2am Easter Sunday Capetown

My internal clock thinks its about dinner time SF time, but its 2am here in Capetown. I wandered out of my boutique hotel in the old section of Capetown expecting all the strees to be rolled up. Wrongo! While at first I thought this place is a lot like Wellington or Perth, there's a critical difference. Even on easter sunday well past midnight, the nightlife here is just getting started. Clubs are open, food is available (including african sausages and bad british meat pies) both in the shops and on the street. The clubs are rocking and -- oh -- the music here is way better than in New Zealand and Australia. So no problemo finding a 24 hour internet cafe or some chow.

I conked out upon arrival after a gadzillion hours on the plane. No airport pickup as they booked me for a month from now (despite knowing that I'm here for the Cape Epic). But folks are nice and I can almost understand what they are saying. After a 4 hour "nap" I suited up for a night ride. Not just a flat twirl around the downtown but a roll up and over the ridge between Table Mountain and Lions Head out to Camputs Bay. Beautiful homes, beautiful views, great roads, perfect weather -- what else can I say. Things feel pretty safe here and the race relations seem to be working more naturally than in the U.S. Money has become the real issue here, as there's clearly a lot of it around, but no clear way to redistribute it without pulling the whole thing down. This place definitely feels "on the edge of Afrcia" rather than "in Africa."

Damned if I'm not missing two out of three of the bolts to hold my stem in place. And of course the shops are all closed tomorrow -- damn -- I've got to find this exotic bolt piece or I'm going to have to replace my whole rig for the race. I can ride around on the road as it is, but the rig I've got won't handle any sort of pounding.