Cape to Milan

After spending yet another morning at the Mozambican consulate (once we left last time, we discovered that Alex’s visa was missing a critical stamp that would have delayed us for hours at the border), we decided to hike Table Mountain. It’s not the most pristine of environments; the cable car that can take you to the top attracts as many massive tour busloads as can squeeze into the parking lot. However, it still gives you an excellent view and a horrendous workout (which we needed after all the curry). We were planning on at least hiking up and taking the cable car down, but it seemed kind of ridiculous to pay twenty dollars for that–so we hiked both ways via Platteklip Gorge.

It was hard hiking, similar to using a Stairclimber for 2 hours. Note the actual stone stairs leading up most of the 1,000+ meters to the tabletop.

By the way, doesn’t Alex look too cool in his new street-vendor shades?

Alex was so happy to be within meters of conquering the mountain, he wanted to take this vaguely sacrilegious photo.

Finally–at the top! This is really channeling Lord of the Rings, am I right?

You can see Lion’s Head (far left) and Robben Island (near the top).

Back at the lower cableway station, we found one taxi driver who was willing to use the meter instead of charge us a double fare: Gary from Zimbabwe. We asked him how Zimbabwe is, and he assured us, “There are no more problems.” He is planning to return after the World Cup, an event that is creating palpable excitement in the city, both for the sport and the supposed riches that await from an influx of fans. One of our other taxi drivers asked, “Why does everyone think they are going to get rich from the World Cup? They say they are going to get rich, but I ask them: HOW?”