The Pacemaker and Chapman’s Peak - Day 388

Today was about being grateful for the Pacemaker and Chapman’s Peak.

Our fourth Parkrun at Fish Hoek; thankfully this one was flat, windless and just a smattering of sand. With a much larger group of just under 300, I got carried away and right at the start jogged!! In fact, I jogged a few times. Gratefully I had a pacemaker (the running kind, not the heart kind), not that he realised it. He jogged more than me; however I walked faster than him, so we played catch up for most of the 5km. Right on the home straight, Keith (we discovered his name at the end when I thanked him) overtook me. I was not having that, so somehow had the strength to jog passed, still being overtaken by a wee boy, with his Mum edging him on saying “Go on, overtake the lady”. Tim and I both beat our target of under 30 and 50 minutes. Tim suffered calf pain, first in one leg, then the other, but managed to push through. We were very happy bunnies at the end though. Back to our Airbnb to get showered and packed, our host had treated us to breakfast at The Sweetest Thing as the wifi hadn’t been working. How kind and generous. She really didn’t need to do that, these things happen, and was out of her control. On the way to the café, you would have heard us groaning at each step up and down the hills; all good for the muscles. After packing the car, we travelled to Cape Town through Chapman’s peak; another of Thomas Bain’s surveying masterpieces, built in 1887. The views were spectacular, with a massively long, flat and wide white deserted beach at Noordhoek, fabulous views of the sea crashing against the cliffs at Hout Bay. It was incredible to drive under enormous cliff overhangs which seemed to defy gravity! And now we are staying in Green Point in a lovely clean and spacious studio flat with all that we need. The brochures are out so that we can make the best use of our time here in the Mother City before leaving for another continent in less than a fortnight.