Hike along Klein Keurbooms River

This hike in Wilderness National Park follows the winding river/stream and ended up at a waterfall and swimming hole. The area around Wilderness is famous for its indigenous forests. If you don’t know what indigenous means, look it up! We've learned that South Africans can get in heated discussions about indigenous plants and trees, and there are efforts to rid certain areas of non-indigenous plants, such as pine and eucalyptus trees. In the Cape Town area, there are very few indigenous trees, though there are forests of pine and eucalyptus – a sore point for some. But in Wilderness there are indigenous forests of milkwood, yellowwood, ironwood, alder, assegai, white peach, saphron, and more. Very cool! (and hey, I used the word 'indigenous' six times in that paragraph)

A few minutes into the walk, we saw a family of baboons up on a cliffside, eating breakfast (berries and seeds) and hollering at each other. We stopped to photograph them and it sure seemed like they looked right back at us! So for the next while, we were both a bit spooked, as we kept hearing their chattering and hoots, and we wondered what we’d do if one suddenly appeared on the path! Fortunately that didn’t happen and we eventually calmed down. Yeah, fun to see from a distance but you don’t want to get close! (they have big, sharp teeth and can get aggressive with humans)




Milkwood trees don’t grow very tall and usually create dense forests. Certain vines love them as well, which is why I (Jul) had to duck my head to get through this ‘tunnel’!

For my brother Matt

Saw these and couldn't help but think of you, bro.
(taken back in January when Rachel was here. We both agree that it would be quite apt for you to get your next haircut at NapyCutz.)

22 March – Two Oceans Half Marathon

Although I (Jim) am not naturally drawn to long races – or any footrace for that matter – I have done a few half marathons in the past few years. So when I caught wind of the Two Oceans Half Marathon (21 km) and Ultra Marathon (56 km), I signed up for the Half and began my training. (By the way, it is called “Two Oceans” because the Ultra (unfortunately not the Half) passes along both sides of the cape peninsula, providing fantastic views of the Atlantic and Indian oceans).

The race began early (6 am!) in part because the Ultra, which begins at 6:25, takes so long and would be no fun at all in a hot, mid-day sun. Honestly I was not quite as excited about this race as I have been about past races, in large part because I was preparing for it alone. My older sister, Katie, and other friends (Chip Sanders, Jennifer Felske, and cousin Jeremy Pennington, to name a few) were missing! But once I arrived at the start and joined the 7,500 other runners I began to smile. The energy, hustle and chatter, the anticipation floating all around you – it’s catching.

Aside from one nagging problem, the run itself went smoothly – a few more hills than in other half’s that I’ve done, but beautiful. And that ‘nagging problem’… let me just say that I learned a lesson: do not gorge on a large steak dinner, followed by an equally large dessert, the day before a race!! You want to be feeling good on race morning, not bursting and less than comfortable in the lower regions. Throughout the race I had some major intestinal “traffic problems” which some pain and discomfort. Needless to say, I finished the race but felt pretty bad the rest of the day. Friends, I beg you, please learn from my mistake!



(the finish line and tents were set up on the rugby fields of UCT campus, so those are some of the campus residences in the background)

Lunch with Jane DeGroot, 21 March (Good Friday)

First, a brief history lesson: my mother and father met at Wheaton College. That is all well and good, but it is entirely possible that they never would have tied the knot if it hadn’t been for one of mom’s good friends, Jane DeGroot. It was Jane who pushed my dad to ask my mom out on a date (he succeeded on his third try, but I suppose that’s another story for another day). As they say, the rest is history.

Jane is currently a TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) Fellow with the State Department at a university in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. She and several colleagues are here in Cape Town to enjoy a couple weeks of rest and relaxation. I haven’t seen Jane in quite a few years…so what fun it was to encounter her on the southern tip of Africa, of all places!

We enjoyed a brief stroll through downtown Cape Town and ended up at Nyoni’s Kraal for lunch.We had a wonderful time together, catching up on each other and each other’s families (the DeGroot kids and Gieser kids are roughly the same age), and sharing about God’s faithfulness in our lives. We were blessed to have this time together.

For interested parties, I jotted down a few dishes available at the restaurant:
Tasty
Vetkoek (Cape Dutch fried donut)
Samoosas (you can get these at Indian restaurants in the US; indicative of the Indian influence in the country)
Biltong (traditional dried meat, sort of like beef jerky)
Smoked snoek (typical fish caught along the Western Cape)

Maybe tasty but haven’t tried yet (have you?!)
Tripe (sheep or cow stomach) with samp and beans (thick bean stew) or pap (thickened cornmeal)
Amangina (chicken feet)
Mopane worms (from the Mopane tree in Zimbabwe)
Amatumbu (sheep intestines)

Birthday Dinner at ‘Addis in Cape’

Ever since we noticed this Ethiopian restaurant in the city, we have been itchin’ to try it out. So last month, as a surprise birthday gift for me (Jul), Jim got a group of friends to meet up with us on a Friday evening. All I knew was that we were going somewhere for dinner, so when we started driving in the direction of the restaurant…and then parked on the street…I tried to appear casual and surprised, though inside I was saying, “Yes, just what I was hoping!” Guess the six years of marriage are starting to have their benefits. I was surprised, however, to find seven friends (from church) join us for the meal.

We both enjoy Ethiopian food a lot – me because of Mom and Dad’s time there and the many times I ate it as a child, and Jim because of the three months he spent there during the summer before college. Amazingly, none of our friends had eaten at this restaurant, and only one had ever had Ethiopian before! The meal was served and eaten out of a large basket lined with injera, which we used to scoop up the various dishes of vegetable, fish, chicken, lamb, and beef.

In the photo (left to right): Fritz, Kirsty, us, Mark, Vuyi, Tulani, Tanya, and Blanche


*note: in the future, we Americans will make dinner reservations (a ‘booking’) for 7 pm or later, in an attempt to fall in line with custom here. On this occasion, we arrived at 6, and the restaurant hadn’t even officially opened! So we had the place to ourselves until another group showed up around 7 or 7:30. By the time we left at 9:30, the restaurant was full and busy.