January 9, 2007

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

By Jeff Guerrero

Today we hiked Table Mountain. In the morning clouds covered the mountain and the cable cars were shut down due to high winds up top. As the clouds cleared away, the group decided to ditch the idea of climbing to the top of the mountain (because there would be no cable cars to take us down) and decided to take a contour path around the mountain. The day at the mountain began in the Botanical Gardens at the base where we saw a plethora of plant life including Proteas and Ericas, both indigenous to the South Africa. We then made our way to the trail, one of over 100. About the first third of the trial was through a forested area, which provided some shade, and the rest wrapped around Devil’s Peak and Table Mountain. Although we were in direct sunlight for a while, we were rewarded with amazing views of Cape Town, the Atlantic, and the surrounding mountains. For some of us this 7-hour hike was a pretty big challenge, but we all made it down safely and decided to take the cable car (which was running by this time of the day) to the top for the best possible views. Having walked around on top of the mountain for about an hour and being much higher than all the surrounding clouds, we called it quits for the day and headed back to the seminary for long-awaited showers and food. And now we are going to bed early!

Miss you all,
Jeff

View of the bay from the contour path about halfway through the hike.

 

There were a bunch of sweet looking locusts in the sunny areas of the hike.

 

Cool picture of some flowers on the way up (thanks to Christi and her camera).

 

The group, and the guide we aquired along the way, on the contour path overlooking the bay.

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Update From Mark

By Mark Heun

Dear Friends (at St. Thomas),

I hope you are having a good day at school.

I vomited yesterday. I felt really bad, but I am feeling better today.

Mark

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