ElephantsAbroad

LEFT! Kip and I had our driving lesson this morning and, woof, Cape Town driving is not intuitive. I will be taking lots of Ubers.

What I found to be the most difficult aspect of driving on the left is the perception that I was going to be hit on the right by oncoming traffic. The city roads are extremely narrow and it’s often required to drive in the opposite lane to avoid sideswiping a parked car. This is not at all my idea of a good time. My instructor was also not having a good time as she kept reminding me that I should not drive so close to the curb. I didn’t think I was!

Other than the narrow roads, there is an added element of surprise in that drivers do not obey stop signs and pedestrians do not obey crosswalks. People will walk into the street at any given moment and they especially like to test tourist drivers. My instructor let me know there is a big payout if an American hits you and that I should try to avoid that. Thank God she told me.

After our individual driving lessons, Kip and I met up with Henri to finalize the apartment selection. Unfortunately, the retro penthouse fell through because the owners decided they want to rent daily instead of monthly which does not work for us. I was fairly bummed about this but I guess it was not meant to be.

We met the company’s security expert at the other apartment (big deck, no oven) to do a walkthrough. While there, we learned they will be renovating the exterior of the building and there will be scaffolding and workers present through the end of June. This is a big N-O for us and for the company and just like that, we’re back at square one. Henri has some ideas and he and I are planning on going back out this week to look at more options. Needless to say, I don’t think we’re getting out of this hotel room by the 1^st of the month. Ugh.

We did get out of the room a bunch this weekend, which was fabulous! We went to Clifton Beach on Saturday and hiked Lion’s Head on Sunday. We didn’t get all the way to the top of Lion’s Head because I got a little scared. Not of the actual climb, but of our fellow climbers. It was busy near the top and a few larger folks were both in front of us and behind us. It felt like one bad move and we were all going to go toppling down the mountain. I am sure this has never happened, and I blame my mom for thinking that everyone is going to die, but we turned around anyway.

Kip is back at work tomorrow and I am looking forward to starting our routine. I am going to head to the Waterfront for the day and try to get some work done from there. Tomorrow marks one week of being in Cape Town and while it’s been a great first week, I am ready to find a rhythm and feel some normalcy.

I’ll keep you posted on what shakes out this week with the apartment search. Send us some good real estate juju; we need it!