Why did some one not tell me how great South Africa is? Well, a couple people did. I guess I did not entirely believe them, until I finally went to see it for myself. Cape Town is my new favorite city. Rock climbing, surfing, hiking and mt biking less than twenty minutes from the city center. Stunning Wine Country Thirty minutes away. The game reserves, I always thought a safari had to be expensive, at least a thousand dollars. Nope, you just pull up to entrance of Kruger national park, pay the twelve dollar entrance fee and drive around all day, watching the Hippos, Crocodiles, Elephants, Rhinos, Zebras, Giraffes, Lions, Leopards, etc……you get the idea. All from the comfort of your air conditioned rental car. Except for the guy that mugged us everyone was extremely hospitable. Whats not to like, Ok besides the high crime rate.
We did get mugged by knife point in an isolated climbing spot in Waterval Boven. I had my brother on belay, he was ninety feet up the rock. The mugger was obviously waiting for this convenient situation. I saw the thief before he got to us so I told Stef to quickly hide the two cameras in the hole in the rock. We were at least smart enough not to have brought wallets or money with us. He came up from the woods below us, wearing a black ski mask, what a cliche, and holding his knife pointed toward us in a threatening manner. As he was bent over rifling through our nearly empty bags I was quickly lowering Danny. The Mugger looked up and noticed I had dropped Danny to within about 15 feet above his head so unfortunately the opportunity of dropping my brother on the mugger with out getting him stabbed was out of the question. Once he saw Danny so close to the ground he mumbled some threats then took off angry about his lack of booty. He got nothing but a used pair of woman’s sunglasses and a little Swiss army pen knife. That was all that was left in our bags. That being said, we were warned about this particular area by several people and we went climbing there anyway, those people were right, you might get mugged. I would go again in a second. Its kinda like the wild west, its a little rough around the edges, you gotta have your guard up in some area’s. It’s Disney World to the adventure traveler, but Mickey Mouse just might rob you. If your looking for adventure, South Africa is not to be missed. To all the South African climbers we met Thanks again for such a warm welcome, we enjoyed every moment and can’t wait to visit again.
