Western Cape, South Africa

Well, I'm in the final leg of this journey. I've been in South Africa about a week or so now, mostly in Cape Town, but I've just spent a few nights up in the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek Winelands areas. The first thing I have to say is that this doesn't really seem like the same continent that I've been on for the last few months. It's way more first world - for the most part. There are little things that pop out every now and then that remind you its Africa - like far too many people simply walking down the road miles from anywhere. It is an amazingly beautiful place though.

I'm flying back to SF a week from today and I have to say I'm pretty excited about it. I def feel like I've seen and done a ton of things and I have a much better idea of what this place is all about. I think I made good use of my first few months of unemployment and I'm ready to get back and enjoy some fun in SF with Tully. She was originally going to join me for some version of this final leg of the trip, but she wasn't able to get enough time away from the office to make the ~30 hour flights worth it. I'm heading back a few weeks earlier than planned (but having accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish) and we're gonna hit something a little closer to SF soon (almost anything is closer to SF!). So there may be a few non-Africa posts on here soon...

I may or may not get around to posting again before I head back. If we keep getting a good mix of crappy weather like we have been, maybe I'll get on again, but hopefully I find some things to occupy my time and stay away from the Internet cafes. Its is low season here and there are not many people around...pretty sleepy in general - even in Cape Town.

We were foiled trying to hike up Table Mountain during our 5 days in Cape Town. The 3 pictures here are from the best weather day we had, which still had Table Mountain cloaked in the "tablecloth" of clouds. We hiked nearby Lion's Head instead and got these shots (top to bottom: Camps Bay section of Cape Town with the 12 Apostles behind, the upper part of the City Bowl and some Table Mountain - with and without me).

The final shot is of the little rental car that Purvis and I are cruising around in for the next week with the Franschhoek Valley in the background. Yesterday (when this pic was taken) was nice here, but its shitty again today and we're taking off for some mountain driving and then the coast and hopefully some great white shark cage diving on the way back to Cape Town. It took me a bit to get used to the left-hand driving (including a few high pitched screams from the passenger), but now I'm settled and I'll prob need to do some adjusting when I get back home. Quite a bit more traffic here than on thesouth island of New Zealand, whcih was my only other left-hand drive experience before this.