Dawn of New Adventures: There and Back Again 19/12 - 21/12

 Once we returned to the lodge, our team had a lot of work facing us.  We still had to finish our Executive Summary and our website, which most of the other groups already had completed.  We also took an hour in the afternoon to debrief as a project centre on our experiences.  I was fairly stressed.  Zach and I had booked our plane tickets for the first possible time we could leave, 3 pm on Friday, and were regretting the decision to be the first ones to leave.

 As I’ve mentioned before, Cape Town is very westernized, so much so that you have to go out of your way to find cultural food.  I had been hoping to spend my last dinner in Cape Town at an Ethiopian restaurant I had heard about.  However with all the writing left to do, I would have been lucky to get a break to run to Steers (fast food burgers, no ketchup).  My teammates knew of my dinner desires, and encouraged me to keep my dinner plans.  I resisted and continued writing in a quiet spot outside.  Before I knew it, the other ten guys in the project centre came out, shut my laptop, and forced me with them to the restaurant.  I was touched.  The food was delicious, a tasty final African experience.

We returned to the lodge two hours later, and I got back to work.  The generosity of our fellow students was not over.  Nearly everyone stopped by the table where we were working asking how they could help.  Three tech-savvy guys sat down with their laptops and insisted on formatting our website for us while we produced more content for them to upload.  I was overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity, and by their kind assistance. 

Finally we were able to convince them that there was nothing else they could do while we were still writing, and insisted they resume their evening celebratory plans.  Our advisor Scott stopped by several times to make edits to our work.  He left around midnight after another round of revisions, and told us to call him, regardless of the hour when we were finished.

My goal was 3 am.  One more item on my Cape Town bucket list was to climb Lion’s Head, the only mountain of the skyline I had not traversed.  I was told it was a relatively easy hike, one which several people had done in the dark to watch the sunrise from the top of the mountain.  By leaving at 3:30, we could have easily made it in time for the view.

However it was not to be.  We finished our draft at 4, called our advisor, who came over promptly.  By 4:30 he had finished looking it over with only minor fixes, and told us to call it a night.  As we were chatting, we mentioned the plan to climb Lion’s Head, which now seemed unlikely to occur.  Scott left, and a minute later returned with an idea – he offered to drive us to Signal Hill, a location with which we were quite familiar at this point, to watch the sunrise.  Morgan and I accepted his offer.  So we did.

Enviro Loo toilets

We reached the top, and saw the Enviro Loos, laughing at our obsession with toilets, imagining them in Langrug hopefully a few months from now.  We walked around, and found a good spot to watch the sunrise. It was very peaceful. I looked out across the city I had the privilege to call my home for two months.  Cape Town is without a doubt the most beautiful city I have every seen and probably will see.  We stood in silence, occasionally providing reflective comments on our experience.  It was quite a bonding experience, in case we hadn’t gotten close enough in the last few weeks.

My last sunrise on Cape Town

photo courtesy of nice strangers at top of Signal Hill

Eventually we got in the car, drove back to the lodge, and said goodbye to Scott.  It was around 6 am.  I didn’t have to be to the airport until 1 pm.  I still had time to climb Lion’s Head.  My friend Lucine was the only one interested in hiking with me, and was willing to leave whenever we were finished writing.  I woke her up, and we agreed to leave at 8.  I took an hour nap, and left to climb Lion’s Head.

scaling Lion's Head

Lion’s Head is definitely the most fun hike I have done.  There are points where you have to climb with your hands, with metal handholds built into the rock to make it easier.   I was happy for the company, and made it up the mountain in reasonable time.  The view was as breathtaking as ever, and provided a great vantage point to see both the ocean and the cit  I looked at Devil’s Peak, Table Mountain, and Signal Hill where I had stood recently before.  I gazed at the horizon, where I soon would be. 

Signal Hill from Lion's Head

Photo courtesy of Lucine

We made our way down the mountain, back to the lodge where I showered, packed and said my goodbyes.  It seems like it happened so fast, because before I knew it Zach and I were at the airport and then on the plane flying home. Travelling west at night, we were in darkness most of the time.  I stepped off the plane, and walked on through the glass hallways of JFK International.  I saw the sun rising over New York, the same sun that I had last seen rising over Cape Town nearly 30 hours ago.  My mind was racing from all that had happened, in disbelief that I had gone to Africa and back and was finally home, where my family was praying for my safety and my girlfriend waiting with open arms at the terminal.