My Extreme Adventures of Week Two!

As soon as our bus got back to our apartments from petting cheetahs, I found out that I had to be up Sunday morning for surfing lessons followed by our champagne sunset cruise.

I was hesitant a first for signing up for surfing lessons, but Sunday morning at 11:30, seven others and myself hit the beach west of Cape Town to ride the waves. It was my first time wearing a wet suit… not so flattering lol. The worse part is not the first steps getting into the water; it’s when you get so deep in the water that it rushes down the back of your wet suit because you finally got deep enough in for it to go down the top of your wet suit. Talk about a wake up call!

As some of you might knew me well enough to know that I am a klutz, I had no problem catching the waves or even trying to get up. My problem was staying up on the board longer than 3 seconds. But a few times I succeeded triumphantly! It was such a rush!

After peeling off the wet suit after the 2-hour session, we made our way back to Laguna Beach (the nickname of our Lagoon Beach Apartments). We only had 45 minutes to get ready for the champagne sunset cruise (aka booze cruise). Surprisingly, I was one of the first females downstairs and ready!

The sunset over the water was amazing!!! The view was just perfect! The waves a bit not… several people got seasick, but luckily, my sea legs stood strong!

With 90+ American college students, it wasn’t a surprise the champagne didn’t last, but the views and the memories for the Sea Princess will. The waterfront is such a sight!

FYI: We had a group dinner that night immediately following the booze cruise. Well, one of my roommates got a little bit too drunk on the cruise, and embarrassing enough, she threw up on herself at dinner! Poor sweetheart! But don’t worry; we took care of the darling. She’s feeling better now. I’m just glad it wasn’t me J

Monday following class, several other students and I headed to the local desert. FYI: It’s the second smallest desert in the world. It was my first time in a desert.

The group split up, and I started off “quading” (aka 4-wheeling) throughout the dunes for about an hour. The view was so wonderful! We could see so many dunes, not a cloud in the sky, and beautiful Table Mountain in the background. We switched with the other group and took on sand boarding the dunes. IT WAS AWESOME! Minus the trek back up the dune! For some reason, my large heiny loved finding the ground at the end of just about every run. But sand boarding was one of the coolest outdoor activities I have ever done.

So Cristo, our adventure guide/helper/whatever you’d call him, abandoned our 4-girl group for the second time on the top of a dune for some reason. We decided to chill because it was a pain in the butt re-waxing the board ever other run, when all of a sudden, we noticed huge, massive clouds rolling in our way really, really fast. So we sat on top the highest dune we could make it to and watched as the white clouds gently but quickly rolled in all around us. First the sun disappeared in the sky, and then we couldn’t even see the dune right next to us. The coolest thing about the desert is the beautiful silence and the serene view. So, 4 girls, alone, engulfed in clouds, we took the moment in silence. It was beautiful. I have no other way of describing that moment with the 3 other girls, but I will never forget it.

The rest of the group somehow reappeared and we sand boarded for about another hour. Then after deciding sand was thoroughly enough in every crease of our bodies, we were ready to head home. I must have had enough sand on me when I got back to fill a sandbag.

My body was sore, and I haven’t had as many bruises on me since high school basketball, but it was worth every minute of the experience.

However, the real physical challenge was yet to come.

In one of the classes I am taking, we have had two lectures: the power of living and the power of giving. The third class is the power of wow. So the instructor contemplating what’s the “wowest” thing to do, decided we should hike Table Mountain at sunrise and have our lecture at the top of the mountain.

So, Wednesday, 6:00am, 104 students line up in the lobby, backpacks and water ready for this mountain of a task.

We run into some logistical trouble and catch the sunrise as our busses finally roll up to the trail, but nonetheless, the site was breathtaking.

We begin at 8:12am. Within the first 2 minutes my legs are burning like crazy; the steps on the trail were extra large. I don’t know how else to describe this hike other than a death march; it was brutal. But every time I took a break, I snapped a beautiful photo of the landscape. The higher we got, the less city we could see and the more the outline of the land began to show. My friend Helen and I kept pushing each other to the next boulder, to the next zig, so close to the top.

(Yea, that's what the trail was like THE ENTIRE TIME!!)

Typically, it takes people on average 2-2.5 hours to climb the mountain. At 9:40am, I reached the top! As you can see, that is less than two hours.

Immediately reaching the top, the brutal hike was one of the most rewarding things I have done physically in a long time. The view was indescribable.

(Why yes, I do know that I look like a Bad A$$.)

Got everything settled, more water, sat down, etc. Turns out our class lasted about 2 minutes long and the objective of the day was to create a bucket list. So, I found my own boulder out looking over the city and decided what I wanted to do before I kicked the bucket. It was a beautiful moment. 

Please, be jealous.

Needless to say, I was exhausted by noon and took a nap when possible. 

But I survived. I worked hard, and I climbed a mountain!

Love always,

Melissa