JHU Public Health Studies in Cape Town: Good Night Cape Town, Good Morning World

Happiness, and hiking. Never have I ever had any intentions of hiking…especially up a mountain. Well, particularly because I am not a huge fan of nature – the woods, bugs, snakes, all of that good stuff. Yet, when you find yourself surrounded by a landscape that looks like it belongs on the cover of National Geographic magazine, you have to give it a chance. I mean, I look straight ahead, I see mountains; I look right, I see mountains; I look left, I see mountains; in my dreams, well, I haven’t seen a mountain just yet, but I feel it coming!

True Beauty of the12 Apostles !

Cape Town, South Africa is absolutely beautiful. So beautiful that I did, in fact, decide to go hiking. Not once, but twice in 24 hours! It all began with Lion’s Head. I remember driving past looking at this thing for days. Every time, the same thought would circle my mind: Mufasa and Simba belong there! Or, are you sure this isn’t Pride Rock? It took a few days before I realized that they don’t even look alike. Well, kind of, but since its definitely not Simba territory, I decided it was certainly my opportunity to make my mark. I had to climb it, and my girls were coming with me!

Pride Rock

Lion's Head

It couldn’t have been a more perfect day to hike 669m above sea level (even though we didn’t walk right out of the sea, we could see the sea so it still counts)! The trail began very much so path like, with a wide and not-so-scary walkway up the hill. I started up, arms pumping, feet moving, smile shining, but it only took about ten minutes uphill for my feet to slowly trot, arms fall – but nonetheless my smile didn’t fail me (: I picked up the pace a little and pushed through until walking up this hill became second nature. Of course, being the girls we are, we had to take pictures on pictures on pictures every chance we could get, even though at the end of the day most of the pictures looked completely identical. It was worth the pit stop water break! However, the clear path didn’t last too long. It became narrow real quick! I peeked over the edge a few times and quietly died inside. I used to be the most daring kid. I really don’t know what happened to me with this whole fear of heights situation. But, its cool; it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you fall off, right? WRONG! Ok, back to our lovely adventure. After a few ladders, role calls, and scaling the mountain time after time again, we were on our way to standing on top of this lion’s head!

I'm on top of the worldddd!

Don't Worry, Be Happy (:

Climbing up wasn’t too bad, but all I could think about was trying to climb down. About an hour and a half into our journey, we made it to the top. Just in time for the sunset! I can honestly say that making it to the top was one huge accomplishment. And it was awesome! The beauty of this sunset relieved all of my worries and deepened all of my happiness. Perfect place for some quick selfies!

Hey, look what we found

JHU REPRESENT

Ooooooooo....

Ahhhhhhhhhh !

What better way to start your day than to wake up to your alarm clock blaring at 4:30am? Attempting to move a leg realizing it feels about five hundred pounds because you’re so sore from walking up a mountain only a several hours prior. I mean it doesn’t get better than that, right? False. That was the ultimate struggle. But I had to persevere and climb another mountain…in complete darkness, yay! Today’s special was Devil’s Peak with a little bit of sunrise on the side. I know the name sounds quite mean, but I didn’t realize how evil a hill could actually be. This time our so-called “trail” consisted of nothing but rocks, shrubs, dirt, and more green pieces of nature. This time, our so-called “trail” also meant walking straight up a steep, vertical hill. I felt like I was walking on the treadmill with an incline of about 234,329. I got that feeling where you feel like your lungs are going to explode, blood pumping. The good part, my Fitbit was really feeling it. I had about 10,000 steps by 1:00pm that afternoon! As we walked up the mountain, the brisk morning wind kept us cool and eager to reach the top. I was feeling accomplished, my determination though. Few breaks and about an hour later, I reached the blockhouse on the mountain just as the sun was about to peek out from under the darkness. It was so refreshing. The sky adorned itself with intense streaks of navy followed by soft orange in color. It was honestly such an incredible feeling. As the sun continued to rise brightening the sky, I felt like the world was waking up one moment at a time. Good morning Cape Town! I couldn’t believe I made it up two mountains in less than 24 hours. Before this weekend, I had never hiked in my life! Maybe this hiking thing isn’t too bad after all. It made me really happy (: