Cape Town: Friday, Dec. 4

Day 5: Completely at peace

Going to new heights

Today was an extremely special day for me. I overcame a lot and ended the day a better and stronger person. I am so thankful for today.

10:00am: Started the day at the Waterfront exchanging money and picking up a few essential items.

10:45am: Arrive at botanical gardens at the base of Table Mountain. Dalene (one of our hosts) tells us this is the “easy” hike up the mountain. Only about two hours to the top. No problem.

10:50am: Talk to the lady at the information desk at botanical gardens who says she can do this hike no problem, so people like us (she was about 30 years our elder) should have no problem. She gave us a map and directions. “Start here and then head toward Skeleton Gorge.” Us: “Why is it called skeleton gorge”? Info lady (with a completely straight face): “We lost some tourists there years ago.” We laugh. She laughs … but doesn’t say “just kidding.” Hmmmm. She also warns us there are ladders and chains along the way. What?

11:00am: Set out on our hike – Susan, Chad, Ryan and me.

Note: Times from here on out are estimates only. Could hardly see the watch through the sweat dripping from my forehead for heaven’s sake.

11:05am: Exhausted from our hike. Not sure how we’re going to make it two hours.

11:25pm: Hiking through a beautiful rainforest-esque gorge with beautiful plans and a stream surrounding us. While beautiful, the hike is tough. By this point, we were all drenched in sweat … since we decided to start at nearly the hottest point of the day.

11:30pm: Come across a native hiker who tells us we are 60% of the way through the most difficult part, which was good because we needed a pep talk since the ladders were the next thing on our route. We climbed like 10 sets of ladders. I was so glad they were there so I didn’t have to scale the rocks, which would have sucked.

12:00pm: Finally made it out of the rainforest and started to see some gorgeous views. Really gorgeous views. Thought we were at least half way through the hike.

1:00pm: Continued hiking. Still thought we were half way through. Stopped to enjoy more gorgeous views.

2:00pm: Finally reached the highest point on the mountain. Threw a rock on the pile of rocks. Met Ryan Wakefield from Texas. He’s been in South Africa for six months on mission work and already has a South African accent, which I thought was so crazy.

2:15pm: Could see our destination and realized it was still a ways off. We thought we were at the halfway point for a long time.

3:00pm: Success!! Crawled to the café for water.

Editor’s note: We started this hike thinking we were on the two hour trail and upon arriving at our destination, were disappointed in ourselves that it took us four hours. So we got a map and realized we started at like the furthest point on the back side of the mountain and climbed up and over and then all the way across the top of the mountain (which is “flat” like a table, hence the name, Table Mountain).

It was a truly amazing experience. I’m usually a pretty scared hiker, especially when it gets difficult, but I did not find myself scared for one single moment. I was with great people and the views were just so beautiful, it was impossible to be anything but happy and peaceful. It changed me in more ways than I think I realize at this point. I can’t wait to bring my daughter to experience this someday.

Celebrating Christmas

Tonight we had Christmas dinner with our host YMCA. Dinner included staff, Board members and their families. It was fun to see how they celebrate. The menu included lamb, pork and chicken, roasted potatoes, carrots, and peas, and a spicy rice as a starter. Dessert was some type of ice cream (I ate a dark chocolate square when I got back to my room instead ;)).

The program was great. We heard from a young man who had committed murder in the number gang and while in prison found Jesus. Now he is a Christian rapper. He sang us a song, “Friends in high places,” that went something like this:

My sleeves are full of aces
I got friends in high places
We talk on a day to day basis

That’s all I remember, but it was about having Jesus on his side. Then we saw two girls from their youth program perform a dance routine that was amazing.