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Published: February 21st 2008
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Overlook
This is the view off the backyard we camped on- the valley below and the mountains straight ahead. Hey all-
I wanted to update about my adventure this past weekend- not so exciting as the drakensburg mountains, but hey- you can't climb mountains and swim in incredible wonderfalls
every weekend, right?
This weekend we followed a hunch after seeing a flier in a music shop. Kyla and I had ventured to find a music shop last week one day after class- she needed new strings for her guitar. We found it, made friends with the guy working there, and asked him about the flier- which advertised a show in Howick, Syd Kitchen had just come back from his US/UK tour (we didnt know him but he was locally well known). The guy, Paul, gave us the details but he wasn't sure how we could get there without a car- so he gave me the contact email for the organizers. When I got home I emailed them saying something like 'we are foreigners that love music, any idea how we can get to your event from campus?' and a day later Pia, one of the organizers, called and offered to pick us up that afternoon, she had plans to be in the area to pick up her
Barnyard Show
This is the best picture that came out of the barn, it was dark. daughter.
Saturday rolled around and Kyla, Guthrie, Lyle, and I were waiting on the main road outside of campus- Pia and her daughter rolled up in an old school white pick up truck and the four of us hopped in the back. The ride was nice, as Howick is located in the hills above Pietermaritzburg, and it was only about 30-40 minutes until we arrived. She dropped us off on the site of the show, which was a farm-type area, a barn, a big back yard that overlooked a HUGE valley that went for miles. The plan was for us to hang out until the show, camp out in the back (they told us it was okay), and decided what to do the next day. We played frisbee, walked around a bit, found a small restuarant to get dinner, and made our way back after the meal.
The event, it turns out is like a big community open mic night, with this show being headlined by a local folk musician (Syd Kitchen). There were about 40-60 people there, mostly families- the kids ran around in the backyard or sat and watched or sat around the campfire in the
Saturday Night Music
Saturday Night Music at the Forgotten Falls- that was the event! back. The parents brought picnic baskets (that seemed mostly filled with beer or wine). The show was a lot of fun and the mood was really comfortable. We got to the show as the first guy was finishing up- the second guy to come up was a young kid, who was classical guitar. The kid was really good and finished up after a few songs.
Next up was Syd (short list of performers, I guess- they told us to come back next month with performers!). He was middle aged/older guy with long blond hair. He started out with a solo on this weird flute-like instrument that seemed to be made out of a flexible plastic pipe/tubing (view of that here:
). Then he went into songs on the guitar- they were all good folk songs about lovers lost and things like that, he made alot of jokes, and dealt well when a drunk older women in the front started heckling him. For one of his last songs, he called one of the organizers of event, whose name is Kech- he is a member of the indigenous tribes of Peru. He accompanied Syd with his Peruvian flute, and they did
a rendition of a well known anti-war song (that I didn't recognize but everyone else did). It was great.
After Syd finished, people stayed around and they played music- we sat by the fire and soon got tired and went to sleep in our tent. Let me clarify that sentence. All four of us when to sleep in our cheap two-person tent. It was not at all comfortable and we definitely did not pitch it on even ground.
After a long night in which I got no sleep, we were awake for the sun was up, which ended up being great because we got to enjoy sun ride from over the mountains, which overlooked the valley, which was also overlooked by the yard we were on. After breakfast, Guthrie and Lyle went back to PMB on minibus taxis while Kyla and I decided to hike a Umgeni Nature Reserve- which was pretty close to us.
After consulting a map and buying water at a garage shop (here, a garage is the place were you buy petrol ), we were on our way. The Reserve was just up the road from the
farm we stayed on and we walked in the shoulder of the road- it ended up being only about 10-20 minute walk. The woman who worked at the front desk agreed to hold our bags while we hiked, we payed the fee (15 Rand = 2 USD), and went in.
We hiked for about 2 hours but that was all we could do, because the sun was getting really intense, and in order to get to the other hikes we needed a car to drive further into the park- it was too much to walk the whole way just to start the other hikes. We got to see some great flowers and plants, waterfalls, and then- on our way out of the park- we just happened across some zebras hiding behind a few trees- we ended up standing about 8 feet from them. it was very cool.
Thats about it for now- enjoy these pictures- they are courtesy of Kyla. I should be getting my camera very very soon.
Hamba Kahle*!
mark
*The 'hl' sound is similar to the 'dl' except its softer. I'll explain like the SATs would:
dl is to hl
as
soft z is to soft j
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Aunt Ri
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Camping in Africa
How cool is it that you hiked, camped and ate out all in the same 24 hour period about a gazillion miles away and we get to see the pictures faster than the camera your mother mailed you last week will ever arrive!!! I love travelling with you and can't wait for your next blog. Love ya, Aunt Ri