Hike Table Mountain (at middday in summer)

Ok, so it was totally worth it. 1100 Meters----3 Km---34 degreees celcius---1 and a half hours....... Oh shit, I've gone metric, lemme clarify. 3300 feet-----1.3 miles--- 103 degrees fahrenheit----1 and a half hours. It was the hardest short hike I've ever done. The first 60 percent of it was done in the in the direct sunlight, luckily the other 40 was all shady and a nice south westerly breeze picked up(it may have saved my life). We had two friends in town from the old neighborhood in Jo'burg, Brett and Jason. My brother, brett, J and myself decide that 3:00 is the perfect time to hike up the mountain. Brett was very reluctant the whole time and then 30 min. in I realized why. I felt like I was been cooked by the sun ( we are in the dead of summer down here). Needless to say once we reached the top it felt great and all the suffering was worth it. The only thing I regret was drinking two beers and eating half a pizza an hour before the hike(NOT POWER FOOD). But once up top we indulged in some beer shandys (1/2 beer 1/2 lemonade) , they were amazing. We got up too early so decided not to stay for sunset. The hike up took almost 2 hours and the cable car down took 10 minutes(kinda depressing). Anyway enjoy the pictures. p.s. I reccomend table mountain to anyone who comes to Cape Town, it is spectacular. There are about 5-6 routes to the top that vary in difficulty, we just happened to choose the most direct(and steepest one).

Lions and Elephants and Bears, ohh my! (oh wait no bears)

So, I have been slacking off on the blog thing, but i want to keep everyone updated on what I have been doing .I originally planned on giving each animal its own blog post, but there are too many animals and pictures. This post encompasses all the cool animals into one. The Mighty Lion, and the fatty ooliphant (afrikaans for elephant). This male lion was from the western pride (there is three prides of lions on the game preserve). When we pulled up he was snuggling with one of the females from the southern pride. A sign, perhaps, that he might be moving in on Grumpys(the Alpha Male of the southern pride) territory. Grumpy is quite old and it is only a matter of time before another male kills him and assumes control of the pride. The female also pictured above was uncomfortable in our presence and left to hide in an adjacent bush when we pulled up.

We spent the whole day tracking down this group of elephants hoping to get a good view . They mainly kept their distance, grazing on the succulent newly sprung foliage and knocking down trees and eating entire branches the size of baseball bats. We waited on the other side of the clearing and were rewarded when they came through into the open and passed 30 yards away from us. Elephants are always a special sight. The elephant pictured at the top was on his own in the open on a seperate day. He was just cruising through the plains, we pulled up 15 yards behind him and watched him graze. He paid us no mind. Ahhhh, the life of an elephant, nothing bothers you, even noisy tourists!