We were not lost, however we did spend one of the loveliest Saturdays day being wanderers. You hear about those stories from abroad, even though they are the most miserable to live through, they are the most intriguing to tell. This story, being the first complete bust of a day, was driven by the innocent desire to pet a cheetah.
The group had made a bucket list of things we wanted to do, Spier Winery being at the top of the list. Spier is located outside of Stellenbosch, which is about 45 minutes outside of our super cool and laid back neighborhood of Observatory. Yet, that 45-minute distance conveniently stretched to a 3-hour distance. Spier is this beautiful winery that also has a cheetah reserve located within, where you can pay R110 to hang with an adult cheetah and R220 to hang out with the cubs, a price that is unbeatable in my eyes. We were very excited to spend the rare 65-degree day with the cats.
We had been riding the train into Cape Town, Claremont and the further away Simons Town. However, we had never jumped lines before. We daringly took on the “jumping of the lines” and obliviously wandered into a nightmare. We first took the train to Salt River, where it is a major depot. We waited for about an hour for our next train out to Ereste River, where we had to connect to get to Stellenbosch. A man was pacing back and forth, his scuffed dress shoes competing with the noise caused by the rails. He held his bible high, his scarf swaying with the motion of the locomotive and repeating, “You must get right with Jesus,” along with many other messages.
After the 30 minutes, we then hopped on to Stellebosch, where we encountered another minister. This one was younger, and was speaking about the tensions of the world and specifically Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. “I am not from Zimbabwe, but President Mugabe is in power because God wants him in there. He will continue to be in power as long as God feels as if it is right.”
We got off the train, finally at our destination, however we unknowingly missed the platform that was closer to the winery. We talked to some young South African students and were informed that it would be best to walk a couple miles up the road and try to find a taxi there. However, we were informed about a mile up, that there would not be able to find a taxi on the weekend, which left us all puzzled.
We hiked back to the platform and huffed a bit. I sat with my back against a planting pot, and exhaled “We aren’t going to make it.” The cheetah reserve was only open until 5 p.m., and it was already 4 p.m.. What was even more depressing than missing the cheetahs was that we were going to have to get back on the train and jump the lines once again. We hopped back on an hour later, and when we arrived to Salt River we waited for over an hour. People were bustling, men were screaming selling their Smarties and Nik Naks, and grim was surrounding us.We had to ride back gleaming at Spier Winery, staring straight at our failed attempt.
We hiked back to the platform and huffed a bit. I sat with my back against a planting pot, and exhaled “We aren’t going to make it.” The cheetah reserve was only open until 5 p.m., and it was already 4 p.m.. What was even more depressing than missing the cheetahs was that we were going to have to get back on the train and jump the lines once again. We hopped back on an hour later, and when we arrived to Salt River we waited for over an hour. People were bustling, men were screaming selling their Smarties and Nik Naks, and grim was surrounding us.We had to ride back gleaming at Spier Winery, staring straight at our failed attempt.
After much waiting, the train back to Observatory finally arrived. Hundreds of people swarmed the doors of the train, men were pulling the doors shut while we were trying to get on, and my friend’s camera was stolen out of her purse. All I wanted was to pet a cheetah.
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