Recent outings (mostly involving climbing Table Mountain)

I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m not finding it that difficult to occupy my time here. Of course Cape Town is too beautiful and full of life to just sit inside all day! Some highlights of the weekend:

Let’s see…Julia and I kicked off last weekend by going to a movie at the Waterfront as part of an international film festival. (Julia is another new m2m employee.) The movie was called Youssou N’Dour, and it was a documentary on…you guessed it, Youssou N’Dour. For those of you who don’t know (and I embarrassingly did not), Youssou N’Dour is an internationally known Senegalese musician. I definitely recommend the movie for people who live in big cities/have Netflix (otherwise I don’t know whether it will be available to you). It was really interesting, not only to learn about his life and how his beliefs influence his music, but it was also really interesting to gain some insight into the opposition he’s met as he’s tried to integrate his Muslim faith into his pop music.

Saturday night Byron, Wenli, and I tried to look presentable enough to attend a dinner party hosted by a UNC professor who is in Cape Town for the major International AIDS Society meeting taking place this week in the city. The professor, Dr. van der Horst, was nice enough to invite us after I got in touch with him through other UNC connections. Dinner was held at an extremely nice resort located not too far from us. It’s always interesting to see how the other half of Cape Town lives – it never ceases to amaze me just how upscale things can be here, considering the country and city as a whole simultaneously contain such extreme and widespread poverty. More thoughts on that later. Anyway, the dinner was being held for a number of researchers who were taking part in a mini AIDS/TB meeting prior to the IAS meeting. The three of us were unquestionably out of place both age- and career success-wise, but it was incredibly kind of Dr. van der Horst to invite us and it was fun to get my scientist fix for the time being (Hard to believe it’s been over a month since I set foot in a lab!).

Sunday couldn’t have brought more perfect weather for our trek up Table Mountain. (Table Mountain is the giant, flat-topped mountain that serves as a backdrop for the city of Cape Town.) I know I was complaining about the weather earlier, but if it can reach 70ºF in the middle of winter, I’m no longer going to whine too much about missing out on summer back home. Though I’ve done this hike before, it’s not exactly something you tire of. We started from Kirstenbosch botanical gardens and basically hiked up a gorge on the backside of the mountain, and then trekked our way across the flat top to the cable car on the opposite side to hitch a ride down. I’ve certainly done my fair share of hikes, but this one can be pretty steep and challenging at times – mostly because there’s no gradual climb, you just have to go straight up. I normally wouldn’t mourn the absence of switchbacks, but when forced to use ladders instead, I don’t know…Anyway, it felt great to get outside and I really enjoyed the day. Going up the gorge you are essentially just clambering your way up a (not always dry) creek bed, so everything is very green and moist. Once you reach the top, there are no longer trees but little stubby bushes everywhere and much drier ground. And of course the view is like none other. You can see everything, from the mountains near Stellenbosch, to the city bowl of Cape Town, to the tip of the Cape of Good Hope. The trail across the top of the mountain on the way to the cable car doesn’t leave much room for error, as it pretty much follows the cliff’s edge, give or take a few feet. Not easy for the faint of heart (me), but an incredible feeling none the less. After hours of climbing and trekking and enjoying the view, we finally made it over to the cable car area where tons of chipper and clean tourists kept giving us sweaty folk questioning looks. I suppose if you were short on time the cable car would be worth it, but I think it’s infinitely better to experience the entire climb. Of course taking the cable car down is the only option…at least for those of us who don’t want to destroy our knees!

As for the pictures posted above, they were all taken on top of Table Mountain. In order: a view of the Twelve Apostles mountains, below which sit some of the most beautiful and exculsive Cape Town suburbs; Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela and others were imprisoned) seen in the distance; Lion's head, another signature Cape Town city backdrop; and the view looking down from the trail on the edge of the mountain.