Cape Town - Part 2

The main road down from our new hostel runs just behind the new stadium, and is lined with a good range of eateries. This led to deepening levels of laziness, where we ventured no further than the well-healed district of Sea Point. The freezing fog that had descended on the city didn't help our desire to do much beyond eat, sleep, and drink.














Finally I took the bull by the horns and booked in for a day's sandboarding with Down Hill Adventures; Kirsten declined the pleasure. My guide and instructor, Mark, picked me up from the hostel, and this is when I learned that a) I was their only client, b) they didn't have a dune buggy to ferry you to the top. The location for the boarding was a large sand dune area 40km north of Cape Town; when we arrived it was being used by around a dozen quad-bikes, an equal number of motorbikes, a couple of 4x4s and about 20 kids.















These guys use proper snowboards and boots – the boards are modified with a laminate stuck to the base that needs floor polish applied before each run to reduce the friction. I've never snowboarded before, so the day started with a few tumbles and splats, followed by long slogs back up the (not very large) dune. After four hours of this I could get down the dune and put in a few relatively controlled turns – time to hit the snow.

One adrenaline activity done, I thought it was time to abseil off Table Mountain. We took the cable-car to the top for the second time, when Abseil Africa are waiting to rope you up. Once I was harnessed in, the women told me there would be a surprise half was down. I duly walked myself over the edge and down the cliff face. So far so good for 50m or so, before the 'surprise' – a large overhang which meant the remainder of the drop was in mid-air, well away from the cliff face.














Safely on the ground (or more precisely a ledge 100m from the top of Table Mountain), I handed the equipment to the ground guy, to be hoisted back up in a bag. I however had to walk the 20 minute trail back up.














Activity list ticked off, we picked up the new hire car (a Chevrolet), and headed down the peninsular. After a pleasant brunch in Camps Bay, we discover we had another puncture – this time only an hour after picking up the car. I changed the wheel and we drove back to town to switch cars for take-two.