Day 1: Lions, Chimps, Wine, & Hikes

When I roll over and see that its only 7 something in the morning, I wonder why I am awake. Then I wonder whether I should get up and go on the trip my roommate told me about yesterday. Would I be pushing it since I just arrive last night? Or would I regret missing out on meeting some new friends and seeing some cool stuff? Yes. So I get up, get dressed, and head out with my roommate to meet other people in the building for coffee.

Right around the corner from us is this cool coffee shop called Truth. The décor is excellent and it looks to be a pricey coffee place. However, when I go to order my flat white (what is otherwise known as American coffee; thank you for your lessons, Australia) and homemade granola bar, I am charged something around 12 rand. So like, $1.50. So like $4 less than that would cost at some stupid Starbucks. Excellent.  I introduce myself, and meet the other 4 girls and we chat until its time to go back to Perspectives (our apt building) to join the rest of our group for the trip.

We pile into two cars, which is a very tight squeeze for our group of 12. I’m packed into a lime green Ford next to a boy with a very Australian accent. I want to ask him what part of Australia he’s from but realize I could be wrong and then embarrassed. But it’s so unmistakably Australian, I have to ask. He responds, “Norway.” I am wrong, and embarrassed, and confused. But then redeemed when he tells me he studies in Sydney and has been for almost two years.

We stop at the driver/trip planner’s house, Selene, a Connect 123 staff person who is very cute and also Norwegian/South African, to pick up another car. Then we continue on down the wrong (left) side of the road out of town towards our first stop: a lion and chimp sanctuary. It’s a place for lions who have been mistreated and rescued from various French circuses, Romanian zoos, and stupid people who thought it would be a good idea to own a pet lion. Its very warm in the summer sun this morning and thus, most of the lions have gone towards the shadier spots of there enclosures to have a nap. So I don’t see a ton of lions up close, but its very African-y nonetheless.

Next we head to the chimp haven. One or two of the chimps are outside even though its warm out. I, along with several others, head to look at this large chimp pacing back and forth in his enclosure close to the fence. I have a good look at him and then he starts doing this funny swaying motion. Next he starts to jump up and clap, move to another spot, jump up and clap, and repeat the whole process. This is very amusing. Look at that great monkey go! We smile, I clap along with him. And then suddenly, after clapping and jumping he lunges toward the ground, scoops up a handful of dirt and twigs, and chucks it right in my direction! I shriek as a twig whacks me in the forehead. Hahaha that’s what I get for being a dumb human I guess. After this, many other dumb humans flock to his enclosure to see him perform and he delights us by chucking several more handfuls of dirt at people.

Following our animal adventure, we get into the car and head towards Stellenbocsh, one of the magnificent wine country outside of Cape Town. We tootled around looking for the “wine farm” as they say, that we wanted to go to before lunch, Glen Carlou. We drive in and go inside – one wall is completely open onto a balcony. It’s a perfect day and the view is absolutely, positively, breath-takingly incredible. I cannot believe this is real, much less happening on my very first day. Selene orders wine flights and cheese platters for everyone. Get this: a 5 sample flight was 25 RAND. That is THREE DOLLARS. The wine is excellent. I’m sitting in a chair that is not just some cheesy zebra print, but upholstered in real zebra. I love this place, please don’t make me leave!

I swore to myself I would remember the names of the wine farms at which we stopped, but I didn’t (had to google the last one…) and so I can’t really remember the name of farm we went to next for lunch, but it was also EXCELLENT. I was kind of lame and got a chicken avocado sandwich, (which was great) and my friends ordered all sorts of delicious sea food, steak, etc. and we split a bottle of sauvignon blanc. I’m really starting to bond with my fellow apartment dwellers and talk a few of them into playing on the really cool swing set at the farm with me. So we slide and swing and climb around. And no one fell off and got hurt, marvelous!

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Wow, this is the best first day anyone could possibly have had. Surely it is over by now.” But, no! We had some serious post-lunch hiking left to do! We pile back into the cars, stop by a bottle shop because people wanted to have beers to drink at the top of the mountain, and continue onto Paarl Rock. After some confusion over where to park the car and how long/intense this was going to be, we get organized and get hiking. It’s a bit steep, lucky for me, I had the Chacos on (I’ve gotten my excellent Chaco tan lines back). We all get to the top, and once again, the beauty is beyond belief. Also beyond belief to me personally is the fact that I am in South Africa, haven’t been here 24 hours, and have already had so much fun, I think that I could just die happy.

After spending a good deal of time up on Paarl Rock talking, taking pictures, enjoying ourselves, and generally goofing off, we head back down and back into Cape Town. I should probably go to bed at this point, but most everyone else is going out and I like them so much, and I start work next week, so I decide to go out too. I’m feeing a bit zombie-esque again, but not sleepy (thank you weird brand of jet lag), and do just fine. We hit a quieter bar in Observatory and then everyone wants to head to the very happening Long Street. Think Bourbon, 6^th Street, etc (I did not know this beforehand). So we’re there and everything looks a bit too, I don’t know, loud and cheesy for my taste. We stop into the Long Street Café for some drinks and then eat some street food (commence the late-night eating!!) and head home.

And that, my friends, was the epic-est first day. Here’s to many, many more J