A small world

Guess what? Walking up Kloof Street in the city centre two days ago, I passed a cafe and saw a face I recognised. It was Tone, a girl I used to swim with in junior high school. What a small world! She was here on holiday with her boyfriend so we decided to go for a drive together around the peninsula together with my friend Ismaiel the next day. The trip was very nice, we had a swim at a nice secluded beach close to Simons Town called Seaforth (luckily no sharks this time) and even got to see penguins. A colony of African penguins (we are quite close to the South Pole:) ) live in False Bay and it is quite amusing to observe them as they walk with their tiny feet. The plan was to go all the way around the peninsula but then our car started making a very scary metallic noise. We seem to learn one new car-thing every year as we are involved in different break downs. After going to a few different mechanics the problem is now located to some joints on the steering rack (ooo the pleasures of buying a cheap old car...) It will be fixed on Monday so until then we are sticking to the neighborhood.

I am also happy to inform you that Espen is slowly but surely getting into the concept of "African time". A little translation;

"I'll do it just now" = I might do it some time. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow or maybe never.
"I'm coming now now" = I'm coming in a while, but sooner than "just now".
"I'll be there at seven" = I'll leave my house around seven, but most likely a bit later.

Shark bisquits

...that's what they call surf boards around here...

Cape Town's water's are home to many great white sharks due to lots of yummy seals. Still it's apparently a really nice city to surf in. A couple of days ago we were sitting at Llundadno beach on the Atlantic coast and watching a group of body boarders and it looked like so much fun. Yesterday we decided to buy each other Christmas presents so we got two boards, flippers and Espen got himself a wetsuit.

Cape Town is situated with oceans on two sides; on the one side you find the Atlantic, and on the other the Indian ocean. The Atlantic side is freezing cold (about 11-14 deg) due to currents from the South Pole while the Indian side is warmer as the currents come from equator. The best thing would obviously be to surf on the warm side, but unfortunately that's where the sharks live... A few sharks have been spotted on the Atlantic side as well, but they are very rare there.

This morning we decided to give it a shot and went to the light house at Milnerton in Table Bay, that's on the Atlantic side. The spot seemed popular with other surfers and there were also life guards on duty which is a good thing. The waves were not too big, just perfect for us rookies:) It's a lot easier than surfing because you just lay on top of the board, wait for a nice wave and kick as much as you can when the wave approaches you. We kind of got the hang of it but there is still room for a lot of perfection!

I had good fun singing "tadah tadah tadah" (the theme from "Jaws" /"Haisommer") while we waited for the good waves.

Happy New Year!

First of all, Happy New Year to all of you!

We just got back from a relaxing long weekend at the west coast. I went to a school camp there when I lived there and always wanted to go back. My friend Wendy and her boyfriend Craig decided to join and they found a lovely little guest house in Saldanha. Saldanha is a sleepy little town an hour and a half outside Cape Town. The town is reliant on steel and fishing. There's really nothing to see or do in the town itself except walking on the beach and watching the huge ships that that transport steel out of the bay to various destinations. About thirty minutes south of Saldanha you find Langebaan, a popular holiday destination for South Africans. a big lagoon and plenty of wind makes it a perfect spot for kiting. We even bought our own kite. It was not too big and after playing with it on the beach for a while we really wanted to go back to the kite shop and buy a bigger one:) Close to Langebaan is the West Coast Nature Reserve consisting of a big lagoon (same lagoon enters the ocean in Langebaan). These wetlands are supposedly a heaven for bird lovers as many migrating birds flock to this place. We only saw a few so I guess it's not the right season at the moment...On new years eve we had a nice braai (a South African BBQ) and cocktails at the guest house. It has been a very nice and relaxing weekend
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