Just Don't Feed The Baboons: Wilderness

We left at 5:45 in the morning on Friday and headed East. Tamsin, one of Roxy's surf instructors, stayed at the house the night before so it was a very cramped in the Will's wagon with 7 people. The trip to Wilderness, a small beach town near George, took about 5 hours on the Garden Route. We actually passed Riversdale, the camp site that we stayed at in early March. Before even arriving at the lodge we stopped at Victoria Bay, our primary surf spot, to catch some waves. Unfortunately, I felt terrible when we arrived and I couldn't bring myself to get my wet suit on. It was a good thing too because the swell was pretty intense and I was feeling a little nauseous. I passed out in the car for what felt like 10 minutes but turned out to be about 3 hours.

Joining us on the Surfing trip was Roxy's "Divas" a group of 6 middle aged women who were a part of Roxy's surf school. For most of them it was their first real surfing trip and they were all very excited.They met us in Vic Bay and geared up shortly after we got the 8 surf boards off the wagon's broken roof rack.

Before passing out in the car, I did take a look at the beach. It was nothing like Muizenberg. The beach break was hitting hard and even the foamies were crashing. I saw Caine, Sammy, and Rosie try to surf them for a little bit and I felt more and more content with my decision to crash in the car.

After my nap, everyone got back and while the surf was "hectic" there were injuries galore. Rosie took a surf board to the nose as well as cutting here toes on some rocks. Caine reopened, a rather nasty wound that he got while getting the gate open at the school. While my group stayed with the foamies, the divas paddled out 50 yards farther and were catching some major waves. Well, they were trying to catch them, most of them just got seriously wiped out. One of the women got wiped out so bad she "almost drowned!" She let everyone know about this the remainder of the trip. The same women badly scraped her ankle and the whole inside of her foot was lacerated and bloody.

Despite all of this, "it was awesome!" And we hit the road again for about another 5 minutes until we got to our backpacker's lodge in Wilderness. The accommodations were surprisingly good. The bed was more comfortable than my bed in Fish Hoek and the view from our room was probably the best view in Wilderness- Sandy beach as long as you could see.

Sadly, you couldn't see very far. It was cloudy when we arrived and the weather got worse as the weekend progressed. After lunch, Caine, Will, Roxy and I took a walk along the beach and it started to rain just about when we were turning around to head back to the hostel. It rained the rest of the afternoon. Apparently rain isn't that big of a deal for surfing (because you're going to get wet anyway), however, with rain and clouds come wind and the wind was the back breaker that made this surfing weekend just a weekend.

The next morning, we once again got up before the sun came out. Despite the weather conditions we just wanted to check out the surf first hand. We went to Buffalo's Bay, about 20 minutes from the lodge, and the surf was erratic and ominous. It was my sense that everyone was a little relieved when Roxy and Tamsin decided to pass on Buffalo's Bay. On the way back to the lodge, we visited a local crafts market. The market was similar to the one in Muizenberg though it was much bigger.

When we got back to the lodge, there was really not much to do. All the activities in Wilderness are, not surprisingly, outside and this was the most rain that they've gotten in many months.Instead, I got to know some of the Divas.We got into some pretty in depth conversations and I got a sense of their perspective on American, South African, and local issues. Joining us that afternoon was a Canadian girl traveling South Africa and having people from the UK, USA, SA, and Canada all participate in a conversation about international issues was fascinating.

Time passed slowly because we got up so early and by 3 o'clock, everyone was pretty talked out. A lot people went down to the bar to watch the rugby game that started at 5. I actually got really into the book that I brought and decided to finish a few chapters instead of watch the game (shocking I know).

The evening carried out uneventfully with a solid dinner and an early bedtime. The next morning we got to sleep in until 6:45. We checked out the surf one last time at Vic Bay on our way out of the area. Th weather had changed and it was warmer and a little sunny but apparently the wind was even worse and the waves were well beyond any of our expertise. Roxy called about three surf shops that we would pass going along the western coast and they all said that the conditions were similar. And so, for a variety of reasons, I did not surf on the surfing trip. I was actually not all that disappointed though. I started to feel, even before the weekend began, that surfing is not really my thing and I was quite content to stay dry and enjoy the South African countryside.

As my flight approaches, I'm feeling more and more like I'm ready and wanting to go home. I feel as though I've accomplished everything that I've wanted to in South Africa and I'm ready to leave.That said, I am looking forward to the next few days where I'll be city exploring in and around Cape Town.

As you can imagine, there weren't that many pictures to take on the weekend but I did take a few: