacked through a hedge to take pictures scaring the other guests in penny loafers.

The golden valley hides the wineries away in mountain foothills where the wines are crafted. The roads are confusing and force you to wander in and out of shadowy forests where earthy locals give direction.

Not a bad alternative to Table Mountain.

Neetlingshof Entry

Boschendal Winter Vines

Krysta's First Round

Luke's Last

Franschhoek Valley

DAY 3

The plan for day 3 was to hike Table Mountain but the fog gave way to wind. We decided to wander the coastal towns and try some of that soup on our way down to Cape Point where Krysta was certain the Indian Ocean met the Atlantic, and Luke was certain that his wife was certainly wrong.

The point is a windswept peninsula littered with shipwrecks. We pulled over en route to watch kite surfers launch from wave crests and float a hundred feet.

Once in the Cape of Good Hope park we took an offshoot road in hopes of seeing a shipwreck. It required a bit of a walk so we settled for wild Ostrich and Bontebock in the foggy grass. Once at the point parking lot we strolled around the windy pathways that lead to overlooks of dramatic cliffs and sandy beaches. At the top of the paths is a lighthouse and the meeting point of all of the worlds people. The Dutch and the German egged each other on in stern fashion, both still vying for the cup.

The oceans did not however, meet, but the warm currents of the Indian were swirling out there in the frigid Atlantic. Our moment was one of feeling small while staring towards the bottom of the earth, surrounded by the soccer fans of the world.

We did not have seafood soup on our way home, but saw fuzzy men and wandered in and out of antique shops. We filled our bellies with warm coffee and drove the coast in weakening sunlight, stopping around every sheer cliff to take pictures of this amazing coast. Having cheated ourselves from seafood soup, we dined at a restaurant where the menu was under glass on ice.

“Give me some of these, some of that, a couple of those, some naked lady tees, oh and lots of that.”

Coast Picture 1: Sunglasses

Dinosaur

Tourist

The Atlantic Ocean and Indian Currents

Cape of Good Hope Beach

Cape of Good Hope Flower

African Penguins

Coast Picture 2: Dramatic Pose

Coast Picture 3: Screensaver

Coast Picture 4: Windy Sun

Coast Picture 5: Hotel Waves at Sunset

Table Mountain Reflecting Sunset (From Hotel)

DAY 4

The plan for Day 4 was to hike Table Mountain but the wind gave way to . . . a perfect calm day with no clouds. Finally.

In Windhoek, wherever you park you car, a man will come up to you wearing a crossing guard vest and stare at you until you give him a thumbs up. This thumbs up means you will pay him 1 Namibian Dollar ($0.15) to watch you car so nobody breaks in. At Table Mountain, the cost is 30 Rand, and the crossing guard told us it was a mandatory donation. We did not give the oxymoron the money, and started the most beautiful urban hike we know of in the world.

There is an option to stand in a long line of smoking people and take a cable car directly to the top but the high top thai food, sugary wine, market price seafood, and oreo and caramel cupcakes were begging us to take out the fat pants. We therefore took the long route, effectively giving us a private walk through a golden hillside before meeting up with the main trail.

Cape Town is a beautiful city at ground level, but from above, it is spectacular. Vessels glide across the silvery bay at a snails pace, neighborhoods cling to green and granite hillsides, and the 60,000 seat Green Point Stadium looks like a bird's nest. Viewing from the private path, lacking many other hikers, it becomes a silent city.

Eventually the quiet trail merges with the main trail where it becomes a strategic system of passing and resting. The long and straight sunlit path becomes a very steep series of switchbacks into the shadow of the table.

At the top of this push, you emerge out of the shadow and into the light, and a completely flat plain of rock giving you a view all the way down past the soup to the lighthouse point where Germans yell at the Dutch. We lingered here for some time, taking in all 360 degrees of views again in an environment of 100 languages.

Satisfied that the fat pants would stay hidden for another day, we took the cable car down and walked back to our car. We finished our trip at a mall with it's own zip code where Krysta took sympathy on her husband and kept the shopping time to a minimum.

The Quiet Trail

The Silent City

On The Table

Green Point Stadium

The Clinging Neighborhoods

Blog Instructions

Dear blog friends,

Because we miss you, you are required to comment when you read our blog so we can hear your pretty faces. We know we haven't had an entry in awhile, and we promise to try harder if you do.

Love,
Luke & Krysta

Life Before Capetown

Mozambique

Krysta went to the capital city of Mozambique, Maputo, for a CDC Training. While there, she also fell in love with a man named George. The country is treasured for its beaches, people, seafood, among other things. Because she spent all day in a Maputo hotel conference room, she opted to indulge in the people and seafood, saving the beaches for a time when she could enjoy her husband’s doughy physique at her side (Disclaimer, Luke wrote the last sentence).

The seafood of the country is found displayed on wooden benches in street markets off the imperfect sidewalks. It is a candy store of fist sized prawns, succulent calamari, buckets of spitting clams, and fish of all shapes and sizes.

Shapes and Sizes

Fist Sized Prawns

The Spitting Blue Bucket

“Give me some of these, some of that, a couple of those, some naked lady tees, oh and lots of that.”

Enter George, who takes the pounds of fresh ocean fruit down some shadowy alley to re-emerge minutes later with a steaming heap of seafood smothered in garlic, butter, and cilantro.

Mozambique is wonderful.

Krysta's New Love George (Orange)

Hakos Guest Farm

While Krysta was getting a head start in Chicago, Luke opted to get out of town and spend some solitary time in spare Namibia. Because the Landspeeder remained a POS, he chose the Hakos Guest Farm at the Gamsberg Pass, only two hours out and along a familiar dirt road.

En route he experienced his first bribe in a foreign country. At the police checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, the uniformed official asked the smiling tourist, “Where’s mine cold drink?”

The tourist replied, “I have beer . . . is that o.k. sir?” And thus, the first two ice cold beers of the weekend were handed over to the officer and “mine friend” who was standing in the empty guard shed. It was 10:00 a.m.

Desert Turtle

The Hakos Guest Farm is situated in the Badlands just before the pass. It is a working farm where Luke arrived as the sole guest, giving him choice of campsites he was directed to by one of the farm hands. Trails wind throughout the folded hills and mountains, and Luke wandered for a few hours, finding wild zebra, then settling back at the site to watch the sunset alongside a lightning storm. With a fire at his feet with sizzling meat, it sure beat TV. As the storm arrived in earnest, Luke sat in the POS watching the lightning strikes on the hill just before him, beer in the cup holder, laughing like a crazy person.

Stormy Sunset and A Crazy Person

The next day was a full hike to a shadowy notch in the spine of the pass. The provided map was hand drawn and indicated 4x4 tracks, some of which were obvious, most of which were not. Two of the eight hours were filled with trail seeking, backtracking, and trailblazing. It turned out that the playful family that was bellowing at him to come around the riverbed corners was really a family of baboons screaming at him to turn around.

The Notch

Needless to say, Luke fell short of the spine that seemed to rise throughout the day. He ate lunch in its shadows two-thirds of the way up, all the while imagining the baboons staring at him through binoculars laughing like chimpanzees.

During the wood fire, hot water shower, an ancient looking Afrikaans speaking man peaked around the corner to see if Luke knew what he was doing in there. After assuring the man that he had indeed taken showers throughout his life, Luke quickly dried off and had a proper conversation with the charming old feller, both now fully clothed.

The weekend wound down with another meal over the fire at sunset followed by lingering cocktails, and a deep sleep in the cool night.

Sunrise View From Camp

Outapi Immunizations

The CDC welcomed Luke to join Krysta on the monitoring campaign of H1N1 and Polio immunizations in the northern populated Omusati Region of the country. Tethered flags of the prominent political party flutter from the tops of trees here, expressing the strong support from the homes of 40% of the voters in the country. While not as modern as Windhoek, the central cores of the urban centers are fully developed, though the livelihood of the people here is farming.

During our assignment, we had the opportunity to visit the rural villages that hid in the flat palm tree horizons. We were joined by a young professional from the health center who served as our translator. The language here is a slow and considerate tongue in which greetings extend for many minutes. As one of the nurses explained to us, one will ask the wellness of the person, children, relatives, chickens, goats, etc.

We wandered rural dirt roads to the grass hut villages, seeking children requiring immunization, finding curious, weary, happy, relaxed, and peaceful villagers who pointed us in the right direction. We ate half a dozen eggs a day each with fried chicken and fish. We worked alongside a passionate and determined nursing staff who took the news of any missed vaccination to heart with frustration followed by the immediate action of re-routing immunization teams to attend to those missed.

In the evenings, as we compiled data on our laptop while cockroaches scurried across a large shared desk, the staff had engaging conversations in an Oshiwambo dialect, full of laughter, concern, and passion.

Kunene River Sunset (On Different Assignment)

Dan Viljoen

We’ve befriended a likeminded couple here that loves hiking and camping so we’ve found ourselves trying to maximize our time together as they will be leaving the country before the end of the year. We chose a spot just outside of town one weekend, a once nice lodge now shut down and manned by three workers to point people onto the trails.

The four of us strolled the simple hilly countryside just outside of Windhoek where vistas occasionally provided views of the city. The reason for disputes of recent city population estimates was visible from these vantage points. The informal settlements that blanket out north and west is evident by the increased density of shacks cut by narrow wandering gravel drives.

Our Likeminded Friends William and Sonia

We hiked along a riverbed for the latter half of the day, got a bit lost, but arrived safe and sound for some homemade hummus prepared by Sonia, who has a passion for preparing natural foods with Indian flair. On the way out, we drove a small game loop, not expecting to see any wildlife so close to the city, then were visually bombarded by Wildebeest, Oryx, Impala, Warthogs, Giraffe and Zebra.

A nice weekend close to town.

Wildebeest

Life

It was therapeutic to have a trip home to see our family and friends. Skype is a technological marvel but is no substitute for the embrace of family, rolling around on the floor with nieces and nephews, or sharing dinner or a pint across the table with friends. Congrats again Justin and Leslie - you sure know how to throw a party. A beautiful new niece was also born during the time we were home; great timing all around.

Weekly life moves swiftly. Krysta’s prison project is beginning to gain momentum and the work in general maintains its challenging and enlightening character. Luke now has a gig in the morning as a volunteer project manager for a new building at an orphanage. It is not uncommon to have an orphaned two year old clinging to his leg while walking the site. In the afternoons he teaches math to 5th and 6th graders and tutors on Fridays.

Namibia used to be part of South Africa so let’s just say the energy of the World Cup is like a constant vuvuzela blast in the face. Store owners close shop to perform choreographed dances; every car adorns a flag of support, primarily for South Africa, but certainly Germany, England and Portugal as well; during Bafana Bafana matches, work is cancelled; the Children at the school constantly sing “Woka Woka Eh Eh!”; every game is played on South African Cable, Namibian Public Access, and the Armed Forces Network; the sounds of vuvuzelas echo throughout the neighborhood hills.

We couldn’t wait for Cape Town.

Geography at School