facts of the day!
#1--my feet are kickiiiiin' ...WHAT?! in the metaphorical sense, yo. can i get a "peeee-U."
#2--when i washed my hands in the sink after lunch today, i acclimated. i saw my basil plant on the windowsill & the sunlight pouring in & i felt like a part of it all. is that strange? i felt at home in the light.
lemme tell you the tale of 8 americans & 1 canadian who find themselves lost in the thickets... of the african wilderness!!!:
it all started one friday evening when our curious combi driver named morris arrived at uni to drive us off into the mountains & valleys & wide open antelope filled spaces of cumberland nature reserve. we rented out a cabin-ish thing with 1 room of about 20 bunk beds all pushed together & spider webs& a kitchen all under a tinroof that sounds very pretty in the rainsss that come everynight here.RAINY SEASON :O
so... we are greeted by this olderish woman who's real nice and motherly & she tells us where the pots & pans are & that if we swim it's at our own risk due to crocs in the water & that we are held responisble should any hippos or black mambas kill/maim us on the trails. & then it was a dark & stormy night like most nights..so we made s'mores on the stove & drank somewine & played some cards & smoked a bowl & acted all together silly & played in our cool fort bunk bed set-up til everyone passedthefuckout,yo
& so we planned a hike for 5am & actually went like whoooooa.. who ever really follows through on that early morning sheeeiiite=us i suppose, but it was way cool/worth it cause we saw an antelope munching on greenery & i thought to myself "whoa maybe i am really far from home" & that was like wake-up call number1, but in a supercool kinda way.
so anyway i'm really blabbering, but i promise i'll get to the point here soon....then we get back and its still super early & so we make some hardboiled eggs & put on our bathings suits to go lay in the sun a while & it was a pretty big WTF kinda moment--eating a hard boiled egg & drinking hot tea in a bikini on top of a mountain with this postcard-no-way-this-is-IRL kinda view to my left & 5 awesom chicks to my right & i am reading abook about a hermaphrodite (middlesex, yo...it's bangin')& sunning & all is well & then we do some yoga & my candle stick posture is totally getting on point ...
after we head out for a 6 hour hike cause we are all feeling like being pretty extreme, but let me just tell you i never really planned on the crazy type of extremities that went down. yes, soooo we are walkin and walkin on the path down deep into the valley to the river bed & we talk about how crazy lush the vegitation is here while we are walking through the hella-viney forest & we come to the river & see the big croc warning signs & that's pretty funny so some people take some pictures & we keep on keepin' on til then we come to a big-sized stream at which point we are not so sure of what this has to do with the path & there are 2 big trees fallen over it like in the movies & so we figure maybe we cross them?? so we do, & then we think well maybe this thorny tree here just feel over the path, so we army crawl through the mud underneeath& go a little farther to see that we are verymuch not going the right way at all so we go back to those logs & have a snack & decide that we will just hike along this stream cause the fall we are trying to get to is fed by it, so if we follow then we'll get there just dandy. but that's when shit get a little hairy cause the water is deep & the forest isn't so hikeable, but i was not it the mood for soggy feet (or slimmy things that exhist inwaters))so i was like "bunk that shizz let's go this way" so some of the other ladies & i crossed to the shore & i'm leading the way hacking/weaving through mad vines junglegym style & i am still bearing the scabs of the thorns that broke the skin like crazy all over my shoulders, because conditions were wrough. but then we find the TRAIL!!!!!! *que heavenly-radiant beam of light music*
it's easy goin' like WHOA til we see that who ever laid out this trail must have seriously BUMPED THEIR HEAD. it just goes right up 90 degree rock faces & we are climbing hands & feet holding onto whatever theheck we can like roots and boulders & whatnot until we come to this sunny green normalish path & it's smooth sailing for a minute until we see all these wasps. the suckers are big & their nest is right there & it's so so silent & still & we look at each other & a small debate about turning back insues but NO FREAKIN WAY!!! not after we went through all that crap, so we sort of move through with fast-paced tip toe action &wrap our limbs into ourselves so we are small as possible & then omg.. the view on the other side was out 100% reward. just through the waspy trees was an opening and we looked out & saw how far we'd come. we were 3/4 the way up the size of this mountain and you can look out across the valley and see the red cliffs & rocks on the toher side, which are identical to where we are standing & it is just--well it was themost peaceful symbiotic sort of moment in my life thus far, i'm pretty sure. but thenit was on with the hike & the trail starts going downdown & soon we're at the water fall & we all sit & it is amazing (it's not the one i posted in the bulletin the other day... i'll have pics form this trip soon enough). there's a big pool of water and cliffs all around it and forest behind us.
now, the risk of whatever malaria/crocodilecrazy water creature dangers might exist totally took backseat to culminating the hike & we all slowly dove in andy first then me then lori then marilegh then everyone else. we swam across to the fall and pulled our selves onto the rocks underneath & looked up & !@$@..%%&^$&(*&()*^$%..$!$..%@$^&( whatta day
the hike back to the top of the mountain was bananas without us even having to lose the trail. we were litterally rock climbing hands & feet over ledges & through cavities & just DONT LOOK DOWN...you kjnow?cause if we were on an even path, it was the edge of a cliff.
so we got to the top & i made a sandwich of wheat bread & peanut butter & a chocolate bar & looked out at the view & picked some flowers to press & decided that this tripkicks ass. the end.
#2--when i washed my hands in the sink after lunch today, i acclimated. i saw my basil plant on the windowsill & the sunlight pouring in & i felt like a part of it all. is that strange? i felt at home in the light.
lemme tell you the tale of 8 americans & 1 canadian who find themselves lost in the thickets... of the african wilderness!!!:
it all started one friday evening when our curious combi driver named morris arrived at uni to drive us off into the mountains & valleys & wide open antelope filled spaces of cumberland nature reserve. we rented out a cabin-ish thing with 1 room of about 20 bunk beds all pushed together & spider webs& a kitchen all under a tinroof that sounds very pretty in the rainsss that come everynight here.RAINY SEASON :O
so... we are greeted by this olderish woman who's real nice and motherly & she tells us where the pots & pans are & that if we swim it's at our own risk due to crocs in the water & that we are held responisble should any hippos or black mambas kill/maim us on the trails. & then it was a dark & stormy night like most nights..so we made s'mores on the stove & drank somewine & played some cards & smoked a bowl & acted all together silly & played in our cool fort bunk bed set-up til everyone passedthefuckout,yo
& so we planned a hike for 5am & actually went like whoooooa.. who ever really follows through on that early morning sheeeiiite=us i suppose, but it was way cool/worth it cause we saw an antelope munching on greenery & i thought to myself "whoa maybe i am really far from home" & that was like wake-up call number1, but in a supercool kinda way.
so anyway i'm really blabbering, but i promise i'll get to the point here soon....then we get back and its still super early & so we make some hardboiled eggs & put on our bathings suits to go lay in the sun a while & it was a pretty big WTF kinda moment--eating a hard boiled egg & drinking hot tea in a bikini on top of a mountain with this postcard-no-way-this-is-IRL kinda view to my left & 5 awesom chicks to my right & i am reading abook about a hermaphrodite (middlesex, yo...it's bangin')& sunning & all is well & then we do some yoga & my candle stick posture is totally getting on point ...
after we head out for a 6 hour hike cause we are all feeling like being pretty extreme, but let me just tell you i never really planned on the crazy type of extremities that went down. yes, soooo we are walkin and walkin on the path down deep into the valley to the river bed & we talk about how crazy lush the vegitation is here while we are walking through the hella-viney forest & we come to the river & see the big croc warning signs & that's pretty funny so some people take some pictures & we keep on keepin' on til then we come to a big-sized stream at which point we are not so sure of what this has to do with the path & there are 2 big trees fallen over it like in the movies & so we figure maybe we cross them?? so we do, & then we think well maybe this thorny tree here just feel over the path, so we army crawl through the mud underneeath& go a little farther to see that we are verymuch not going the right way at all so we go back to those logs & have a snack & decide that we will just hike along this stream cause the fall we are trying to get to is fed by it, so if we follow then we'll get there just dandy. but that's when shit get a little hairy cause the water is deep & the forest isn't so hikeable, but i was not it the mood for soggy feet (or slimmy things that exhist inwaters))so i was like "bunk that shizz let's go this way" so some of the other ladies & i crossed to the shore & i'm leading the way hacking/weaving through mad vines junglegym style & i am still bearing the scabs of the thorns that broke the skin like crazy all over my shoulders, because conditions were wrough. but then we find the TRAIL!!!!!! *que heavenly-radiant beam of light music*
it's easy goin' like WHOA til we see that who ever laid out this trail must have seriously BUMPED THEIR HEAD. it just goes right up 90 degree rock faces & we are climbing hands & feet holding onto whatever theheck we can like roots and boulders & whatnot until we come to this sunny green normalish path & it's smooth sailing for a minute until we see all these wasps. the suckers are big & their nest is right there & it's so so silent & still & we look at each other & a small debate about turning back insues but NO FREAKIN WAY!!! not after we went through all that crap, so we sort of move through with fast-paced tip toe action &wrap our limbs into ourselves so we are small as possible & then omg.. the view on the other side was out 100% reward. just through the waspy trees was an opening and we looked out & saw how far we'd come. we were 3/4 the way up the size of this mountain and you can look out across the valley and see the red cliffs & rocks on the toher side, which are identical to where we are standing & it is just--well it was themost peaceful symbiotic sort of moment in my life thus far, i'm pretty sure. but thenit was on with the hike & the trail starts going downdown & soon we're at the water fall & we all sit & it is amazing (it's not the one i posted in the bulletin the other day... i'll have pics form this trip soon enough). there's a big pool of water and cliffs all around it and forest behind us.
now, the risk of whatever malaria/crocodilecrazy water creature dangers might exist totally took backseat to culminating the hike & we all slowly dove in andy first then me then lori then marilegh then everyone else. we swam across to the fall and pulled our selves onto the rocks underneath & looked up & !@$@..%%&^$&(*&()*^$%..$!$..%@$^&( whatta day
the hike back to the top of the mountain was bananas without us even having to lose the trail. we were litterally rock climbing hands & feet over ledges & through cavities & just DONT LOOK DOWN...you kjnow?cause if we were on an even path, it was the edge of a cliff.
so we got to the top & i made a sandwich of wheat bread & peanut butter & a chocolate bar & looked out at the view & picked some flowers to press & decided that this tripkicks ass. the end.