In My African Dream: 28-12-2006 EL to Cape Town to Cederberg

Did you notice how I wrote the date? Yeah, being there long enough got to me...

Anywho, on to the good stuff:

It's been a crazy past few days. We left EL @ ~7.15, 3hrs after we were supposed to. The bus trip was something like 18hrs. We stopped in PE & met up with the remainder of our crew. They're interesting folk. Christine asked me if we have Coke in America.

....

It reminds me of all the silly questions Brett & Tammy got when they were at camp. The bus ride was rather uneventful. mainly we would chat, eat sweets, catch a bit of the movie that happened to be on & sleep. Some wires must have been crossed or something b/c the air conditioning couldn't be on at the same time as the sound on the TVs. Top quality buses...

We got into Cape Town around 11. Some guys from the Scouts met us at the drop off to drive us to the Seascout Base. We threw our bags in a trailer and one of the guys gestured up the road and said his car was that way. We began walking up the road and Christine got to the car first and climbed in the back seat. Only thing was that wasn't his car. The girl that had been sitting in the backseat was seriously confused. Christine was quite embarrassed and we all had a good laugh at her expense (she turned out to be quite the proverbial airhead on the trip in case you hadn't picked up on that yet).

After getting to the base we scoured the town for food. We found a grocery store and raided it. To kill time as the rest of the scouts came we played a game of soccer in the middle of the base. That lasted about ten minutes until Brett kicked the ball through one of the windows of the home of the base's caretakers. He owned up to it and offered to replace it and we were all scolded for it. Adults...

We then met some Girl Guides (SA's equivalent to our Girl Scouts. Scouts in SA is actually co-educational but groups like the Girl Guides didn't want to be absorbed into it and thus remained their own organization.). The girls were an interesting group. We had a fun time talking with them (most weren't too terribly bright, I think I had a better handle on SA's geography than some of them did). I did meet a few though that had a handle on things. I am still in contact with one of them. We're actually on a sort of badge exchange. She sends me some of hers and I send her some of mine. It's really cool.

While there I also got the chance to participate in a game of rugby. I had watched from the sidelines and had Steve (see previous post) explain the rules to me. We took on the contingent of Irish scouts who think that two-hand touch means I can use both arms to tackle you. Needless to say, my athletic prowess aided my team immensely.

That night, the commissioner at the base ended up guilting everyone into eating a meal at the base as opposed to going out to Cape Town to eat. It wasn't even that good, chicken & warm potato salad. [Sidenote: They don't like the way I pronounce "potato"] After dinner we pretty much just went around and talked to people. One girl, Lauren, asked me if I knew her aunt in Miami. "Of course," was my reply. Seriously.. who doesn't?

Josh has certainly found his niche. He really milks the whole being a foreigner thing. I find it to be quite annoying. Sure at times I pulled the same crap but only on people I knew and only as a joke really. Ah... oh well. At least we're in separate patrols for the duration of Cederberg.

Here's my patrol.
(front row: Michael, Tammy, Christine. Second row: Llewellyn, Steven, Aiden. Back Row: Brett & me)

We were woken up at 2am to take a bus to Cederberg. It was really more like one of those landrover things you see on safaris. It was a very cold, bumpy three hour ride to the mountains. By the time we got to camp the sun had risen and it was very hot. We helped get things organized while we waited for the rest of the people to show up. They called us to parade but realized some people still weren't there. Also, Josh made me go up and unfurl the flag. He claimed that since he brought the flag that I should have to do that. I stopped to ask myself which of the two of us was the adult leader here. Then I just forgot about it b/c I really considered it to be an honor. That is, until I actually unfurled it. Ours was the biggest of all the flags. I really felt like a jackass up there. After we broke from parade I was approached by one of the leaders from the patrol next to mine. It turned out to be Euginio, one of the SA scouts that stayed with my troop at the 2001 BSA Nat'l Jamboree. I was stunned really. He runs a troop of Sea Scouts in Cape Town. We chatted briefly because there were meetings to go to and supplies to get. We made sure to see each other at the end and exchange information.

John Mutti, the man in charge of this whole shindig.

At parade.

The flags (looks like New Zealand, US, Ireland, Cederberg (yellow & upside down), South Africa, & South African Scouts Assoc.)

Euginio's patrol (Euginio on far left)

After all of that we got our gear and supplies taken care of and headed off to our first base, Handicap Awareness. It was actually another three hour bus ride to the other side of the range. When we got there we had to put up a tent, our shelter for the night, and then take it down again. The wind was too fierce to keep it pegged down. After dinner and a shower I immediately fell asleep. I had gotten a major sinus headache from all of the dust I had inhaled that day.

Sometime in the middle of the night I awoke b/c of a chilly wind. I looked for our wind break and realized I had somehow rolled off my mat and Brett was now all over it. I got him to move over and went back asleep.

When I got up in the morning it almost immediately began to rain. [Sidenote: The entire week before Brett and Gareth kept talking about how hot it gets in Cederberg and how we really didn't need the emergency sleeping bags we had b/c it never rains there either. That's all I heard about it. Hot hot hot and dry dry dry.] We packed up all our things headed over to the base. It was basically us putting on contraptions to inhibit our senses/abilities. Things like blindfolds, slings, sour candies, etc. Our first task was to carry Michael, whilst blindfolded, through the craggy terrain. We got him through it with minimal injury to him or ourselves. Brett was the only person not blindfolded and he was the one giving us directions. He had a sour candy and crutches to deal with though.

Brett leading us through the treacherous rocks.

For our second task we paired up and one person (on crutches) had to lead someone with a blindfold. I was paired up with Steven and we had a blast. I was on the crutches and had some fun with him. I tried not to hurt him but he did run into some bushes and I had a good laugh at his expense.

We then went down to their main campsite and painted a banner using only our mouths. It turned out quite nice. There was a sheep and a moose (from two songs they like to sing) on a mountain. We also had to write postcards using our opposite hands and these gigantic pens. Here's what I wrote:

"Pop-

SA is crazy. They make me write left-handed. Cederberg is quite nice. Tell Hopwood I saw Euginio here. He'll know. See you in a few.

James"

Of course it was scrawled all over the place and resembled more of a first grader's attempt to write than my own. They also had a few games for us to play like blind checkers. They also wanted to spraypaint someone's hair. Brett offered and ended up with some pink hair.

After that was all said and done we tried bartering with the staff for a few *ahem* "necessities." We were somewhat successful in obtaining a few celebratory items for the upcoming New Years celebration (let's just say that the SA scouts are far more relaxed when it comes to rules and regulations). We loaded our gear and ourselves into the back of their bakkie and they drove us to our next base. I had never been more scared for my life than at that point. Standing in the back of the pick up as they sped down the mountain roads in the rain was scary enough, but having Steven who is twice my size grab onto me for dear life was even worse. But, we made it and went to Donkey Carts.

It wasn't that thrilling but it did beat walking in the rain. We had to take shifts in riding b/c there wasn't enough space in the carts for our packs and ourselves. Eventually we made it to a small village where we'll stay for the night. They split us up to stay with some natives. Most of them speak mainly Afrikaans so I got put w/the best translator, Christine. Later, we hiked up a small, rocky mountain and chilled as we looked around. The locals made us dinner, a curry chicken and rice dish that was quite nice.

I also remember remarking to myself about the rocks in this place. It looks like God's rubbish bin, rocks are just strewn about, almost arbitrarily.