Jan 2 - Chasing around

We went without our morning 5K cardiovascular walk and left early for an entire day chasing around, from Cape Town to Blouberg Beach. We stopped at four kite-boarding stores before Matt finally found the equipment he was looking for. At the Cavendish Mall in Clermont, we made a bunch of stops including the Travelex Currency Exchange store to purchase some British pounds. That currency is used in St. Helena, where we'll be visiting in the near future. We met up with the crews from Mantra, Gromit, Rhythm and Mystic for happy hour and dinner here at the YC. On a somewhat sad note, our rental car returns to Avis Sunday morning, so we're planning on another day of running around tomorrow, Saturday, as our last hurrah. Fun and games. By the way, there are myriads of hikes around here, Cape Town and surrounding areas; there are probably books written about them as well, but we've never looked into that. Gordon and Helen of the sv Mantra showed us the following excursion. My description may be a bit off, but once you find the path, it becomes obvious. Leaving the YC, we turn to the left, and walk to where we take another left turn which winds around to the Boulder Beach Penguin Park area. The street eventually leads to a board walk; the penguins are about a foot away on the other side of a fence, up close and personal. Continuing thru two gates, we go over a few short stretches of sandy path, past a public toilet, and wind our way to the last house facing the beach. The path goes right alongside the wall of that house and leads to one of the holes of the Simon's Town Golf Course. We climb over the fence, and walk next to it a few hundred yards around the green to find the 2 meter path to the sidewalk. From there, it's back to downtown, then to the pier, and finish our walk thru the YC parking lot to the YC. The walk takes us one hour, we estimate distance to be 5K, and there's just enough gradients to get the pulse up and down for a good work-out. Try it! A more severe work-out is the climb up the many steps to the Just Nuisance Memorial. (You'll have to read about who that was!) This hike had us wishing we had a Stairmaster aboard....