Day eight traveling to Cape Town

DAY EIGHT - FROM HARTENBOS TO CAPE TOWN

ILONA KARNIŁO

As the first week has passed, it was time for Cape Town – which I’ve anticipated the most. It was a long drive from Hartenbos. We’ve stopped at a few spots along the way: Mossel Bay (to send postcards to Poland),  Cape Agulhas – the southernmost tip of Africa where the two oceans meet, and finally, a bay, where a lot of penguins live. Highlight of the day was surely the little creatures waddling along the coast. It was really hard to handle their cuteness.

We arrived in Cape Town just in time for the sunset and the spectacular view of Lion’s Head mountain (which I wanted to climb, but it was not on our agenda). We spent a lot of time searching for a place to eat. The problem was our waentjie, which did not fit into any parking spot. We gave up and decided that our kind hosts are surely going to offer us something to eat.

Mossel Bay

AGATA LEŚNOWOLSKA

So we are finally traveling to Cape Town. At this point I thought Cape Town must be overrated by lazy people. I mean we had been traveling for a week by then and I already saw so many beautiful places, I didn’t think it could get any better (baby, baby, baby).

But we started with sending our postcards in Mossel Bay. I was so excited about the special stamp and, in general, sending postcards from the same place the poor sailors used to do, that I sent one to myself. We were told it would take weeks before they reach their destination, so I even wrote little something to myself. Letter from South African Agata to Polish Agata. The plan was that it reaches me when I’m stagnant and melancholic (like now), I read it and life becomes bearable for a while again. Now, that didn’t happen. What happen was my dad reading my letter to myself and laughing a lot. The one time in the history postal service was too quick.

Ok, so we post the postcards, the weather was amazing, there wasn’t even one cloud in the sky and we first drove to the Cape Agulhas. We went to see the Suthernmost Tip of Africa and the meeting place of two oceans. We also visited the Lighthouse which wasn’t high but the climbing was quite an exercise. When I look at the pictures now I’m astonished by the blueness of the place. The sky is so clear and its colour is so intense it almost looks like an over-photoshoped picture. Now seriously, why is he sky there and I am here?

So the car was also very impressed and it decided it won’t drive anymore. With a little help from its friends it acquired a new will to live and we were able to continue our journey. We visited Chris and Marica Otto the Sponsors near Hermanus Bay, admired their Chinese flag and went on to the next big thing – the penguins.

I’ve seen penguins before. I even met Probably the Oldest African Penguin in the World. But this number of penguins in their natural environment just standing there doing their own penguin thing was stunning. It was difficult to fight the urge to just sit in the middle of their group and strike up a conversation. I mean so many penguins and no one stole one to the car, that kind of restraint must be appreciated.

And then we drove the most picturesque road ever. In my unpoetical way I can say it was beautiful as hell.

From Hartenbos to Cape Town

MICHAŁ MARCINIAK

We are at Cape Agulhas.It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent and the beginning of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It is a strange feeling to be in a place where waters of two oceans meet. We went to the lighthouse but it was a bit challenging to get on top of it. We had to climb a couple of steep ladders to reach the top. A couple of minutes later it turned out that that our van has a flat battery. Perfect! Thanks to collaborative effort we managed to start the engine. It was really nice that some strangers were willing to help us. Another attraction were the penguins, a lot of penguins. We stared at them and we took some pictures. What stuck in my mind was a pair of  penguins hugging. Yes! We are in Cape Town. I can see Table Mountain. We are for the moment at the beach. Table Mountain, beach and sunset- could not be better. Tonight, me and Adrian, we stay with Izak en Elma De Vries. They have a lot of dogs and cats, I already like that place. We ate something, chatted for a while and went to bed because we were really tired.

Cape Agulhas

Little exercise for the Chasers

ADRIAN PTASZYŃSKI

Souther than South itself

Today we are heading straight towards the crown jewel of the Southern world – Cape Town! The anticipation is quite overwhelming, I must say... On the way we stopped at Cape Agulhas, which is the southernmost place to go in the world and remain relatively hot – just Antarctica lies beyond!  There was also a lighthouse there to climb – not a tall one and certainly not in the same league as the yesterday's challenge, but still quite fun! Also related to Antarctica – we saw the cutest colony of penguins from up close. The view when driving along the windy, mountainous path along the Cape coast was so breathtaking that describing it with such vulgar words that are at disposal of the English language, or any human language in prose for that matter, is a sin. I'll just leave a space...

In Cape Town, me and Michal are being hosted at the house of Izak De Vries, our (Tour) Father's friend and colleague back from the times when the Professor was a dean at Venda University (which we only just found out there). We also meet a very interesting person, Simon, whose most interesting traits are his extensive knowledge of China and lack of knowledge how to read.

Betty's Bay

ZUZANNA WALISZEWSKA

The next day we were heading to Cape Town. The beloved Cape Town, that we all dreamt about. On our way, we dropped our postcards in Mosselbay and rushed to “Mother City” (this is actually a fun fact from Wikipedia, so I’m not 100% sure that this is a nickname for Cape Town). Our first stop was at Southernmost Tip of Africa. THAT was something. Standing on the tip of the continent, thousands of kilometres away from Poland. The view was amazing, wonderful, impeccable, extraordinary, just beautiful. While others were taking 84932829842937^th selfie I just stopped for a while, to admire the view and try to memorise as much as possible, just to have this image in my head at home in Poland. As we wanted to go to the next place, Professor realised that our car battery (I’m not a car expert, so I don’t know if it’s a right name for a small black box that makes car drive) is dead. While the rest of the group was pushing our van, I was taking photos of this memorable event.  After a few hours we arrived to the place where we saw THEM. Penguins! They were just walking around or standing and for me it was enough. The cutest creatures in the whole world. I could look at them for hours. Some people may say that’s a childish behaviour, to be amazed by penguins but come on. In Poland, we have deers, bears and boars. Penguins vs some Polish animals. I think the choice is quite easy (penguins, of course!).  It took as another few hours to get to our hosts. Me and Ilona could spend some time with Tildie, our previous lecturer. We talked about our time at university, our plans for future and memories from the first year. 

Finally Cape Town!