Days 4 and 5 of the Adventure

Soooo, you get to here from the lesser half of the future Mr. and Mrs. Norris for this post.

Day 4: Kirstenbosch / the Mount Nelson

So Kirstenbosch was an afternoon fit for the Stooges. We had a late start, but it was the first pretty day in the last few, so we decided to attempt to hike table mountain. Plus we had heard that there were some trails that started within the national botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch...two birds, one stone. Aaaanyway, we were super low on gas, but i kept wanting to push it. Then I had decided to not bring my wallet because every radio station assured us we were going to be mugged, beaten, drawn and quartered on table mountain. Thus I only had a little bit of cash in my pockets. After entering the park, we only had a little money left. Since we were planning on hiking from the gardens, I thought it a good idea to buy a trail map of table mountain. First, the map was way more expensive than expected and the lady had to give us a ten percent discount so I could afford it. Second, the map revealed that we had bitten off way more than we could hike as it would take 3.5 hrs to get from kirstenbosch to the flat area of table rock...ONE WAY! Third, I now had no more money in case we ran out of gas. After about ten minutes of freaking out, we decided to ask the kind lady who had kindly given me a 10% discount to kindly give us a refund for our kind map, so we could at least drive home. With that settled, we decided to at least enjoy the gardens for the afternoon.

As you might imagine and the pictures suggest, it was ridiculous. Not only were the gardens beautiful and absolutely huge, they were on the side of the table mountain range, thus providing some rather amazing views of capetown as well as the range itself. We took the trail that ran up toward the table mountain trails. In my desire to always find adventure, we decided to hike a few minutes up the beginning of skeleton's gorge (the name should have been a red flag). On about step 35 or so, Chels came several inches from stepping on a snake, so we promptly returned to the comfort and safety of the paved walkways of the gardens. And yes, I would have sucked out the poison and then bitten the snake to give it a taste of its own venom.

Anyway, the gardens were as amazing as advertised. We then made our way back--low gas and all--to capetown, changed, and walked to the Mount Nelson, an old colonial hotel that serves afternoon tea. Afternoon tea you say? Mundane, huh. NOPE. So you get an unlimited amount of 30 different loose leaf teas along with a buffet of finger foods and desserts that were absolutely incredible. We spent an hour and half indulging in the amazing food and washing it down with delicious teas (I think we tried the Mount Nelson blend and some sort of Russian tea, both of which were stellar). No real big stories to report other than it had the nicest men's bathroom I've ever entered and I almost vomited from the amount of food we ate.

We were both full and tired after our long day in the sun, so we laid low that night and fell asleep watching a movie.

Day 5: Christmas Eve

Apart from being an absolutely gorgeous day, Christmas Eve was our day to transition from the Fire and Ice to our really awesome guest house in Camps Bay. As a farewell, we ate our last full spread breakfast buffet. Afterward, we packed up, made sure everything was out of the room, took a few pictures and made our way down to the mighty Getz....to find that said vehicle had a flat tire. It had been low a few days prior so we put some air in it, but apparently whatever leak it had finally wielded a deadly blow. We ran our bags back upstairs, got a one hour extension on our room and headed back to the garage. In keeping with my manly duties, I changed the tire in all of fifteen minutes, thanks to about as simple a set up as I have seen. Chelsea of course took pictures and sent them to our families, which of course landed them in the hands of everyone i knew. This was all well and good until I came to find out that all of the recipients were shocked at my ability to change a tire. So all in all a great boost for my self confidence. I will note that it took us an hour from when we saw the flat to having everything loaded into the new rental car (the blue steel edition of the Getz).

With the car situation handled, we made our way over the mountain to the Atlantic House in Camps Bay. Needless to say, five star guest houses are both very nice and well staffed. The people that ran the desk were so welcoming and accommodating. They made us dinner reservations for the two nights we were there, served as the cook staff for breakfast, booked other hotel reservations for other guests....a class organization all around. As we were getting the low down on our room, she explained the purpose of the small blue box with a black button on the key ring. "In case of emergency" pressing the button would bring men with guns to the rescue. All I will say is that ADT is a totally different company in the US than in South Africa.

After getting settled we walked down to the gorgeous beach for a few hours of tanning, reading and napping. It was incredible. Plus, the twelve apostles area of table mountain behind us was shrouded in low lying clouds, which made for a surreal picture. After walking back and changing, we drove down to the Codfather, for what would prove to be our best meal of the trip. Its a small restaurant with a huge case of raw fresh seafood. You pick out whatever you want, which you pay for by weight, they cook it in their blend of spices, along with a few sides and bring it all out with in a single skillet and amazing dipping sauces. Our extremely helpful waiter helped us decided on a giant tiger prawn, butter fish, king fish and one other i can't remember. Either way, it was incredible. We also enjoyed good sushi as an appetizer, a great white wine also recommended by said waiter and watched the beginnings of the evening sun. We were also the only diners in the restaurant as it was only 430 when we went to dinner, which added to the fun.

We headed from there to century city, an oddly gigantic crop of nice shops and car dealerships west of the city center, for a christmas eve service at the Hillsong church of Capetown with Chelsea's Norwegian friends, Mickel and Hanna and his family. It was great to finally sing christmas songs and really celebrate the season in South Africa. Plus I got saved!! Apparently in a large church, if the pastor asks you to raise your hand for blessing, you'd better be paying attention the whole time or you may end up with a guy handing you a Bible, for what he thinks is the first time. Either way, it was great to worship with them and the rest of the people there.

We drove them back to their hotel, headed back to ours and called it a night. But not before watching CHRISTMAS VACATION!! I of course brought it along as my must watch christmas movie. I'm pretty sure Chels wanted to kill me, but I made her stay awake the whole time so we could watch the whole thing together.

I will admit it will stand out as the most memorable Christmas Eve of my relatively brief life thus far.