Boomslang Cave

Friday afternoon the VAC team hopped a train and headed for Kalk Bay to hike the Boomslang Caves. Kalk Bay is on the other side of the cape, where the water is warmer and the beaches are less crowded (maybe bigger…which could explain them feeling less crowded). Needless to say, the beaches over towards Simon’s Town (in the opposite direction from Cape Town) have become my favourite. Annyyywaayyysss there was a huge group of us cos a bunch of Americans have come over to start their study abroad at UCT (University of Cape Town) and they have some connection to Oliver and Sean (the directors of VAC) I think because during their time here they go to school full time and get set up with a part time internship. Regardless, they came on the hike with us. ((haha sorry this is like the most rambled blog entry yet))

The hike up to the caves took about an hour and once again, as always, was seriously gorgeous! The views were especially pretty because it was right along the beach. Once we got up to the caves we tried to get the flash light (or torch as they call them here) situation sorted out. Only a few people had flash lights so there was like one for every five people…the rest of us had our cell phones (proving to be pretty inaffective).

We got on all fours and headed in to the small entrance of the cave. It was completely dark in there and without a flashlight immediately in front of me it was a little scary trying to ‘nam crawl my way through without hitting my head on any rocks. After a short while we finally reached an area where we could start to make our way into a standing position. Soon enough we were in this huge opening in the cave big enough for everyone to stand and walk around. It was still pitch black (duh, it’s a cave) but there were candles set up around in that area to light and make it easier to see your way around. We hung out in there for a bit then headed towards the exit (luckily big enough to be able to walk the entire way instead of crawling) ooing and awing at all the awesome rock formations around us. As we exited the cave there was seriously the most gorgeous view (I know, I know, you get it, it’s pretty here) of Simon’s town and the beach!

We followed Sean and Carsten down the mountain…the alleged short-cut, which ended up being a hike through the bush. My friend Liz was right behind them and kept hearing them be like, shoot this is the way we always go that ends up being wrong, oh well. We were off the trail, pushing our way through prickly bushes and around trees and twigs not wanting to be pushed out of the way. After a lot of “ouch” and “shit, watch out for this branch” and marco, polos to try and find which direction they went, we finally connected up with the path that led to the road. An hour later, our legs scratched raw and them laughing at leading us in totally the wrong direction, we figured out it was no short cut.

The whole way down we kept reminding ourselves that Cape to Cuba was our next destination…nothing would make this worth it but some mojitos. As we sat there sipping our incredible drinks in the beach front, Cuban-esque cabana, I decided that I love this place…and mojitos.