Earlier this month I visited Cape Town for the first time. To be totally honest, I didn’t know very much about South Africa and it wasn’t somewhere that I’d ever considered adding to my travel wish list. A few days before Christmas, I got the confirmation of the shoot dates and location from the adidas running team. We were going to be in Cape Town for five days to film a spring summer running campaign. Excitement overload! 🙂

I mentioned the trip to a few a people and I received two different reactions. Some of the first things I heard were, ‘Oh, be careful, it’s not a safe place to visit!’, the next thing I heard was ‘Oh my gosh, it’s incredible! You will absolutely love it!
A lot of places have a reputation of being unsafe for tourists, especially for women, and it can be off putting for sure. As I was traveling with a group I felt assured that it would be fine. Cape Town is a very popular travel destination and like any big city in the world, there is a degree of poverty and crime but a lot of what I read online was grossly exaggerated and essentially quite insulting to the people of South Africa.

We stepped of the plane, after a 12 hour flight (ouch!) and the people were as warm as the weather. The mountain skyline was absolutely stunning! We got in to our car and I talked to the driver for the entire thirty minute journey. He told us about the weather forecast, the mountain hiking routes, the beaches and the best restaurants in town.

South Africa is currently experiencing a severe draught. There are signs in all of the bathrooms reminding you to limit your water use as much as possible. It’s estimated that it will take at least ten years for the county to recover. It definitely made me consider how much water we use each day at home and how much we waste.

When ever I visit a new city, I always go out for an early morning run. It’s the BEST way to explore and to see the city before it wakes up. I ran along Seapoint everyday, it was so beautiful! I had to stop half way through my route just to take it all in.

‘The world is so big, you’ll never see it all if you’re standing in one place for too long.’

Shooting with adidas is always a lot of fun, I was back with Nethaneel Blake, aka track super star! We shot together last year in LA. I can’t wait to see the final video, I think it will be out in March/ April.

After we wrapped on the shoot, we had a free day before our return flight. What do you do after you’ve been running for 3 days!? Hike a mountain of course 🙂 My legs were totally battered but it was absolutely worth it! Just look at that view!!

It took us about ninety minutes to climb from the bottom to the top. I consider myself to be pretty fit but it was really hard work. There is a cable car, so if you’re not able to hike or if your travelling with young kids, you can still go to the very top of the world famous Table mountain.

Cape Town is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to, I really hope that I can visit again one day.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCAtvb7SNIk&w=560&h=315]