Eight out of the ten volunteers decided to make the trip. Bryan, the volunteer who was on the same flight as me, decided not to go because he is leaving Cape Town to take advantage of a job/internship opportunity in the USA. Ben, a volunteer from Massachusetts and a huge patriots fan, decided not to go because his parents are in Cape Town for the weekend.
On Friday morning we all packed up our stuff and got into the van. Will drove the van while Roxy, his wife, drove the sedan that was towing the boat. Our trip got off on the wrong foot when Roxy’s car overheated. Will and Roxy had to bring both cars back to the Fish Hoek while the volunteers were stuck on the side of the highway. It was a gorgeous view looking down at downtown Cape Town but we were stuck there for about two hours and it was really hot. Once we got moving again, the trip went relatively smoothly.
As we travelled farther away from Cape Town it was interesting to see how the landscape changed. About an hour outside Cape Town, there are just massive expanses of farm land. For the middle three hours of the car ride all we saw was sheep, ostrich, and cattle farms.
Once we arrived in Riversdale the landscape changed again to forest. The forests were mostly conifer trees and it seemed oddly familiar to America (except for the giant mountains in the distance.) We drove through Riversdale and after a 20 minute ride on a dirt road we finally arrived at our cabin. The pictures do a better job of describing the cabin and the view.
We got there at about 7 o’clock and it was almost dark. As I said before, there was no electricity so we had to unpack and make a fire for dinner in the dark. We cooked chicken on a braai, roasted some marsh mellows and went to sleep.
Unfortunately, the next day was cloudy. Some of the volunteers got an early start and went out to the water but most of us slept in ‘til about 9 o’clock. We hung out on the grass watching the others go tubing and then we took a break to make brunch. We had mass quantities of scrabbled eggs, toast and bacon. We then each got a turn tubing around the lake. The day was really relaxing and a lot of fun. It would have been more fun if the boat didn’t keep stalling. It took about a half hour to get the boat started again when we switched people from the boat to the grass. Further, the boat guzzled gas. It used up 70 liters of fuel in three hours. Because we were isolated from everything (including a gas station)…we only got to use the boat for three hours per day. We cooked up an early braai with steak and sweet potatoes and played games until we went to bed at about 9 o’clock (you can’t really do much at night with no electricity.)
The next day was clear blue sky. Most of the day we spent chilling in the sun while we took turns tubing. We had fried eggs for lunch and a massive dinner with chicken, steak, stuffed squash, salad, and homemade bread rolls. Needless to say, any food that was lacking these passed two weeks I made up for this weekend. I’ve never had so many consecutive meals when I’ve felt so full after everyone. We ate way too many marsh mellows while playing games during the early evening.
On Monday, we decided to get in a boating session and a solid lunch before heading back. I tried knee boarding for the first time but it was an epic fail. Because I was sunburned on the front of my torso from Sunday, I couldn’t take the board on my stomach, I kept letting go before getting the chance to get on my knees. We ran out of fuel before I had a chance to try water skiing, but it looked like a lot of fun and I’m eager to try it. We had scrabbled eggs again for lunch and we hit the road at about 1 o’clock. I got back about 4 hours ago.
Overall, it was a great weekend. While I thought I would struggle a little bit with no electricity it was a really nice change. It slowed things down and the scenery and stars were just breathtaking. That being said, it’s good to be back in the 21st century.
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