Two Oceans

Over Easter weekend, I ran the Two Oceans Half Marathon. It is advertised as the most beautiful race on Earth, and I 100% agree! The race started at 6:00am in Newlands and went along the Main Rd in Claremont. After about 5 miles, the sun started coming up and we were running in a residential area with a beautiful view of the mountains. That is, it was beautiful until I realized that I would be running up the nearest one! As soon as we were out of Claremont, the road was winding up the mountain and was lined with these huge, beautiful evergreens. I had contemplated running with my camera, and this was one section of the race that I wish that I had. The incline was pretty steep and lasted about 2 miles, but it was nowhere near as terrible as I thought it would be. Plus, the rest of the race was downhill so I was really able to pick up the pace (although my joints regretted it later)!

The energy in the race was amazing. There were African drummers along the route as well as a few DJs and cheerleading squads. There was also tons of support from the crowds and the 14,000 other runners who were doing the half marathon. International runners have different bib colours, and a lot of other international runners introduced themselves during the run. I met a few people from Brazil as well as Namibia and Zimbabwe.

After the race, my knees started to cramp up and I ended up limping around town for the rest of the day. I was absolutely amazed when I saw the ultra marathon runners, who had run 56k, or about 33.6 miles, strolling around town without looking tired at all! This was also the first year in about 30 years that a South African won the ultra marathon, so there was a lot of patriotism from the South Africans that day.

Before the race, we got supporter signes made at the expo..this one says 'Nobody made you do this Amanda' and the other one says 'Run like someone is chasing you'.

Elite runner finishing the ultra marathon.

Bo-Kaap and Downtown

On Saturday we had a house trip that ended up being a tour of downtown Cape Town and Bo-Kaap. We started out at the Castle, which was originally built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India Company and is the oldest building in South Africa. The Cape was a strategic point because ships needed a place to stop for food and water on the way to India to trade for spices and other goods. The Dutch built the castle to defend it from the threat of a British attack.

The flags represent the different eras of South Africa's history: Dutch rule under the Prince of Orange, British rule, Dutch rule again, British rule again, Apartheid rule, and the current democratic South Africa.

We also walked past the Cape Town City Hall, where Nelson Mandela made his first speech after he was released from Robben Island.


Although most people think of slaves as having been captured from the west coast of Africa and being brought to the Americas, slavery was also an important part of Cape society during the colonial period. The Dutch were ordered not to enslave the local population in the interest of preventing conflicts, so many slaves were imported from India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. Today, their descendants are broadly know as Cape Malays. Along the way, we stopped in at the slave lodge, which is now a museum.

By the time we made it to Bo-Kaap, it was super hot outside! Bo-Kaap is a neighborhood that was originally built to house soldiers but instead was used to house the descendants of former slaves who lived in the Cape Town area. During the apartheid era, everybody who was not classified as a Cape Malay was forced to move out of the area, but now it is known for its beautiful houses!

Pictures of my homestay in Ocean View

Leigh by the tyre repair sign...my host dad Neville has a shop in his garage.

Sign to Ocean View

The delicious seafood dinner caught by Neville!

My host sister and mother, Nicole and Luzanne, and I at Kaulk's Bay.

Fish being hung to dry.

Fall Break in Cape Town.

Last week we had time off from classes for fall break, otherwise known as vac. I had a nice time staying in Cape Town and catching up on homework, although I didn't get to visit any museums, which had been one of my priorities. However, I did get the chance to go for unlimited ribs and prawn with some of my Zimbabwean friends at a restaurant called Aqua, which was fun but also complicated since we forgot to print out our vouchers before we came and had to find a place with free wireless so we could pull them up on the computer screen for the manager. But the food was good, we ate up the rest of the restaurants ribs, and the waiter was nice and let us take doggy bags even though we weren't supposed to. Apparently, there was also a South African movie star at the restaurant. Afterward, we stopped by a salsa club to watch the more accomplished dancers. Ngoni tried to teach me the basic steps, but I definitely couldn't compare to the awesome dancers who were there.

On Wednesday, Quinton, the CIEE program coordinator, surprised us by taking the people who were left in Cape Town on a safari. We went to a game reserve called Fairy Glen. Since it is a game reserve it is much smaller than a national park. The more common animals like Springbok and Zebras are bred on the reserve while the protected species like rhino and lions have to be bought and are usually rescued animals or animals that caused problems in the national park and would have otherwise been put down.

I was surprised at myself for actually being intimidated by some of the animals. We first saw two rhino, who seemed pretty tame until our guide told us that there used to be a hippo on the reserve until it got in a fight with the rhino. Apparently, when the hippo opened its mouth to bite the rhino, the rhino gored it in the roof of its mouth and actually lifted it off of the ground!


Rhinos are endangered because their horns can be sold for a lot of money in Asia where people think that ground horns can cure cancer. Horns are usually about 7 kgs and are worth $36,000 per kg.

We were also able to see some giraffes. According to our guide, giraffes are unable to lay down for long periods of time or to sleep because they need to keep high blood pressure to get blood from their hearts to their brains.


I found the buffalo to be the most intimidating because one of the buffalo we saw had mauled our guide on the reserve about a year ago. It was also aggressive when we drove by, and ended up trying to charge the vehicle!




The elephant was my favorite animal. Elephants eat and destroy about 3 tonnes of vegetation a day, so they constantly have to be planting more trees on the reserve. This elephant had lived in Kruger National Park, but was going to be put down because it had a habit of damaging fences and buildings in the parks. Since the animals on the game reserve are somewhat protected and don't really need to defend themselves, the reserve was able to take in the elephant and cut off its tusks so that it wouldn't be able to damage the property. This one was busy uprooting a tree when we drove by...



Lastly, we saw the lions. They were a sad story because they were rescued from captivity and could not be released into the wild because they never learned how to hunt.




P.S. All of the pictures are courtesy of Farai because I forgot my camera. Thanks!