New Beginnings

Just before I start today's entry properly, I will let you know that
they seem to have the fire contained now so at least there is a much lower risk of it burning down any homes. The mountain looks incredibly black and bare now, where all the foliage has been burned to nothing. Now that it is mostly out, it makes you realise quite the scale of it, how wide and far up the mountain it had actually gone. Apparently, the fire brigade stayed up most of the night trying to bring it under control using the helicopters to target the hotspots. I must admit though that I am glad that they stopped using the reservoir right next to our hostel, as the amount of noise that was created when they were using this reservoir made it difficult to hear anything so I would have hated trying to sleep with that noise going on, but I am sure that is the least of many peoples worries, but I am glad they have got it under control.

So, this is it, the day that 5 become 3 then 1. We all got up to have breakfast together this morning at 7.30 which was nice before Jeff and Jessie began their long 12-hour drive back to Kwantu. It was sad to see them drive off, it was like we were losing one of our siblings and father, as really during this past week, that is how we have been. It is mad to think that this time last week I had not even met Jessie and yet now she is a huge part in my incredible journey.

After they left me, Annie and Morgan finished packing all our stuff away and placed it in the lock up room downstairs so that we could spend our last morning together exploring the city centre without our luggage. We began by walking 10 minutes to reach Morgan's new accommodation which was called Zebra Crossing so that he was able to drop his bags off ready for tonight. We then carried on down the road heading towards the town centre to see what was around; it was a bit of a chore to find the centre as it was not as well signposted as we thought plus it wasn't quite like a town centre that you would expect as it only had a few shops. We came across Greenmarket Square which is a well-known square in the centre of the town filled with lots of different stalls, most of them selling handmade animals made of wood or beads; there were also a few bag, hat and ostrich egg stalls as well. Realising that the town centre was not quite as vibrant as we had expected, we went to a cafe to sit down with a drink and I tried my first chai tea latte which was surprisingly nice, very sweet and milky. Whilst sitting there we had a look on Google to see what else we could do in this part of town to pass the time and Morgan mentioned a place called Bo-Kaap which is a very colourful part of the town where all the houses are painted bright colours and any free wall, has street art on it. There is also a museum about the heritage of this part of town, but we were concerned that we would not have enough time to get round it and back to our hostel in time for my lift to my new accommodation, so we made our way back although annoyingly

my lift was running 30 minutes late.

I said my goodbyes to the other two and got in the taxi ready for the 30 minute drive to the other side of town to see my home for the next 5 nights.

We pulled up in front of SaltyCrax and there was a large metal gate all the way across the entrance with a small pedestrian gate in between two pillars in the centre, above the gate was 'SaltyCrax Backpackers' in large colourful writing. I approached the gate and was let in after I pressed the bell; I followed the little corridor with a wall on my right and a small koi pond to my left as I walked down to check-in at reception. The reception area also doubled up as a bar and had a couple of picnic tables as well as a sofa in. The lady showed me to my room, and I had the pick of the majority of the beds so I opted for a lower bunk near a window as already, I could feel the heat in the room so am dreading sleeping in it later. The colourful theme continues inside the hostel with large colourful murals along quite a few of the walls and when there aren't bright colours, there seems to be a wood theme. There were two people in my room when I got there but they were just packing and getting ready to leave which was unfortunate but then as I was unpacking, another girl called Steph from Paris came in and we began speaking to each other and she invited me to come

and hang out with her and 2 people she had met at previous hostels by the fire pit which I did. The other 2 guys were called Valentine from Vienna and Florin from Austria; they were all really welcoming to me and invited me to join them down the beach. The sun was so warm today and the sea so refreshing although I dare not go too deep this time; I was amazed by how quick I dried lying in the sun after being in the sea. We then went to a bar overlooking the sea which was nice and looked like it sold good food, although we only got a drink each and they lent me some money as I never took any down to the beach with me which was decent of them. They were nice, although there was something about them that I am not quite sure about, so I won't drop my guard yet and hope to mix in with some different people as soon as I settle in more.

After our drink, they were heading off to a place called Blue Peter, so I headed back to the hostel in time for dinner which tonight was going to be a Neapolitan pasta with salad. Whilst eating my dinner, I decided it would be a good time to contact Stine and see how she is and turned out she is in the partner hostel less than a minute walk from me and was about to head to the beach with a load of

others to watch the sunset so invited me to join. I walked round to meet her and the rest of the volunteers - I guess between 20 and 30 - to head down to the beach. Stine introduced me to 1 of the friends she has made called Jonas, also from Denmark, and the 3 of us sat there discussing jobs back home, our onward travels and what we think of Cape Town so far as well as them both trying to teach me a bit of basic Danish. The sunset was absolutely stunning to see especially with Table Mountain also nearby. The view of Table Mountain from the beach is stunning; you can see the whole of the mountain as well as Signal Hill and Lion's Head and I can see why this area is called Table View. I got back to the hostel around 21.30 after we walked Stine to her hostel and then me and Jonas walked back to ours as we are staying in hostels right opposite each other; I was thankful to not have to walk alone. A lot of people are sitting around the bonfire now so I think I will go and join them to try and mingle more, especially since I found out that no-one else is doing my tour with me this week so I am just going to have to make friends through the hostel.

Although it has been a sad start saying goodbye to everyone, I am excited to see what this week holds.