apAdventures

This is the big day we’ve been dreading: Negotiating our way, safely, to Rocklands.

We check out of the hotel, dump our bags and pads into our cute little euro car and say adios to the parking attendant. No sooner does Paul start up the car (using a choke!) and tunes his brain for driving on the ‘wrong side’ of the road, does another car pull up along side us, waiting for our parking pace. More pressure please? Help us out here people. Luckily, our tiny Volkswagon is the little-engine-that-could and miraculously pulls out of the parking space, on a hill, from a dead stop, in THIRD gear…since Paul wasn’t able to successfully find first gear with his left hand. Good job little car. Way to take one for the team.

After numerous stop and go’s in third gear, and only one near-miss fender bender (don’t forget to look right!), we finally make our way out of the downtown city center and begin cruising on the interstate. I snap a few pics of the city with Table Mountain in the backdrop as we zoom away.

Table Mountain hovering over Cape Town, South Africa

Soon, we’re away from the city and cruising through the Western Cape countryside. So far, what we see is absolutely beautiful. The mountains, cliffs and rocks of the western United States, meshed with the lush green pastures of the eastern United States….(my best description).

A glimpse of the Western Cape, South Africa, along the N7

WEIRD THING #4:
Monkeys!…or Baboons!!….or some other monkey-like creatures! Just as we enter the dirt roads of the Cederburg Wilderness Area, past the town of Clanwilliam, about 3-4 hours from Cape Town, I say to Paul, “look…a pack of dogs up there on the road.” Not dogs, stupid. Baboons? Baboons are supposed to be pretty prevalent here in the Cederburg Wilderness. I snap a few pics. They’re all staring at us! Sheesh, is it THAT obvious we’re American?!

Baboons in the Cederburg Wilderness!

At about 3:00PM, we finally pull into our accommodations at the de Pakhuys Farm. We empty the car and move into what will be out little home for the next 6 weeks, the Blokhuys cottage, cute as a button.

The Blokhuys cottage on the de Pakhuys Farm

After some grocery shopping and a nice dinner, Paul and I are finally able to sit back and relax….I mean really relax, without the stresses of traveling in a foreign land. We sip on wine and delve into the printed online bouldering guides we have strewn about the table, salivating over the boulder problems listed in front of us, over the boulder problems awaiting outside.

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Friday July 25th, 2008

Cape Town! Paul and I awake in our hotel around 8AM and head outside to catch our first glimpse of South Africa. We hit up a cute, artsy little coffee shop next door to the hotel, the RCaffe. Mmmm, is this the best Americano I’ve ever tasted or am I just dreamily giddy right now?

We stroll down Long street, more in awe with Table Mountain hovering above than the shops, restaurants, and cafes that line the street. We decide to check out the South Africa Museum and Planetarium, spending the majority of the day there and in the Company’s Gardens. Back on Long street we hit up Lola’s for some coffee and a music shop, then mozy on back to our hotel for some Internet and naps before dinner.

Based on the hotel staff’s recommendation, we ate dinner at the Khaya Nyama Game Restaurant. I had the Curried Lamb and Paul a big skewer of Eland, Ostrich, and Kudu. Both meals, authentic South African cuisine…mmm.

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Thursday July 24th, 2008

Due to the long delay at JFK, we don’t arrive on the continent of Africa until around 10AM (Senegal time), versus the scheduled 4AM arrival. Our itinerary states we fly from Syracuse, New York to New York City. Then, New York City to Dakar, Senegal. Then, Dakar to Cape Town, South Africa. A total of 30 hours of travel time, with the delays.

So we’re at the half-way point in our journey now. At 10AM, we’ve landed on the continent of Africa in the city of Dakar, Senegal. The good news about this is that it’s daylight and we can see outside! The bad news about this is that we are seated in the center of the plane and can’t see out the windows very well. Did I mention we are also seated in front of the bathrooms and haven’t been able to recline our seats for the last 14 hours (6 hr delay + 8 hr flight)? Oh yeah and did I also mention we had the privilege of being seated in the last non-reclining row on our last flight too (Syracuse to NYC)? Grrr. That’s enough complaining from me though, because if there is one major thing apparent of the passengers on this plane, it’s how totally chill, relaxed, even playful everyone is, especially the South Africans.

Paul and I struggle to get a few peeps between passengers out the little portal windows. What we see, when we finally do see it, is a backdrop straight out of an Indiana Jones movie (my best description, sorry): small, colorful, pastel, stucco box shacks…everywhere, covering every pinch of earth, as far as the eye can see. The sky is a pink haze, even at 10AM. What little earth I do see is brown and dusty. I catch a quick glimpse of one lonely, straggly African-looking tree, branches splayed out much like a bonsai. Then the woman in the seat across the row lifts her head and my scenery becomes the familiar tin can again.

WEIRD THING #1:
A team of Senegal cleaners and security board the plane. We learn that we are not allowed to get off the plane, we are just passing through Dakar. The cleaners clean up after those who got off the plane, whose last stop or connection was in Dakar. The security crew starts checking baggage and searching under the seats, even ripping up the seat cushions! We were warned of these hostile inspections ahead of time by the sarcastically funny South African next to me, so we weren’t too alarmed. Still though, weird. Weird thing number one we decide.

WEIRD THING #2:
Finally all cleaning, inspections and new passenger boarding is complete and we climb into the air once again. Once we’re airborne at cruising altitude the flight crew announces that they will be walking through the cabin to spray pesticides on us. No, really. World Health Organization approved, of course, which somewhat comforts us. Not really. Perhaps to keep the malaria mosquitos at bay? Whatever the reason may be, a definite item for the weird thing list.

WEIRD THING #3:
After being disinfected with insecticide/pesticide, it is now time for breakfast. But before the real breakfast we are served a little breakfast appetizer: Ice cream. Ice cream for breakfast, weird.

Eight hours later we finally touch down in Cape Town, South Africa. The hour is 9:30PM. Everyone claps. As mentioned, everyone is still upbeat and peppy as ever, even the babies. The Cape Town airport is swanky and nice and the people at the Avis car rental center are even nicer. A pleasant guy about our age even walks us out to our rental car, gives us directions to our hotel and shoots the breeze with us about climbing.

No plane crashes on the way to Cape Town, check. Navigating through foreign airport successfully, check. Get rental car, check. Learn how to drive on the right side of the car on the left side of the road…uh. Luckily the roads between the airport and our hotel were all one-ways, which I guess is kind of cheating. Who cares, check.

We check into the Daddy Long Legs Hotel on Long Street, the downtown party street of Cape Town, pound our complimentary martinis, and hit the hay. Whew. We made it.

The room Open at the Daddy Long Legs Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Wednesday July 23rd, 2008

I wish I had something exciting to say about this would-be exciting day. But by the time this day is over, I’m not so sure we’ll be more than a few hundred miles off the Atlantic coast, stateside! I’m sitting here in the big tin can on the New York City JFK tarmac…waiting, waiting…and even more waiting for liftoff.

“What is going ON? We should riot,” we overhear from a few seats ahead. ‘Pajama Man,’ we call him, because he went into the plane’s bathroom wearing jeans and came out wearing pajama pants, prepared for a long journey of going nowhere apparently.

We’ve been delayed for almost six hours now and still counting. First, air conditioning mechanical troubles, then zero visibility rain storm, and now here we sit, plane number fifty (we were number 5 but JFK air traffic control switched the direction of the runway and we went to nearly the end of the line) in the takeoff line.

excerpt from April’s journal, dated Tuesday July 22nd, 2008

It’s healthy to have dreams. It’s even healthier to turn one of those dreams into reality. A colleague once told me that he prefers to have hundreds, thousands! of dreams. Because with thousands of dreams, there’s a much greater probability that he can turn at least one into reality. I like this philosophy.

So here WE go. Paul and I are about to live a dream. A dream that we’ve discussed numerous times amongst ourselves, loved ones, and friends. A dream that has gone through many iterations, revisions and re-writes. We’ve been talking the talk about this “big climbing road trip” for sooooo long that I’m seriously having a lot of trouble this week differentiating between the reality and the dream. Is this for real?! Are we really pulling this off? Am I……dreaming?

And then I look at the van parked out front, the vehicle which is about to be our little home-away-from home for a while. And I see how nicely and neatly its packed. Packed with all the material items that we will be living off of over the next 6 months. I’m surprised actually, at how much room we still have in there. Either the van is way more space-efficient than I thought, or we’ve seriously forgotten some major stuff. I realize how little I care about this right now. As long as the crashpads, climbing shoes, and at least a tad of chalk are in there, we’ll make due. Oh yeah – and our plane tickets and passports. Can’t forget those.

Paul tried to be a little creative in giving hints on this site of our potential destinations. If you’re a climber, you’ve already got it figured out. If you’re not, then I am jittering with excitement to announce that the final cut of our “big climbing roadtrip” dream will include the following destinations. <drum roll please>

1. Rocky Mountain National Park (and surrounding areas), Colorado
2. Rocklands, South Africa
3. Bishop, California

Yep. That’s the plan man. Thrown in amongst these areas will also be plenty of time spent at home with the fam’s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Marathon, New York.

So without further ado, I now must get back to the packing so we can hit the road….TODAY. Stay tuned on the site. You’re about to see a lot more action.

posted by arr from home in Tucson

I can’t stop looking at this amazing photo, wondering what it will be like to climb in this foreign land, experiencing what may be the world’s most incredible bouldering mecca. It’s almost time people. Time for the ultimate adventure…

Photo by Keith Ladzinski

So many boulders, so little time.

…or not?

A short 4 day trip here wasn’t enough…