I want to celebrate and live my life

I don't know how its possible to come back after a week of wandering and feel so utterly... amazing.

The journey began like any other Saturday morning would. The clear skies promised a beautiful barely spring day perfect for driving lazily through the mountain passes of the N2. I gathered a duffel bag of only a few changes of clothing, toiletries and all the food I had left in the house. I couldn’t forget my camera, but I somehow managed to forget a towel. I hustled over to Nursery to meet my travelling companions Spencer and Parker.

We took our sweet time getting over to the Budget rental, re-hashing the previous evening’s events with a couple couch crashers in the Nursery Living Room. When we finally made it, armed with coffees and credit cards, we were shown to our brand spanking new Opal. We were naturally scared shitless at the prospect of driving manual on the opposite side of the road in a mint-condition car. Spencer’s 22 so his name was on the documents, but we casually allowed Parker to negotiate the vehicle out of the treacherous parking lot. I happily report that I was able to contribute to the driving success by pointing out to Parker that he thought 3rd gear was 1st gear. I had to find a way to earn some street credit with these boys and I think that observation took care of it.

So off we went, snapping pictures of our city, retreating into the distance as we accelerated into the unknown with no plans at all for our week of vacation. Parker’s favourite music blasted from the stereo- a mixture of mash-ups and dub-step. After some deliberation we decided our first stop would be Mossel Bay, which had a sleepy beach town vibe.

The first Backpackers we saw, we decided we would stay at. Mossel Bay Backpackers was clean and welcoming, and run by a 20-something bleach blonde surfer dude who seemed pretty cool and possibly drunk on arrival. We settled into our digs and chowed down on some of the pasta with veggies and sauce I’d cooked the night before for all of us. At some point during this organizational period, “Ze Germans” showed up and our lives got a lot more interesting. Ze Germans are 4 guys who are also exchange students at UCT. They were bombing around in a little red VW and they were in search of a place to stay so they could drink “ze be-ahs” (read: the beers). They generously shared some of their precious beers with us and I couldn’t help but notice how uncanny the similarities were between the characters in the movie Beerfest and these German exchange students. We left the house to find a place to watch the rugby game after shotgunning a few in the backyard with a Lebanese chick sporting a weave and her Jewish hippie ambiguous boyfriend. We were a crew of 9 now rolling through a deserted Mossel Bay.

Many things happened this night, few of which I am at liberty to speak of. Spencer, who at this point was rocking an alter-ego we referred to as “Chaz” because he was trying to grow a moustache, needed to be assisted to his bunk bed at the backpackers at around 10 PM after flipping me over in a shopping cart. Ze Germans found Weiner Schnitzel outside of an abandoned club so we spent some time there watching them devour it and talk about how it was more delicious in the motherland. Before packing it in for the night we all decided the next day would be spent quad biking through a game reserve per suggestion of Parker. Ze Germans and the hippies were interested in joining us, so with a start time of 7:30 AM we clamoured into our crowded bunks and dreamt of what the next day would hold.

Reluctantly I exited my bed the next day, secretly trying to get out of the quad biking Parker had planned. Luckily, he dragged Spencer (AKA Chaz) and I out of bed and threw us in the Opal. We made our way down a sketchy dirt road towards the game reserve with little idea what to expect, but upon arriving we realized that they day would be quite the adventure. Ze Germans needs “be-ahs, cigarettes, and coffee” so Spencer, Parker and I went out in the first group with Jewish hippie on 4 wheeled motorized bikes, or “quads.” They taught us how to operate our steeds and offered us goggles and shotty bike helmets that were optional on these machines that reach about 100 kilometres per hour. We learned quickly how to make them go and took off down the dirt path into the jungle to see what animals were waking up. I watched a giraffe run over a ridge with a herd of wildebeests—it was like the discovery channel in real life. The 2 white rhinos on the reserve found their way over to us and were literally 10 feet away as we snapped pictures. When they charged us I was so scared I rammed my quad into the guide who was also furiously trying to retreat from the angry animal. Once a safe distance away, we laughed about the incident and marvelled at hilarious series of photos showing the rhino’s approach. We visited a special area where two cheetahs with sway-hip were being kept. Due to in-breeding, these cheetahs had a genetic defect that causes them to lose balance when running at top speed. Our guide told us these cheetahs have still tried to take down animals before and warned us to be still and quite when entering. Just as he was about to open the gate I noticed one of the cheetahs crawling over the ridge, low on its haunches, staring at us. I pointed it out to our guide and he slammed the gate closed and said that today was not a good day to meet the cheetah dubbed “bitch” because she was preparing to pounce on one of us. Dodged a bullet.

After quad biking we had light meal of muesli and yogurt with coffee while looking out onto the reserve. They offered to take us out on the reserve in a jeep at night if we stayed for the evening, but we were antsy to keep moving. The lodge was beautiful, and I hope to one day get my parents there for a vacation.

I will continue this post soon but right now I’m exhausted and have crazy amounts of laundry to do.



Love from a story where the best is yet to come,



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