VI. Hiking Stellenbosch Mountain

At the "top" of Stellenbosch Mountain (still in the b&w phase)

Sunday had the most gorgeous weather ever. Perfectly blue skies. Perfect temperature. And almost no wind. Random factoid for you: did you know that Cape Town is one of the world's three windiest cities? Along with Wellington, New Zealand and yep, you guessed it, Chicago, USA. (I'm surprised that Maple Hill, Kansas was not on this list...)
So, what do you do when there is perfect weather in South Africa and it is your first free day since arriving on the continent? You go on a hike. Up Stellenbosch Mountain. Or at least up part of it. You think you're at the top when you climb up a big ridge that you can't see anything beyond. But then you finally get there and realize you're only 1/3 the way to the top. It's ok, next time! I went with about 6 people and we had a great time. Saw some spiders but no snakes, which was a good thing. Although as I am typing right now, I am staring down a scary looking spider on my ceiling. Africa doesn't have poisonous spiders, right?
At the end of our hike, it turned into a legit rock climbing experience, and we all had to use our hands and feet to climb up. Note how high up we are! And yes we started all the way down there in the town.