Good evening from a chilly (like 6°C at night chilly) South Africa! Once again it's been a hectic two weeks here so this is what's been happening...
Week 37 (Monday 13th - Sunday 19th) - Sedgefield to Hopetown
So on Monday we spent most of the day packing the trailers and bakkies with everything we would need for the next couple of weeks (also said bye to Scott since he's heading to Cape Town to see his friends for a while). Why were we packing? Because we were hitting the road! We left at 6am on Tuesday morning to reach Hopetown - a small town situated on the edge of the Great Karoo in the Northern Cape. It took us over 11 hours to get there driving up through the Western Cape and through a large part of the Karoo (a semi-desert region) where I spotted a lot of cacti and caught a glimpse of some springbok (national animal of SA).
We weren't actually staying in Hopetown but rather ~20km away on private land. So on Wednesday we started exploring this new area (OB hasn't ran any courses here before), starting with a small walk up a hill in search of some bushmen paintings. The views were spectacular and I absolutely fell in love with the place. After unsuccessfully locating the paintings we headed back down and to the river in search of a launching site for the raft. We also pitched a watch tent, cleaned the bakkie and created a spiders web for the upcoming course. Later that afternoon a few others went up the hill again and found the paintings, so the rest of us rushed up to see them. They were completely different to the ones we saw in Citrusdal - these ones were carved into rocks on the ground - but were absolutely amazing to see. Once you knew where to look more kept popping up and it was so cool to think that these people saw the animals they drew here where we were staying for the week.
Thursday was another day exploring. We took another walk to and along the river, even spotting some water monitor and snake tracks in the sand. We split up into two groups for the rest of the morning, some people going across the river in the raft in search of a good abseiling site, while the rest of us took a hike up to the main road - where the participants would be dropped off. We also created a limpopo swing, set up the other small activities for the course and filled out RAMs and LOPs (basically health and safety paperwork) for some of the activities we were going to be doing.
Friday morning we all (minus Talitha who was really ill) headed down to the river to raft across. The river we were paddling across was the Orange River - the longest river in South Africa. The paddle was really easy but then further downstream was some rapids so we just had to do a spot of white water rafting! Rhere were definitely some screams as our raft got turned around by the rapids. On the other side we all headed to check out the abseil site that the others had found the previous day. It's quite a small abseil maybe 7 or 8 meters high but the view of the river and land from it is amazing! Once we had crossed back over we started pitching the rest of the big watch tents. After a quick lunch Deon, Sanri and I drove out to the land owners house to pick up all the food for the groups. And also bottled water for us instructors to drink as the water from the taps (river water) seemed to be the cause of why so many people were not feeling 100%. Just before the sun set us three headed back out to the main road where we would meet the participants. This course was for the 'Father a Nation' programme which aims at tackling gender based violence here in SA. So all 85 participants were men who also only mainly spoke Afrikaans. Since it was dark by the time they had all walked down to base nothing else really happened that night.
The first full day of course was Saturday and I headed out early after breakfast with Emily to cross the river and set up the abseil. I love being abseil support and two groups did it that morning. However, when we went back over the river for lunch I was not feeling good at all. It seemed that I couldn't evade whatever the water had given most other people. So Talitha swapped in for me at the abs site while I mainly slept. I did help with water support on the raft though later that afternoon for a while.
Thankfully I was feeling much better on Sunday (though other instructors were not) so headed back across the river to set up the abseil again for the last two groups. The last group helped me carry all the bags down and by the time we re crossed the river it was time for lunch. Afterwards it was time for the closing circle before they all made the walk back up to the main road. Support stayed behind and we started clearing up - sorting through the abs gear, cleaning the water equipment and then taking down all the small activities. The groups had taken down the tents that morning so there was a lot less work for us to do. Once everything was packed back into the correct trailers and bakkies we all headed off in search of a shower (which were the coolest outdoor showers I've ever seen!). That night we debriefed around the fire pit before having a braai.
The 'why do we need to drive all the way back' pose.
Week 38 (Monday 20th - Sunday 26th) - Hopetown to Potchefstroom
So on Monday most of the staff left at 5am to drive back down to Sedgefield. Me, Talitha, Joe, Aphiwe and Nthabiseng however left just after 8am as we were going to be driving further north to another OB base near Potchefstroom. We stopped off at the popcorn factory (the land around Hopetown is all corn) and bought some popcorn before beginning our drive. We drove across the Northern Cape and into the Freestate then started driving up. The journey took ~8 hours and we were all very glad to get to our base in Venterskroon - which is actually in the North West province (we did three provinces in a day!).
Tuesday we spent the day unpacking and I got to see the base properly in day light for the first time and it's great! I really love being up north. That afternoon we headed into Potchefstroom to go shopping for the course and on the drive back we saw two giraffes!! It was INCREDIBLE to see them and I'm still not over it. Thursday we took a walk up to the campsites away from base and also up the trail we'd be walking with our group. We put in an approach line at the top of a dried up waterfall for the groups safety. Saturday was prep for the course. Me and Talitha are getting to co-instruct (under the supervision of an actual instructor) which is super exciting so we threw ourselves into planning out our course. We also went back to Potchefstroom to buy some more food and other stuff we'd need for the next week. Today (Sunday) the group was meant to arrive but now they're not coming till tomorrow (hopefully!!) so it's not been a very busy day.
I'm really looking forward to instructing this course and once it's finished we're straight onto supporting another 'Father a Nation' course here. It's going to be a busy week!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
Rachel :)
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