Cape Town

Do you ever have the urge to suddenly hike Cape Town's biggest mountains all in one day? No? Well for some reason the Three Peak challenge called our names, and we were determined to crush it. Nothing like an asthmatic and two amateur hikers taking on what native South Africans don't even like to do for fun. I don't think anyone considered this to be a "fun" experience. It was more of a cross it off the bucket list, prove to everyone that you did it, do it for the title kind of experience. No one enjoys to start their day at 4:45 am but to finish with plenty of time we had to get up before the sun rose. We headed to Devil's Peak in the dark and the rain and discovered that we were 1 km short of where we needed to start. Luckily other hikers guided us to another path that would still get us to the top of Devil's Peak. I wish I could tell you more about the hike but to be honest, it was very dark and I think I blacked out a little. All I know is that we made it to the top and made it back down in time to start Table Mountain way ahead of schedule. Table Mountain had to be the hardest mountain because it was all stone stairs straight up the side of the mountain. After we made it up, we all knew that Lion's Head would be the hardest to finish because our legs were like jelly and our brains were mush. However, we were way ahead of schedule and ended up finishing before we thought we would.

Doing the Three Peak challenge made me realize that I can accomplish any tough physical task that I put my mind to. There was never a time where I doubted that I would not be able to finish the challenge. I felt as if I had already finished before we even started. Climbing all three mountains had to be one of the most rewarding things I've done while in Cape Town and, even though I still can't walk (a week later), I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Cape Town has a number of outdoor activities that one could consider 'dangerous' but a boat to Seal Island is definitely not one of them. Or so I thought. I can tell you that I was not really looking to pull a Titanic moment when the Captain said that the waves were quite rough but we were going to continue on anyway. There was a slight moment when I realized that this was the actual ocean we were going into, not little old Lake Michigan with its dinky little waves. I don’t think I’ve felt as much joy as the moment that the Captain told us that it was too rough to continue on and that we’d have to turn around. However, the day continued to throw some intense curve balls our way in addition to the previous rollercoaster waves we encountered. 40km/h winds at the Cape of Good Hope are not considered to be a light breeze on any scale and because of that, we were not allowed to hike. Mostly out of fear from our tour guides thinking that we were going to get blown straight off the side of the cliff. To be fair, we aren’t the most graceful people so I could actually see that one happening. We ended the unexpectedly hazardous day watching penguins waddling around the beach, finally out of any accidental natural hazards.