Cape Town, Scarborough, surfing and Wim Hoff swims

Oct 21

We left safari and headed to Scarborough, a picturesque little town about 45 minutes from Cape Town right on the edge of the Cape Point Nature reserve. Will has two cousins who live in the area, one in the Observatory neighborhood of Cape Town and the other just down the street in Scarborough, which meant the BEST advice on where to go, what to do and the ultimate way to experience all the area had to offer. Plus, we were able to meet their sweet young families (3 sweet babies between the two cousins aging from 3 months to 3 years) which felt like quite a grounding gift in the midst of all the travel. We have not been in one place for longer than a week since we left Colorado, two months ago now, and it felt amazing to slow down, unpack, decompress and soak up the physical beauty that surrounded us. Scarborough feels like stepping back in time to Malibu in the 1950s. The houses are sweet and funky, the waves are beautiful and empty, the beaches are dotted with families, friends and locals skinny dipping in the freezing water, boogie boarding in the shore break, or gathering for an afternoon beer. The tiny town is maybe 500 people strong, with two coffee shops, a couple of restaurants, and a tiny little organic grocer and bakery where we quickly become regulars. It’s absolute heaven.

After a week of 4:50 wake-up calls we relished sleeping late and getting back into the daily routine of proper homeschooling. We spent hours each day playing on the beach and took daily plunges into the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean in front of our wonderfully funky little beach shack. We hiked the hills and mountains around Cape Town and in the Cape Point Nature reserve, both of which are shocking in their natural beauty. The Cape Point Nature Reserve is filled with rugged rocks and cliffs towering above the sea and cutting deep into the stormy ocean. The Cape Point is one of the most dangerous coastlines in the world which means there are 26 shipwrecks dotting the coastline, making for very fun adventure hiking with the boys. The natural vegetation in the area, fynbos, comprises the smallest but richest of the world’s six floral kingdoms and is awe inspiring at every turn. Table Mountain National Park has recently become one of the 7 New Natural Wonders of the World and is easy to see why with its blend of rugged mountains, beautiful beaches and ancient forests all interfacing with the city hugging its slopes. We hiked up Lion’s Head and the boys could not have been more excited by the “dangerous” ladders, chains and steps we had to use to make the summit. I love those “we’re not in America anymore” moments when you contrast a hike like that to how safe and cautious everything we have stateside really is. We also had the chance to explore the city, visiting the Aquarium, a couple of unique zones in the downtown (including stops at Al and Karin’s incredibly cool small businesses, Ballo and Dear Rae), and Cam’s workshop where he crafts the most amazing custom kitchen cabinetry, furniture, and now watches as well. Getting the inside glimpse they shared most definitely gave us a deeper insight than we would have had just staying by the harbor with the tourist crowds, and how lucky we felt because of it.

Part way through our week we joined a research program (found though the same group, Working Abroad, who had connected us with the Ionian Dolphin Project), and spent a day with Cape RADD (Research and Diver Development) on a sailboat in False Bay. False Bay is one of the most ecologically diverse marine habitats in the world owing to the convergence of cold water from the Atlantic Ocean and warmer water from the Indian, both pushed by currents far stronger than the gulf stream we experience in the Atlantic back home, bringing huge amounts of nutrients from the depths of the oceans. We headed out to gather water samples to test for micro plastic quantities and deploy a baited camera to monitor fish and sea life behaviors. As we sailed out to “Seal Island” (an island in the False Bay that houses over 60k seals), what felt like hundreds of dolphins joined us, surfing the wake off the bow and stern of our sailboat, jumping, spinning and racing through the water and air. We saw a Southern Right Whale and a Brides Wale. We saw sunfish and an endless number of seals warming their flippers in the sunshine. After we dropped our camera and were eating lunch, our captain asked the boys if they ever knew anyone who had been bitten by a shark…their answer was a resounding NO, and what followed was the most insane, intense, intimate tale as our captain, Craig, shared the story of nearly being killed by a great white while diving for lobster for a Christmas Eve feast 20 years ago in Scarborough. I can’t quite put into words the complexity and rawness of his story, not told in a gruesome rock ‘em shock ‘em sort of a way, but in a sweet, sincere and profound sharing of this massive moment that changed his life forever. Somehow Craig managed to share this story not in a way that scared us all out of ever swimming again, but reminded us of the respect the ocean commands and the wildness of nature and the world we inhabit. I think it also helped that the Great Whites have been driven out of Scarborough and the oceans surrounding Cape Town by the Orcas, who, about 5 years ago, started hunting them for their livers, launching a full fledge decimation of the shark population. There hasn’t been a Great White spotted in the area for nearly 5 years after hundreds were found dead with an almost surgical slit in their stomachs where their livers should have been. Once again, the power of nature is INSANE!

Despite all the talk of sharks and the wildness of the ocean, perhaps the very best thing to come out of our week in Scarborough was watching the boys fall in love with surfing and becoming completely obsessed. We popped around the point to the town of Muizenberg, hands down the best place to learn to surf I have ever seen or could ever imagine. There are miles of shallow, gentle, sandy bottomed beach break with endless waves breaking non-stop as far as the eye can see. First Holden and then Huxley became obsessed with the feeling of paddling, splashing, jumping to their feet and riding waves all the way to the beach where they would jump off their boards and ask to go again, and again and again. Now they keep asking where else along our adventure they’ll be able to find surf; with 3 months in Australia and New Zealand on the horizon and two parents who love to surf, it’s a pretty fun new family addition to our itinerary and adventure.

Despite our newfound love for Scarborough and the Cape Town area, one of the most profound adjustments coming from Boulder has been the necessity to recalibrate our awareness to the persistent underlying risks and the mindfulness around safety that is required here. You lock every door and window and set your alarm when you go to bed or leave the house. You never leave anything visible in your car, ever. You don’t go out for evening walks after dark. Perhaps the most torturesome has been not running all the trails and beautiful hills that surround us because there is a damn good chance of being mugged. It’s honestly been rather entertaining watching Will try and find someone who will tell him it’s ok to go run solo, asking everyone from his cousins to the guy at the coffee shop to the manager of the surf store to the captain of our boat, but unfortunately they all give the same answer, you just don’t go alone unless you want to risk being mugged…😳 Dorothy, we’re not in Boulder anymore. Still, we could not be more in love with this amazing slice of the earth and are already excited to come back…