Anna's African Adventure Vol II

Here is a copy of the 2nd mass email that is en route...enjoy!

There is no real way to start this email, except to state the obvious that it is far overdue. While it might be satisfying for some to hear some grand glorious excuse the reasoning is quite simple; I've been busy. Perhaps at the end, that is if you make it to the end of this email, the lateness of it will be justified as you will have a better understanding as to all of the things that have been keeping me busy.
The secondary disclaimer to this email is that if you have been checking my blog
(annagrimsrud.blogspot.com) some of this will most definitely be redundant.
Additionally, if you have not checked the blog it may be worthwhile to do so as many of the below stories are highlight there with photographs. And so it goes...

Cape Town is a glorious city with something always happening. Its location makes so many activities easily accessible that if anyone here was ever to claim of being bored they would be totally responsible. There are the obvious attractions of the beaches and the mountain and these provide ample opportunities for swimming, beaching, and hiking. Additionally, there is running along the shoreline while the sun rises, mountain biking, climbing and picturesque views. Perhaps the most popular activity is going for sundowners on the beach; the simple and pleasurable experience of taking a picnic to the shoreline, the mountain top or the hillside. A common picnic would include cambambert cheese, salty biscuits, rolls, tomatoes, cucumbers, spicy hummus, and a bottle of rose or red wine with a rich piece of chocolate. This is all on top of a sea breeze, stunning mountain view and sunset. My most memorable "sundowners" have been on Clifton 4th beach and a top of Lion's Head both with Nell and Rob (a Dutch couple who I share much of my leisure time with). The evening at Clifton involved an epic battle of the wind and sand vs. the soft cheese and can of coke and the ongoing pursuit of shelter behind boulders. The Lion's Head event was a 45 min hike up to a location where you get a 360 degree of Cape Town. This includes the ocean with its white sand beaches, the downtown lights, the Twelve Apostles (12 mountain peaks) and Table Mountain. Also along for this adventure was a fellow Canadian, Andrea. The plan was to go up on a full moon, enjoy dinner with the sun setting, and proceed down with the aid of the moonlight. All of this did happen, although the trip down was more treacherous than anticipated (taking almost twice as long as the way up) and we went 3 days after full moon. Nonetheless, just stunning.
If you are more of a morning person, the breakfast outing is also common. Despite a shark death in the month before my arrival, Fish Hoek is a popular spot for a morning dip before indulging in some pastries and coffee. After running a 15km road race in Constantia, I accompanied Juliet and her parents to Fish Hoek after stopping off for fresh croissant sandwiches to accompany the packed canisters of coffee. This was quite the quick dip thanks to a brisk wind and the body shock post running. An equally enjoyable morning involved coordinating 3 vehicles to arrive on the shoreline, and then walking along the sea wall to swim back. I can happily report that I resisted entering the water beyond the "shark zone" as marked by large orange buoy's justifying it with "I can only cause my mother so much stress". This morning with the Shillington's saw us arriving after the swim at Olympia Cafe for fresh baked croissants (with ham, cheese and mustard all inside) and freshly brewed coffee.
Perhaps by now you are noticing the trend in this email with mentionings of food. Clearly, there are many dining establishments that have and continue to warrant my money. However, sometimes there is nothing more satisfying that enjoying a home-cooked meal.
A few Friday's ago, I had the pleasure of eating at Mike and Gail's place. This couple lives in a gorgeous house in Newlands that is around a hundred years old. Their neighbour's house was built in 1776 and is a national historical house. Mike and Gail's place has super high ceilings, a large parking area, a black bottomed pool and a master bedroom that has French doors that open up to face an unblocked view of Table Mountain. Highlights of the dinner at their house included not only great company and a stunning location, but viewing photos from our camping trip together (details to come), a great game of May I (a card game) and enjoying a chili chocolate. That's right, a chili chocolate. Bought up in White River (which is a small town near Kruger National Park), these divine chocolates also contain chili. Lovely.
Now Mike and Gail were two of the 6 of us who went on a 5 day hiking expedition at the end of February. The rest of the team was Jamie (another student at Sports Science), his father Roger and his friend Graham. The trip involved a 1000m altitude loss in the first day, and then 4 days of rock hopping and swimming with a pack down a river. What a great adventure. You have to carry all your food (obviously) and ensure that your pack is waterproof. The funniest part of this trip to me was that we never went more than 2 hours without a Tea Break. Now I know that some people like tea, but here I have noticed a "tea culture". Everyone drinks tea, and 90% have milk in their tea. Also, you must have a strong opinion on Roobois tea, this certain brand of an herbal tea. Unfortunately, I feel like a bit of a fool for my lack of tea desire, and because I can't really tell the difference between Roobois and any other type of tea.
Mike and Gail were also played a key role in why last weekend was incredible. They own a house in the Cederberg, which is a really interesting area about 2 ½ hours north of Cape Town. This house is just stunning, built on top of a little rock face with all natural materials so that it blends in so much with the landscape that unless you know where to look you won't see it. It has an inverted apex roof so that there are 360 degree views everywhere and a bathtub that makes you feel as though you're sitting on top of world because of breath taking view. We only spent two days and one night there (despite it being a long weekend) but were still able to enjoy a small hike (where we all practiced speaking French for some reason) a bottle of champagne, and many games of cards. Many thanks for them allowing us the privilege of staying there!
Other weekend escapades have included visiting Stellenbosch, a university town about 45 minutes from Cape Town. In Stellenbosch I have seen the craziness of the first week of varsity, visited wine farms between their and Franschoek, and spent an afternoon drinking home brewed beer on the side of a rose farm. Stellenbosch is a very Afrikaans city, and also is renowned for its Cape Dutch architecture. I was also there last night for a birthday dinner. It was nice to enjoy a pint of Belgian beer and then go for Indian food. Probably the most "action-packed" weekend was about three weeks ago where I ran the 15km race, went to Fish Hoek for a swim, and then on Sunday competed in the Cape Argus Cycle Tour.
Now this cycle race is 109km and circles the Cape so I now have a great idea about where everything is relative to each other! With over 35,000+ cyclists entered in the race, it affects the entire city. The race starts at around 6am for the elite cyclists…my start time was at 9:52 which is just fine considering the only other cycling I've done in the past 6 months was an hour long mountain bike ride a few weeks before. Points worth mentioning about the race include: just when you don't think it can get any more bizarre you end up cycling next to a bunch of wild baboons, the wind literally almost blew us over for about 20km with sand and rocks being swept off the shore and into my face, wearing a helmet that I clearly didn't understand and therefore it acting like a parachute (trust me, just look at any of the photos), wearing cycling shorts (there's a first time for everything), and seeing dolphins jump while cycling on the home stretch. After the Argus, we made a quick stop at home for a very necessary shower, and then rushed to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens for one of the Sunday evening outdoor concerts. Here we relaxed on the lawn, listened to music and had another picnic! The highlight was probably Rob uncorking a bottle of champagne and soaking fellow concert goers…all they could really do is laugh.
Pizza in Cape Town has also been a great experience. Whereas pizza in Edmonton usually consists of ordering in food so that we can sit downstairs and veg out after deciding it's too much of a mission to clean the kitchen to cook anything, pizza in Cape Town is always an experience. One of the most popular pizzas here is garlic, bacon and banana. Yes banana, and I've had mango on pizza too and it's great! The only poor pizza I've had so far was one night when we somehow decided to go bowling as the movie we wanted to see was sold out. It happened to be student night and to play a game of bowling, get a bottle of beer and a slice of pizza was $5CAD, or you could pay more just to bowl. How cool, but no wonder the pizza wasn't the best ever.
Now back to the Sports Science Institute and things that are of interest. First off, what a cool place. Always things happening, testing going on, international guests, brilliant lectures and something to do. I spend everyday doing something different than the day before. Last week was the International Symposium on Hyponatraemia where there were guests from Canada, the US, the UK and New Zealand. This has been Tim Noakes' big area of interest in recent years (along with the central governor theory) and so it was a climax for a lot of research that has come out of the Institute in recent years. I've been able to spend a lot of time in the biochemistry lab here learning and practicing lab techniques doing everything from glucose analyzer, DNA isolations and lactate concentration measurements. I've also been spending a lot of time recently collecting body image assessment, demographic and socio-cultural, medical history, physical activity data and anthropometric data on black South African women both lean and obese. We are also spending time organizing a test race for a new sports beverage that the Gatorade equivalent South African company, Energade, is producing. This is leading up to the Comrades race next year, because Coca-cola is no longer going to be available and so there needs to be a drink with a similar glucose concentration and gastric emptying properties. Comrades is a famous 91km ultramarathon that takes place in South Africa every year. Additionally, I am going to be helping with some testing on Comrades runners before they compete and hopefully attending the race on July 16th to work with runners who collapse into medical tents. Neat…sorry for the dork factor in the past paragraph. One of the coolest lectures so far this year, was Tim Noakes giving his presentation on the first sub-4 minute mile run by Roger Bannister. Roger and Tim and actually friends, and Tim read us this letter that Dr. Bannister had sent him recently, as well as recalling details of their conversations last year at the 50th anniversary of the fall of the sub 4-minute mile.
In terms of things I still need to do in Cape Town, there is a lot. Despite being here I still haven't been up Table Mountain. Now in my own defense, I have been up Lion's Head, I do run part of the way up quite regularly when I run in Newlands forest and on my only attempt we were nailed with a rain storm. Needless to say, that has to be a priority. Additionally, I have yet to be to Boulders Beach to see the penguins, haven't driven to Blouberg to see the most famous view of Table Mountain, I want to go to out for a steak with chili and chocolate sauce, I need to go to the outdoor market at Green Point, and to go and watch the fisherman come in with their catch and buy something from them. I would like to continue running along the seaside as the sun comes up and in the forest and through Kirstenbosch Gardens, swimming in the sea before a weekend breakfast, and to try and get back to the Cederberg.
Fortunately for me, my great friend Avaleigh (a fellow "Kinesiologist") is arriving to meet me here in Cape Town on April 21st. We are then going to embark on real adventure, an overland trip through Southern Africa. This will involve a 20 day trek from Cape Town up the west coast and into Namibia (where I'll spend my 23rd birthday) and then Zambia and Botswana to ultimately end of at Vic Falls. En route we will be camping the whole time, get to see 4 of the big 5 animals if all goes well, and hopefully meet other eager travelers. After road trip back from Jo'burg to Cape Town, we will spend a few weeks here helping with pre-Comrades testing, before heading up to London on June 21st. The Europe leg of the trip is less scheduled, although current ideas include participating in the Mont Blanc ½ marathon in Chamonix France where we will hopefully meet up with Emily, and then traveling hopefully to at least Spain and Switzerland. Rob and Nell will also be back in the Netherlands for a few months, so it'd be great to see them.
So there you have it. The adventure continues…and doesn't slow down. Please check out photos of many of these adventures at annagrimsrud.blogspot.com and may this email find you in good health and high spirits. My apologies for any typos and run-on sentences, and congrats if you made it this far in one sitting. Until next time...
Lots of love and all the best,
Anna*