"Everything in Africa Bites" -Winnie

Remember one of the rules that I learned while traveling from the very first post? Patience! Still learning more about that every day. I figured that since I started, I might as well finish… I’m going to start this blog off with what I wanted to say before I left! So I’ll start with what I already typed, then see where it goes from there =) So this would be…
2 April 2009.

I am very much so a last minute type of person. I wonder if that will ever change. While I am out and while I am traveling I think of all of these things I want to say, points I want to make, moments I want to remember so that later on I am able to share them, then I take so long in actually doing it! Needless to say it is the night before we leave for our big ten-day road trip across South Africa, and here I am finally sitting down to write the blog that should have been done days ago!
I’m pretty excited for this spring break. Three and a half other girls and I rented a car and we are going to drive across the Garden Route to Cape Town, taking our time and stopping off here and there to site see and be typical tourists. The three girls are Tara, Lisa and Kari. Ironically they are all from Minnesota! (Which I will appreciate later on when its only a couple hours to travel to see each other next year!). The half is Hilary (also from MN). She is coming along for the first 3 or 4 days, then meeting her parents and hooking up with them and heading back towards PE. Some highlights should be: going caving, shark diving, table mountain, Robben Island and then the high adventure-like activities such as kloofing and abseiling… more details on that later (when I know what they are as well!)
Now lets backtrack…
Where to start? Once again I am always the person with the most bug bites, not something to run home sharing but I’d say there are about 20 on my legs! The itching and scratching is worth it though, this past weekend was known as Frontier Farm Weekend. Loading up into a bus with Shaddly as our driver, Monalisa in the front, and 10 varsity students eager to see what adventures lie ahead we set off toward the mountains, truly not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.
About three hours later we were greeted by the most energetic, hospital, warm and friendly lady named Winnie. Winnie and Marness went out of their way in hospitality making our stay amazing. Their unique, up beat, giving personalities put the icing on the cake. On the farm was a baby Kudu that I got to watch get fed. It was semi locked up, with only a sheep. The Kudu hadn’t seen the sun yet or any outside animals outside the shed it was in. Marness went inside in the morning and at night and fed it warm milk from a 2 liter bottle… can you imagine the transition the Kudu will have to go through when it realizes how many other animals are out there, or what the sun or daylight or anything looks like? Hopefully it’ll be ok!
They also have a baby dike (jack rabbit kind of thing) named Christmas. I tried Biltong (beef jerky –kinda). Do I even need to mention how much I love the individualized warm and welcoming homes?? Winnie had lots of antiques of sppons, plates, tea cups, chickens on pots and some sweet wicker lamps. I love it!
Saturday I woke up to the clucks of the chickens, the crow of the rooster, even the moos of the cows (sounds pretty country, eh?) and got to go milk cows, ride a horse bareback! Then road a horse all around their farmland. Driving through the mountains we saw lots of sheep, impalas, wild horses and more deer-like animals. Riding in the back of the Toyota trucks, only metal bars to hold on to, our trusty guides took us to a cliff and overlook where we would be going and swimming in a break in the rocks. The view was magnificent! The icy water was quite a refreshing break from the heat of the day! The area was called the ‘jail’ because of the narrow river, high mountains and there being no way to climb out. After a relaxing afternoon of tennis and laying around, we had an amazing supper and then headed out on a nighttime game drive in their truck which was amazing!
We drove through the clouds on Sunday to get to the top of the mountains. They reported that on a clear day you can see all the way to Grahmstown (an hour and half from PE) and sometimes even to Port Elizabeth. It was about an hour jot to the top and the view was amazing. Ah, it was so great!
It was an educating weekend. Got to learn more about small town atmospheres, hear first hand from Winnie the effects of living in such a secluded area, running a farm and the monopoly of a market that is created in small mountainous towns. I got to hear more about the culture and how they have workers who live on their farm and raise their children on the farm. It was really interesting. Not sure if I could ever be cut out for the farm type, who am I kidding, I am not cut out to be the farm type, but props to them!

I also want to mention that the Thursday before that weekend my friend took me and another friend flying! It was amazing. I actually flew over the same mountains and dams and area that we were in the next day. It was beautiful seeing southern South Africa from the air. We were in a tiny ¾ person plane and were up for about 2 hours. Circling around we came back by the ocean and flew over about 200 dolphins! Isn’t life amazing? Who would have thought I’d ever get to experience beauty like this…