Hiking Through the Clouds

This weekend our students took on an incredible feat of hiking Lion's Head, a moderately challenging trail in Table Mountain National Park. Although the Lion's Head peak is known for it's incredible views of Cape Town and the ocean, we mostly hiked in the clouds all day. Still, our students made the best of the gray day, encouraging each other and keeping high spirits throughout. We encountered ladders, rock scrambles and chain sections as we carefully picked our way over the wet rocks. Since we hiked with almost no visibility we had no way of knowing when we were at the top (or even if we were getting close), so we just pressed on, until we encountered the end of the trail, which was more gray! It was definitely an Instagram vs. Realtiy moment but our students made the best of it, taking pictures and eating snacks at the top. One the way back down we played music and chatted, happily recounting our success. We had a few slippery scrapes but everyone made it down feeling cold, proud, and happy. We got to relax the rest of the day and warm up in the V&A Mall at the Waterfront area of Cape Town. Our students were able to get food and buy anything that they made have needed in their first week.

It was a great start to a relaxing weekend. In our reflection, many students expressed feeling like they had been here for longer than a week. We are hoping that spirits and energy stay high as we enter into our second week, where we will begin our active service building a food garden. I look forward to sharing our progress with you!