Cederberg Mountains

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This weekend was spent in the Cederberg Mountains which were pretty amazing. I never really thought of South Africa as being a region with much mountains but so far the only parts of the country I have seen have included mountains. It reminds me of colorado though so I am ok with it, and i love to go and play in the mountains. The weekend started off with a chilly rainy friday afternoon drive about 350 KM. The weather is very unusual for this time of year as Feb is typically the warmest month of the year. We arrived at camp after a 3 hour drive on nice roads and about 45 minuets on a bumpy gravel road. Camp was beautiful despite the chill and clouds in the air. We eventually all got settled, after getting kicked out of a cabin that the group hadn't actually rented. My cabin's name was Pluto and the surrounding ones were all the planets names plus Orion- although I suppose that Pluto is no longer officially a planet. We hung out and had a traditional Briaa (bbq esentaill) and got to know each other a little better. Despite having been together for almost 3 weeks, we have a big group and it is difficult to talk to everyone regularly. The night was clear and stars were amazing- we were right under the milky way. On Saturday morning 1/2 that group headed off for a 15 mile hike, and despite telling myself that I was going to do just go with the easy group, we all know that I decided to go for the "big" hike. It was very rainy, windy, and cold the entire time and we were pretty unprepaired for this. In the end the views were worth it and i'm glad I went, but it was pretty chilly. The hike included not just walking up and down hills and over rocks, but actually climbing through small cracks in the rocks, at one point having to lie on your back arms above your head adn squeeze through a very small hole- some compared it to giving birth although it was not bad for me as I am fairly small. After reaching the summit of the mountain we proceed to the Arch which was beautiful- i wish I would have enjoyed it more but seeing as I was shivering. Finally, we finished up the weekend on Sunday with a wine tasting at 10 am- i do believe this is the earliest I have ever started drinking. This winery is known for their white wines, and not being one much for wine I rather enjoyed theirs. Supposidly they are one of the largest importers of SA wine to America but are mostly on the East coast- but its fairly inexpensive good wine (12 US dollars at home for their cheaper stuff). After that we headed off to cave art but the sun/bushman people. It was so cool to see this art that had been their anywhere from 8000-25000 years ago. We also ate lunch in a cave that was the secret meeting place for proponents to aparthied- which is what the signatures in the pictures are. One of the spots was basically a white spot where people had thrown rocks at it. It is a debated spot of whether this "graffiti" should be removed- I vote to keep it as it is such a part of SA's history, despite the terrible things that these people were trying to do. A pretty uneventful drive back wrapped up a fabulous weekend, although I did see my 1st baboon on the way home, as well as ostriches and zebras.

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[Michelle]

Zebra
Next time, take some pictures of the Zebras!