So, we get to the South African border, and our landlord (who is guiding the trip, having worked with a river-rafting company for years) turns around and announces that he is often not allowed into the country legally due to the fact that he had been there working so many times. As a result, we will have to trick the border officials. This entailed not only switching cars so that my housemate Robbie could drive, but make up a story, lie to the border officials, and pretend that we didn't even know our landlord. If it sounds sketchy it is--but remember, this is Africa, and if you want to get anything done, things like this are not uncommon. In fact, strange occurences such as this (or related to classes at UWC, traffic, food service, etc) often force one of the 13 of us to say TIA.
Anyway, we get over the border after waiting for about 2 hours in line, and drive for about 20 minutes to the base camp. We set up camp, which means that we take everything out of the car and pile it on the ground, and being to eat a traditional South African dish. We explored the site, only to realize that we were about 5 meters from the river! When done, we hunker down to bed under the stars.
After a cold night, we woke up, received instructions on how to raft, and went at it. I was in the back with my roommate. Though it was slow going at first, we soon turned out to be pretty good at it! It would be repetitive for me to explain in detail the next few days, because all we did was paddle. We would arise around 7-7:30 each morning, eat breakfast, get on the water, paddle for a few hours, stop for lunch, paddle for a few more hours, and then find a place to camp and braai for the night.
Our first night rafting was spent on the South African side of the river. Adria and I zipped our sleeping bags together for warmth, and spent the night sliding down a hilly embankment as we slept. I awoke around 7 in the morning to the sound of cows; this was not unusual as we had passed a few herds of cows that belonged to rural Namibians living in huts along the side of the river. Turns out, however, that one of these herds was encroaching on our camp! It was a hilarious experience to walk over to the "kitchen," aka the fire, and discover around 30 cows wandering around.
The next day was an adventure, to say the least. Though the day before had been painfully hot, this day was not only pretty cloudy, but it ended up thunderstorming! I, of course, thought it made the experience all the more intense and hard-core, so I loved it! This was much to the chagrin of the rest of my colleagues, who only stopped their complaining to yell at me to end my joyful cheering. The rain did hold off enough for us to go "nappy riding," which meant that we got out of the canoes and wore our lifejackets like nappies (diapers, for all you Americans) while going down a rapid! It was great fun.
The second night was spent in Namibia. As Adria had learned while in line to cross the border, Namibia is a desert, so that we were surrounded by sand and rocks. This was great because it produced what we endearingly nicknamed the "Pee Canyon." You guessed it, it was a small canyon of sand that had caved in that we used as our bathroom.
Actually, one of the best parts of the trip was deciding which bush or tree to use as our bathroom. This proved difficult at night, so it ended up that 5 of us would take a flashlight over to a designated patch of darkness and "drop trou."
Our third night of rafting was spent on an island between the two countries. This was eagerly welcomed because there was a great amount of wind--which, of course, came along with a great amount of effort and swearing (the latter much made by me as I fought my way against the wind).
We had an hour of paddling on Sunday morning, and finally arrived at the camp where we were picked up. We were driven back to the camp where we started, only to realize that it took a half hour! All of our work seemed trivial, but I have to say that this was by far one of my favorite parts of being in South Africa. I really felt a connection with nature, as Thoreau-like as that is. It was great to sleep under the stars, to live naturally and almost purely.
This was aided by the beauty of the land. At times the river would be 15 meters wide, surrounded by rocky red mountains. Other times we would be paddling through channels, reeds and grass on either side. Actually, I almost feel that it is pointless for me to try to describe the landscape, because it is more untouched, beautiful, and perfect than words can ever let on. Sometimes it's best to just let things like this be, because trying to relate it just ruins the experience. Let me just say that watching the sun set over the mountains, or watching the sun rise through the clouds over the river, was more than I had ever imagined.
We spent another 8 hours in the car, and arrived back at home around 10 pm on Sunday. It is early Tuesday afternoon as I write this (after a morning of homework and teaching), and I am still grimacing at my blisters. Hopefully they will disappear by tomorrow, when I am apparently running a chess club in the school that I teach! Don't even ask how this happened, because I am unsure myself.
But, TIA.
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