Tuesday 29 October 2013

Stunningly Beautiful South Africa :)

Stunningly Beautiful South Africa


I love South Africa. I loved it last time I was here in 2010 but I love it even more this time. I felt like I had come home the moment I landed into Cape Town. What a fantastic energy this place has! Such happy and positive people :)


My reason for coming to Cape Town was for the wedding of one of my closest friends in Bermuda - MP and Bevis. MP and Bevis met through our various weaves and layers of friendships and chance encounters that took place during our many years in Bermuda. And so it leads to a beautiful wedding, in a beautiful country surrounded by beautiful people from the place that I so lovingly called home for 4.5 years until January this year.


I had been both looking forward to this part of my trip and extremely nervous about it at the same time. Looking forward to seeing everyone again, my friends, my memories of happy and amazing days living in Bermuda. Nervous for two reason - 1) because I just didn't know how I would feel being back integrated into a world that I so devestatingly left earlier this year, surrounded by people who lived in a world I had long left behind and would I feel overwhelming homesick and want to cut and run once I met them again and heard all about my wonderful island that I will always refer to as home. Then 2) because I was well aware just how much I have grown and evolved and changed in myself since January. Would I still belong to the group, would I want to belong to the group in the sense that maybe the things that mattered to me before wouldn't be so important right now. Maybe they would see through me, or see the changes and I wouldn't connect in the same way.


I didn't need to worry really, because as soon as everyone arrived in Cape Town it was literally as if I had never been apart from them. Later I will tell you how I felt and how much it hit me unexpectedly when they all left and I was left alone in Cape Town...




As soon as Allison and Mike arrived, I went straight back to a place of missing my track and training sessions! It did make me laugh, as I had forgotten how competitive we all were in Bermuda, most of our days revolved around training for running races, or triathlons or watching and supporting other people doing them. So it really shouldn't have surprised me when Alli announced ok so the book says it takes 1:30-2 hours to climb to the top of Table Mountain, so we are aiming for an hour right? I looked at Phil and was like WTF? Haha! Too funny! I love that girl so much :) So much energy all the time! Awesome girl.  And it so it began, our flight to the top of the mountain... Somewhere along the journey there was talk of running part of it, which we quickly realised was not possible lol but as soon as we got to the top the girls did tag away from the boys (again in true Bermuda style...) and sprinted to the very edge of the mountain so that "technically" we could say we had run to the top of Table Mountain ;) The boys of course just shook their heads at us and watched us race off. I quickly realised that yoga fit is different to climbing a mountain at speed fit. Wow. My legs need some miles in them to keep up with these energizer bunnies! It was boiling hot walking up the mountain, yet as soon as we got to the top it was FREEZING and super windy. We threw on our various layers and set off exploring the edges and taking photos. I was so excited to do my handstand up there at the top, and even more so when the girls decided they were going to join me while the boys waited patiently (or not so..) in the background.




It was such a beautiful view up there, we got very lucky with the weather that day. The whole trip actually. You could see for miles, and it was so amazing. The climb down was less so, and reminded me of climbing down the Annapurna Circuit (minus the snow) after reaching the Thorong-La Pass at 5416m and having to watch every single step you made in case you fell down. We drove around Cape Town for the rest of the day and took pictures of Table Mountain from a different angle, and found a really beautiful cafe along Camps Bay where we stopped and took lunch together. It was so fun to be back amongst everyone again and catching up on all the gossip.


So nice to temporarily step away from backpacking too! The hotel we were staying in - Atlantic House - was amazingly priced (for non backpackers..) and just beautiful. The view was over Camps Bay and they had beautiful sunset views. The rooms were enormous and the breakfast was fantastic, and when it was cold the ladies made us wood fires, and we would spend many an evening sitting by the fire drinking red wine and catching up. I would continue that theme on my own once they all left too - copious amounts of coffee and red wine lol!


So nice to see MP again after so long. Bevis too. Poor things were running around like lunatics keeping their family and friends entertained right up until the wedding!


We did a very cool road trip along the start of the Garden Route when we drove to Hermanus for the wedding itself. Everyone was extremely hungover, and tired and decided that we needed to take the slow scenic route. It was super bendy journey but the most beautiful scenery I have seen in such a long time. The coastal road and the mountainous views were just out of this world. I really didn't have any expectations for Cape Town. I had simply only ever thought to myself I am going to Africa for a wedding, and it is meant to be the final destination of my journey around Asia. I didn't even research things to do. Wow I was so happily surprised by what I saw, and just how beautiful Cape Town and the surrounding land was. Everyone just kept saying wow wow wow, and stopping to take photos along the way. It was just stunning.


On arriving in Hermanus, we stopped for lunch in this little cafe where the lady was immediately concerned about how few layers I was wearing. I was concerned about how few layers I owned and how I was planning to keep myself warm in South Africa lol! Bless her, she offered to lend me clothing while I was in town haha!  We managed to turn right into a street with no right turns, and immediately a police officer pulled us over...it was like she had been sitting there waiting. Eventually she went away, I think it was made clear we wouldn't be paying her the bribe she wanted...Interesting I had forgotten that nonsense from Johannesburg days.


Interesting I always seem to make it to South Africa for a wedding. The last time I was in South Africa was for a wedding in 2010, and I made a trip to Mozambique afterwards to dive with giant mantas and whalesharks. This time I was in Hermanus for a wedding and watching whales breach all the way along the coast! The coast was full of whales the whole journey, and once we got to Hermanus itself there were even more. It was beautiful. The morning of the wedding we all donned life jacket and kayaks and took to the ocean for an organised kayak tour to try and get up close and personal with the whales!! So exciting!! And apparently I am not very strong at kayaking and poor Phil ended up doing most of the work :) We did see some in the distance which was very cool indeed!



I was so excited to wear my dress, after sitting with the lovely Danielle in our Rishikesh cafe all those months ago designing how it was going to look. Then those many hours spent in Hoi An, Vietam, with Amarjeet sussing out tailors. Then waiting in anticipation for it to be made :) So much fun!! I was a little bit shy wearing it initially but everyone I had shown along my journey loved it, and as soon as I wore it and walked into the wedding I was overwhelmed with the lovely comments people made about it :) Smiles! Yay to the lovely Danielle for making me the perfect wedding guest dress! The bright colours blended right in with all my colourful Bermuda girls and their beautiful gowns.




The wedding was just fantastic. MP looked stunning, and Bevis wore a smile of a very happy man the entire day! The setting was absolutely fabulous, with the ocean right behind us and an infinity pool, petals everywhere, beautiful people, champagne flowing, fantastic speeches, delicious food. And the DJ was just spectacular. Never before have I been to a wedding where the first song played and everyone literally leapt onto the dance floor and didn't leave until the DJ stopped playing. Just brilliant. So much dancing, so many smiles and so much fun. And one hell of a hangover the next morning....


The next day after a huge breakfast feast and sobering up session, we all went back to the car for another road trip. This time to Greyton, where Bevis' parents live. Their property was beautiful and Greyton itself was so picturesque.  Once everyone arrived we went for a nice long walk through the countryside to explore and clear everyones heads a little. It was perfect, and so pretty. Once we finished we settled into our basic (shock to system after Cape Town room!) hotel room which resembled a horse stable, and then back to the parents house for a beautiful feast to celebrate the wedding and meeting of new and old friends and family. So nice to see everyone.


Bevis dad - telling me I am one of lifes adventurers and to make sure that I never lose that. He told me about his travels and nomadic existence, such an interesting man and I loved how much he loved that I had thrown caution to the wind and left behind my 'normal' existence to explore life and really live the life I love! Yay!

The morning after Phil and I hitched a lift with Bevis' friends back to Cape Town airport to rent a car and go on a short road trip of our own. He had extended his trip by a few days and it was nice to have company as I hadn't planned a thing for after the wedding itself, and had discovered that my own flight out of Cape Town to Dubai was actually 10 days later than I had thought. Under Bevis' recommendation we drove to Stellenbosch, a lovely university town about 50km east of Cape Town, along the banks of the Eerste River. It is the second oldest European settlement in the province, after Cape Town. I loved it immediately and wished we had more time to explore. We stopped for a long boozy lunch and caught up on the months since we had last seen each other, and reminisced on previous years and what the future hold. The restaurant was fantastic, and the food out of this world amazing, as was the wine :) YUM.

From here we drove to Franschhoek where some of the other wedding guests were staying for a couple of nights.  Franschooek is also known as "French Corner" and it really does have a french feel to it, which was quite appropriate given MP is french canadian and so were many of the wedding guests. It is a small town in the Western Cape Province and one of the oldest towns of the Republic of South Africa. It was about 75km from Cape Town. Had the rain stopped long enough it would have been fun to explore the many vineyards around the area, but it didn't so we didn't explore! Besides, we came to the conclusion that we had drunk plenty of wine over the previous days as a Bermuda group and probably more wine tasting would only slowly kill us...

The wine in South Africa is the best I have ever tasted, honestly, it is super cheap and just amazingly delicious. It was SO nice after 7 months of backpacking to be able to come back to wine and reasonably priced wine, combined with amazing yummy tastes. We booked a restaurant on the bar managers recommendation, and went back to our room with our wine and snacks and just chilled in front of the fire. We decided in the end to abandon the restaurant reservation as the rain was just torrential and so full on and cold outside and we couldn't face the coldness and wetness of it all. It was also our last night before going separate ways, with Phil returning to London before starting his new life in Bermuda later that week, and me...well me working out what the hell I was going to do next as this was meant to also be goodbye to travels for me. So we did what we do well and stayed in and drank wine, ate chips and watched movies in front of the fire until we fell asleep lol!!

The next morning I very badly navigated us back to Cape Town airport. We got there luckily with time to spare and had a final dinner in the airport before saying our goodbyes and Good Lucks. And so then it was just me....in South Africa. Everyone else had either left before or were in different areas and heading in separate directions.


So for the first time in 2 weeks, just me, all alone. Without a plan of what next, having decided that I wouldn't be using my flight from Dubai to London in September after all... To say I felt a bit lost is putting it mildly. I spent the mornings throwing myself into yoga and my practice and the afternoons by the fire in the lounge drinking copious amounts of coffee before turning to the red wine by evening. I let myself have a few days of mourning. I am not entirely sure what I was mourning, or even that I was. I just wasn't myself. The ladies who worked there looked after me so well, and always seemed to know when to come along and pour me coffee!


I had no clue what would come next and frantically tried to make plans, while those who know me best tried to slow down the voices in my head and tell me to just breathe (lol student telling the yoga teacher....) and trust the universe. All I knew was that I would be meeting Theresia to share my birthday together in a small island called Nusa Lembongan, off Bali, where she is working as a dive master. At just the right time, a friend I had met years before diving in Borneo got in touch with me, and was living in Cape Town - Niki! We caught up immediately that evening and it was just what I needed :) Niki took me to a yoga class, and for dinner afterwards and it was just perfect. We talked about life, and ideas, and dreams and she really helped me settle into the unknown and embrace it. Funnily enough she teaches yoga also now. Our lives had gone in separate directions since our diving days, yet brought us back to the same place in the future! Even funnier is that she said to me while you are in Lembongan why you don't you go and check out the Yoga Shack there, and see if they need a yoga teacher. I had spoken to a mutual friend of ours, Jason, just earlier that morning and he had told me to drop his friend a line as he ran the Yoga Shack in Lembongan to see if they needed a teacher. Niki and I decided this was a sign and I should absolutely follow it. So I sent the shack an email that evening and got a reply the very next day saying I should come in for an informal chat when I arrived about possibly teaching some part time classes :) Happy days! So I later left Cape Town with a sense of direction - yay to that!


Niki and I caught up several times after this, and did lots of yoga classes together. She works at The Shala in Cape Town and invited me to her colleagues yin yoga class, and then to one of her own, both of which were great! I hadn't attended a taught yoga class since India so it was a nice treat :) On my final day we went to Botanical Gardens for brunch and took a walk through the gardens which were just beautiful. Cape Town really is a dream place. I am so glad I came here and had the opportunity to explore and with such lovely old friends :)


On my way to Dubai my journey took me to Johannesburg where I was lucky enough to catch up with the lovely Tracy. A friend I had made on my last adventure to South Africa for James and Shara's wedding. Shara had put us in touch and she had kindly invited me to stay with her in J/burg during our trip. She has since moved to Pretoria and is now pregnant!! And again she kindly invited me to stay with her. It was so lovely to catch up again with her and Andrew, and see their beautiful new home, and meet their beautiful dogs. We had a lovely girls evening catching up followed by a lovely walk through a large reserve near to their home. I was totally unprepared for the fact the park had game in it and was so super excited to come across zebra and giraffes as we casually walked through the park! Amazing experience! I managed to get some wonderful handstand pics in as well :) Yay to that! That should spice up the #handstand365 portfolio a bit! Was such a rushed trip as my flight changed dates yet again, and I ended up wishing I had more time. But a small visit is better than no visit at all :)



Africa, it has been amazing. As ever! I love this part of the world and really enjoyed the opportunity to see so many of my old friends and catch up on each of our lives. It was so lovely to see MP and Bev get married and explore so many parts of South Africa as a result. It really was the nicest wedding I have been to! So so pretty and the setting was beyond comparison as it was just out of this world!!


So now I walk boldly into a new chapter of my journey. An unexpected extra...for who knows how long. I am excited about what the future holds for me, even about the uncertainty of it all because it is taking me in the direction of something new and wonderful and I will find myself exactly where I am supposed to be.

Watch this space people, good times and gossip ahead xox

OH and I am seriously considering organising a yoga retreat to the guest house that I stayed at in Cape Town....think it would be perfect. So hold that thought ;)

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