It’s amazing to watch the clouds pour over Table Mountain. It can be a perfectly clear day and there are clouds. The cause is the winds blowing from the south east coming from False bay and rushing up over the plateau, condensing into clouds and then falling down into the city bowl of Cape Town.
A trend in South Africa is to offer prepaid electricity. You top up by going wherever electricity is sold. We go around the corner to the gas station, pay as much as we like and get a token. The token is then entered in the machine and you get more kilowatt hours to work with.
I think the purpose is for people to start monitoring their usage more regularly and be more aware of their energy usage. Pretty cool if you ask me. We already find ways to turn things off so we don’t spend as much.
One of our startups, Homebug, is targeting this exact community of people in SA. There are roughly 4 million users of prepaid electricity. Homebug is a device that is installed next to the prepaid meter that is able to track your energy usage. The hardware then wirelessly uploads your information to their servers where you are then able to access usage charts. It has been shown that by actively monitoring your energy usage that on average you will save yourself up to 20% on energy costs. Cool stuff.
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Today was our first full day with the mini. We had a blast.
First stop, Hout Bay for the market. The drive was scenic along the western coastline of the cape. Lots of bicyclists out enjoying the beautiful morning. And us in our miniature orange car chanting ‘I think I can, I think I can’ on every hill.
So here’s Hout Bay. Pretty, ain’t it?
Here’s the Market and my beautiful wife:
The market was amazing; for me food, for shan the crafts. I was in heaven. Omelettes, tarts, steamed buns, tea, pizza, lamb sandwiches, fresh oysters and craft beers and wine. Are you kidding me? Even in a small fishing town they manage to host an amazing event every week. This place continues to rock.
Here are some shots of the market:
I managed to stuff myself with oysters and a lamb sandwich. I decided to wash it down with some lemonade and two custard tarts (you must buy these if you go).
We have decided we are starting every Saturday in this manner.
I really had no idea but this city is windy! It’s the kind of stuff that blows you over.
Might be a good time to pick up kite surfing.
Friday night kicked off the weekend with a quick dinner at Feast right down Bloem street from our place. Apparently it’s now an Indian place (good to know). Got a great R50 buffet and headed off to the Indaba Design Film Festival. We weaved our way through the streets of Cape Town (after forgetting the tickets, thank you iPhone) and arrived on Canterbury street. The event was held in the offices of a local design company. I should say, on the roof of the offices. It was great. Rows and rows of cheap neon plastic chairs ready for my buns to sit and enjoy the giant screen they created on the neighboring building. They served wine and cocktails, provided freshly popped corn kernels and free blankets. The backdrop wasn’t too bad either as it was table mountain. Unbelievable.
The movie we saw was called The Big Easy Express. It’s a documentary about a tour taken by Mumford & Sons, Old Crowe Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. The unique thing was that they took this tour on a train from San Fran to New Orleans. Amazing music and definitely worth watching. We dodged the bad parts of town on our way home and went to bed early.
I decided it’s nice being in a place for a long time because you don’t feel like you need to cram so many activities in a short period of time. Note to self: I need to find a job that allows me the flexibility to work anywhere for a few months at a time.
Here’s the 88mph office in Cape Town:
The weekend wasn’t filled entirely with just exercising, we also took some time to enjoy the beach. Sunday morning rolled around and we decided to head out for Camps Bay. Blue skies and not a care in the world.
We grabbed a cab down the road and headed on over. It’s on the same road to Table Mountain. You go up the hill from where we live just a bit and then back down over the ridge. It’s a pretty spectacular sight and definitely feel some envy for the folks who live there.
Our feelings were mutual in that we really felt like we can’t be any more fortunate with where we currently are.
We enjoyed a walk on the beach, spicy mojitos while looking over the water, fresh seafood and a beautiful day. Shan’s favorite part was the topless nature of the beach (note: this statement is not sanctioned by Shan).
The walk along the beach took us from Camps Bay beach to Clifton beach. I have to say that perhaps Clifton beach is even nicer than Camps Bay. It’s a little more secluded. The sand is a little nicer. It even had the multi-million dollar beach homes in the cliffs to go with it.
The water is beautiful, but you better be prepared for some serious shrinkage. I’m not sure I’ll be swimming much while I’m here.
Overall I can say that these beaches are a perfect compliment to an already awesome place.
Table Mountain is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. I now reaffirmed why.
Saturday, Shan and I decided to wake up early(ish) and hike up that beautiful mountain outside our window. I completed this trek once before in 2008 with my buddies Todd and Andy. I do not remember it being so difficult.
We hopped in a cab after having some breakfast and wandering the streets. We arrived at the Platteklip Gorge around 11am. The sign instructed us that it would take us roughly 2 hours to climb the 620m vertical, we should not be alone (check), we should have a hat (check), we should have a jacket (negative: it was 80 degrees out), we should have water (naturally) and that we should have hiking boots (nope).
I told Shan that I was beginning to remember the hike a little as time went along. The thing I did not remember was how virtually vertical the trail is. I thought my heart was going to pump out of my chest after about 15 minutes. This hike is not a walk in the park. I’m sorry, that’s not true. It literally IS a walk in a (national) park, but…oh never mind.
Want to know how steep it is? It’s 2000 ft vertical over .6 miles. That’s steep.
All I have to say is that no matter the pain you might go through in climbing this mountain, it is worth it. Sure, you could just ride the cable car up, but where’s the adventure in that? disclaimer: we did ride it back down, but only because there was so much more we wanted to do later that day.
Words can’t explain the sights we saw so I’ll show you some pics. Here you go.
