Hey Everyone,
For those of you that don't know. This was my second trip to Cape Town and South Africa. It was amazing! I hope you enjoy my other posts, but for the most part I took it easy here and relaxed a little bit more. I arrive in Mauritius tomrrow, and couldn't be more excited. Hope everyone is well!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Hiking
Over the course of my time in Cape Town I had the opportunity to hike two mountains, Lions head and Table. I hiked Lions Head first, which was a great hike, short, sweet, but plenty difficult. Being unprepared as I usually am, I ended up hiking barefoot. It was grand fun! Near the top you are forced to scale virtually sheer rock walls with the assistance of chain’s hanging off the mountain. At the top I enjoyed a few glasses of wine before heading back down.
I also climbed Table mountain which overlooks all of Cape Town (both of them did, but Table mountain is far more impressive). It was actually a lot more difficult hike than I was expecting. Since we started at roughly sea level we covered ~1km of vertical over the course of the 3km hike. Alas, the entire vertical was bunched into brief little spurts. It was virtually flat or straight up. None the less it was a great time! Alas, our view was ruined when we got to the top. The table cloth // giant layer of fog covered the top of the mountain when we got to the top. We, alas, could see nothing of the city below.
I also climbed Table mountain which overlooks all of Cape Town (both of them did, but Table mountain is far more impressive). It was actually a lot more difficult hike than I was expecting. Since we started at roughly sea level we covered ~1km of vertical over the course of the 3km hike. Alas, the entire vertical was bunched into brief little spurts. It was virtually flat or straight up. None the less it was a great time! Alas, our view was ruined when we got to the top. The table cloth // giant layer of fog covered the top of the mountain when we got to the top. We, alas, could see nothing of the city below.
The Winelands
My original intention when visiting the Winelands was to rent bikes and bike to the various different wineries I intended to visit. Alas, this was not to be the case. The clouds that had been threatening my trip all day finally made good as soon as the group I was with had rented our bikes. It began pouring rain as we left for our first winery. Fortunately, we were able to return the bikes and rent a car for the rest of the day. Alas, the time we spent renting bikes riding out, and returning restricted the number of wineries we could visit to two.
None the less we stopped first at Rustenberg winery. It was excellent, hats off to Uncle Kenny. We tried 6 wines, which I won’t pretend to remember. 3 whites and 3 reds. If memory serves the first was a chardonnay. We also tried a Shiraz and a Cab. Finally, I also tried the John X Miriam, which I ended up buying a case of. Absolutely, delicious! Our sommelier also showed us how to properly sniff and try a wine, a lovely experience.
Afterwards, we journey to Speir. We were running extremely short on time and our driver suggested they would be open later. Alas, this was not the case, but they did have a bar open and we tried sampled some wine there. All in all a great day!
None the less we stopped first at Rustenberg winery. It was excellent, hats off to Uncle Kenny. We tried 6 wines, which I won’t pretend to remember. 3 whites and 3 reds. If memory serves the first was a chardonnay. We also tried a Shiraz and a Cab. Finally, I also tried the John X Miriam, which I ended up buying a case of. Absolutely, delicious! Our sommelier also showed us how to properly sniff and try a wine, a lovely experience.
Afterwards, we journey to Speir. We were running extremely short on time and our driver suggested they would be open later. Alas, this was not the case, but they did have a bar open and we tried sampled some wine there. All in all a great day!
Shark Diving
I awoke at ~4:30 in the morning to catch a 4:45 bus to Gaiinsbai (I’m sorry the spelling is probably completely off) to go Shark Diving. For those of you amazed that I woke so early, it did, believe it or not happen. I slept most of the bus ride, but did catch glimpses of a documentary about crazy people who shark dive without cages.
Anyway, I was fed breakfast upon arrival in Gaiinsbai and then driven to the boat we would take to go shark diving. The boat was smallish, but sufficient for our purpose with the cage hanging off the back. When we arrived at the shark diving area, ~1 hour away, the dive instructor gave us instructions and safety tips before we dived. As a precaution he told us that it was the wrong time of season to see sharks, and there would be a decent chance we would see very few if any. At this point I was having serious buyer’s remorse for the trip.
After we suited up and hopped into the cage, I couldn’t have been happier we did it. We saw several sharks up close. Giant sharks, of course I want to tell you they were 4.5 – 6 meters long, but that would be exaggeration at its finest. In reality the largest shark we saw was ~3 meters in length, none the less, plenty large. An excellent experience that I would highly recommend for anyone visiting S. Africa.
Anyway, I was fed breakfast upon arrival in Gaiinsbai and then driven to the boat we would take to go shark diving. The boat was smallish, but sufficient for our purpose with the cage hanging off the back. When we arrived at the shark diving area, ~1 hour away, the dive instructor gave us instructions and safety tips before we dived. As a precaution he told us that it was the wrong time of season to see sharks, and there would be a decent chance we would see very few if any. At this point I was having serious buyer’s remorse for the trip.
After we suited up and hopped into the cage, I couldn’t have been happier we did it. We saw several sharks up close. Giant sharks, of course I want to tell you they were 4.5 – 6 meters long, but that would be exaggeration at its finest. In reality the largest shark we saw was ~3 meters in length, none the less, plenty large. An excellent experience that I would highly recommend for anyone visiting S. Africa.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Ghana, and the clinic!
Howdy, all. For those of you that don't know, this would be my second time in Ghana, and I was only here for a few days. As a result, this will be one of my briefer posts. Much to my chagrin I was stuck on the boat for a few hours longer than I wanted to be when we first arrived while I waited for the release of my passport. However, once I'd obtained that sacred document, I ventured quickly to Accra, the capital city. I met with some of my friends from the boat, made hotel arrangements, and as it was already getting late at this point proceeded to party with them.
The next day I awoke early to meet one of my friends in Ghana, named Richard. Richard picked me up around nine in the morning and took me to Ho, a city in the Volta region of Ghana. I had spoken with Richard before arriving in Ghana and we had arranged to do an outreach clinic in one of the rural villages in the Volta region the next day. We arrived in Ho later that afternoon. We spent the remainder of the day purchasing various medicines and eyeglasses for the clinic. Major props to Dad for being the financial backer of the clinic.
The next day we woke early to drive to the village. The village is located on Lake Volta, in a rather picturesque setting. After a brief tour of the village we began seeing patients. The clinic consisted of a doctor, nurse, an eye doctor, and various other support staff. I worked in one of two stations. The first station is the blood pressure station. I took blood pressure, pulse, and temperature of the patients before they went to the doctor. The second station I worked at was the medication table. I simply filled the doctors prescriptions.
As I am sure you are curious, most of the health problems in Ghana revolve around three primary things. The first, and unquestionably largest complaint we hear of is pain. Understand that most of these people are rural sustenance farmers, as such their bodies have been shot nearly to hell. Alas, we can do little for these cases aside from prescribing them a pain medication for a week or two weeks. The second affliction is hypertension or high blood pressure. Personally, I think it is mostly because of their diets, but many people suffer from high blood pressure. The highest I saw that day was approximately 240/200 (a healthy blood pressure is 120/80 for those of you that don't know). Finally, the third affliction tends to be malaria, unsurprisingly. In addition we saw a few STD/STI cases (generally gonorrhea, etc not HIV/AIDS), some infectious disease, worms and other parasites, and very rare cases of yellow fever. We also provide prescription glasses for those with poor eyesight.
That day we saw roughly 120 patients before returning to Ho for the night. The next day I woke early to catch a bus back to Accra and the boat. In Accra I met with Dr. Senyo whom I worked with the last time I was in Ghana. He had many plans for how we could make the medical outreach program I did last spring and will do again this spring better. After that it was back to the boat and off to South Africa.
PS: Apologies to everyone, I intended to get postcards, but alas forgot to get them in my rush to finish my errands before getting back on the boat, I'll have more in South Africa though, I promise. Shoot me an email or leave me a comment with your address if you want one!
The next day I awoke early to meet one of my friends in Ghana, named Richard. Richard picked me up around nine in the morning and took me to Ho, a city in the Volta region of Ghana. I had spoken with Richard before arriving in Ghana and we had arranged to do an outreach clinic in one of the rural villages in the Volta region the next day. We arrived in Ho later that afternoon. We spent the remainder of the day purchasing various medicines and eyeglasses for the clinic. Major props to Dad for being the financial backer of the clinic.
The next day we woke early to drive to the village. The village is located on Lake Volta, in a rather picturesque setting. After a brief tour of the village we began seeing patients. The clinic consisted of a doctor, nurse, an eye doctor, and various other support staff. I worked in one of two stations. The first station is the blood pressure station. I took blood pressure, pulse, and temperature of the patients before they went to the doctor. The second station I worked at was the medication table. I simply filled the doctors prescriptions.
As I am sure you are curious, most of the health problems in Ghana revolve around three primary things. The first, and unquestionably largest complaint we hear of is pain. Understand that most of these people are rural sustenance farmers, as such their bodies have been shot nearly to hell. Alas, we can do little for these cases aside from prescribing them a pain medication for a week or two weeks. The second affliction is hypertension or high blood pressure. Personally, I think it is mostly because of their diets, but many people suffer from high blood pressure. The highest I saw that day was approximately 240/200 (a healthy blood pressure is 120/80 for those of you that don't know). Finally, the third affliction tends to be malaria, unsurprisingly. In addition we saw a few STD/STI cases (generally gonorrhea, etc not HIV/AIDS), some infectious disease, worms and other parasites, and very rare cases of yellow fever. We also provide prescription glasses for those with poor eyesight.
That day we saw roughly 120 patients before returning to Ho for the night. The next day I woke early to catch a bus back to Accra and the boat. In Accra I met with Dr. Senyo whom I worked with the last time I was in Ghana. He had many plans for how we could make the medical outreach program I did last spring and will do again this spring better. After that it was back to the boat and off to South Africa.
PS: Apologies to everyone, I intended to get postcards, but alas forgot to get them in my rush to finish my errands before getting back on the boat, I'll have more in South Africa though, I promise. Shoot me an email or leave me a comment with your address if you want one!
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