560> Waiting for barbarians @ the B9 southern cape of good coping mechanisms | |
Now sumwhere ov'r Africa—Algeria + Nigeria + now Cameroon, traversing the entire length down to the tip. Ended up reading all of Waiting for the Barbarians just cuz there weren't nada to watch sides the 2 episodes of Planet Earth II + its a long frickin' trip w/ nada else to do 'cept look out the window... says Coetzee (thru the old crusty magistrate) «I wanted to do what was right, I wanted to make reparation: I will not deny this decent impulse, however mixed with more questionable motives: there must always be a place for penance and reparation.» ...not so shore we agree tho, yah, racially + historically, shore, hits the «questionable motives» part dat rub us wrong... the chauvinistic abuses of power dat persist in Coetzee's work... make us wonder what real-life isshoes he's exorcising. 3 Dec | Cape Town, South Africa> Arrived late, long immigration lines, got a rental car, remembered to drive on rong (left) side of rode, tho probly the last time we drove was on the left, in Kenya or England... This morning our bedder-½ went off to her conference + we hit the shore, Cape Town aint nada too special, rather modern + B9, intro to Africa 101... its «nice» + all, harbor full of fantsea yachts + condos along the waterfront, reminds us a bit of San Diego, but extremely segregated... white folk eating brunch, yachting, parasailing, etc. while blacks serve on them + do most of the grunt work 4 Dec> Hiked Table mountain... walked all the way thru Cape Town trying to stay on sideroads but eventually had to walk along this big road w/ all these tour busses flocking to Table mtn... soon as we cd we veered off the road up the ridge up the Kloof corner trail. At the base of the cliff saw a chain dangling, about 30 feet of verticul that u had to batman up... started to do it + seemed doable, but going up is 1 thing + going down another... dint know what to xpect aft'r dat (googling now seems a bit dangerous w/o ropes). Continued traversing along the base tward the tram, then saw an elephant trail w/ a cuntinuous stream of folks coming up, Germanic bro-types w/ shirts off, ol people w/ ski poles, Indians, Chinese, etc...the trail we was on looked like it was gunna hook w/ dat 1 + the prospect of hiking behind buttloads of obnoxious tourists dint seem like mush fun so we almost bailed a retreat... but rite where the trails met, another 1 shot up called the «India Venster» route w/ signs that warned of danger + strenuous exposure so we we took dat way... werent so bad, scrambin' strait up using hands as mush as feet, a few pts was dicey + they putt ladders + chains to help up the cliff... @ first dint use them cuz we dont like trusting such manmade things but they put them «staples» rite where we wanted to put our feet + hands... dint see anutter soul the hole way xcept for 2 guys w/ machetes clearing brush + then when we got to the top we met up w/ dat elephant trail w/ a continuous stream of idiots coming up the trail we was to go down, dint seem like much fun + neither did descending the same way we came up so figgered we'd take the tram down wich was infuriating, tons of fat people on top taking selfies, had to stand in line for almost an hour (took us 1½ hours walking up from the base + about 1½ to get from our hotel to the base). When we got down noticed there was a free bus back but it was still only like 1 pm so figgered why not do Lion's Head too... just across the road, also a perty crowded trail, but wide + a goot workout, steady climb up, winding around + good views of Cape Town + the ocean (better views then on Table Mtn), twards the top again them put metal ladders + chains, saw some rock hyraxes (on Table Mtn saw a snake + a bunch of lizards). On top of Lion's head noticed a trail traversing signal hill (where all them selfie-stick wielding paragliders take off from). Wasn't really a trail going back, but we found our way back thru peepholes backyards til we was in the city center near our hotel. 6 Dec> yesterday took a giro round the cape w/ our bedder-½, 1° to sum surfer beach (Muizenberg) then to another beach we saw penguins + then to Boulder beach where we saw mo penguins + rock hyraxes, then further on into the Cape park, all the way to the southern-most point, very windy, intresting plantlife, saw ostriches (bunch of baby 1s), eland + zebra + of course baboons, hiked around a bit, poked around in sum tidepools, etc. Got lunch in Kommetjie then drove Chapman’s Peak drive hugging the rugged coast thru Hout Bay |
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559 <( )> 561 > Indexing our own quivering cat's cradle canyon into Namibia | |
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