In early February, the AR team plus our good friend Nate Massey journeyed 9 days to and from Cape Town. We traveled there via the Garden Route that runs along the South African coast, and returned home via the direct route, which meant 18+ hours in the Vito from Cape Town to Pretoria.
The whole trip I found myself continuing to be so impressed by this country’s beauty. In our six months here, we have visited several provinces—Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal—and on this trip made our way across the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape, the Free State and crossing into the Northern Cape, leaving just one province we haven’t at least passed through or explored. And so far, all have been strikingly beautiful in their own way.
We took our time making our way along the Garden Route, stopping over for two nights in the surfer town of Jeffrey’s Bay and two nights with friends of Will’s in George, where we were introduced to a very talkative and ornery parakeet Pauli and were unhappily blasted by sand on the windy beach of nearby Wilderness the next day. Along the drive, we stopped and leisurely strolled about the coastal towns of Plettenberg Bay (see Nate’s short video clip below), Knysna and Hermanus, each lovely; but interestingly, each coupled with the likes of a township or informal settlement nearby—it seems one is not immune to the reality of poverty anywhere. As Cape Town approached, the scenery became increasingly more and more breathtaking, with impressively masculine mountains jutting directly into a calm and rhythmic sea.
Cape Town was the culmination for sure. It is a stunning city and, in my opinion, totally underrated among the cities of the world. We stayed in an area called Fish Hoek for four nights with views of both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans from our guest house and ate seafood, seafood, seafood. Among the memorable things we did were meeting with missionary Floyd McClung (read Allan’s blog post about our time with Floyd), almost getting blown off the continent of Africa by gale-force winds at Cape Point and, my favorite, hiking Lion’s Head Mountain for the incredible view of iconic Table Mountain and its accompanying Twelve Apostles at sunset. The scene was truly incredible.
Back at work this week in Mamelodi, many of our friends at the Powerhouse excitedly inquired about our trip while expressing a longing to “make it to Cape Town someday” as if it were an impossibility. These conversations put us in check, reminding us that to travel is a luxury and not to be taken for granted; indeed, we are incredibly grateful. We were quick, though, to encourage our students not to consider Cape Town a distant dream, but to consider it a goal, even more so than the always-fantasized-about visit to America someday. Cape Town is a gorgeous city within reach, and by bus or even by plane it can be reached affordably. So however imperfectly, we found ourselves challenging our students, little by little, to save to someday enjoy Cape Town and, after all, the beauty of their own country.
If you, too, are interested in experiencing a different bit of South Africa’s beauty—the beauty of God’s hand at work in Mamelodi—check out our latest addition to the blog and download free Mamelodi Stories desktop wallpaper. Enjoy!