The Cederberg Mountains

A few weekends ago (okay more than a month ago…I started this post awhile ago!), the AIFS group packed up our vans and made the trek north to the Cederberg Mountains. It was gorgeous and we had a great weekend. They told us “camping”, but it was more like 4 star camping! We all stayed in cabins and had maids (well, Mama H, our coordinator hired some women who needed work, but STILL) who did the dishes and made our beds. Everyone had an absolute blast. We arrived Friday night and had a campfire that night. A traditional braii with boerewors (literally meaning “farmer’s sausage”), salad and Mama H’s special boerewors sauce. The food was delicious and after some chatting around the fire, I went to bed with a full stomach!

Saturday morning, we woke up, ate some muesli, muffins, and yogurt for breakfast and were off on our hike. This hike was not like any normal hike. It was intense, hard, and straining. There were a lot of stairs, made out of rocks and the only way you knew you were on the right path was by following the little stone piles that you would pass every so often. We went through the “cracks”, which required help at most points. The help consisted of people pulling you up through spaces so small my ass got stuck sometimes! The hike lasted 7 hours (5 hours up, 2 hours down approximately) and I was sore for a week afterwards! Once at the top, the view was beautiful. It was fun to explore, hang out, and enjoy the sun. Would I do it again? Probably not…so props to Mike Leslie, Hestea, and all the others that do this hike semester after semester!

Dinner on Saturday night consisted of a potjie (pronounced poi-key) and you can click on the Wikipedia link for more info on. Once again, dinner was to die for. Another fire was made and we stayed up hang out around it. We had a surprise of makeshift South African s’mores. You can’t get graham crackers, regular marshmallows, OR Hershey’s chocolate (Cadbury has the monopoly on that here!) here in South Africa, so we made due with what we could get. They were good, but I can’t wait to get back to some American foods! The stargazing was also so unbelievable that I can’t even use words to describe the amount of stars we saw that weekend. It was like sitting in a planetarium! I wish I could have captured it on film, but that was near impossible (although, I’ll admit I didn’t try very hard).

On Sunday morning, we went wine tasting and then to see some cave paintings. The cave paintings were extremely cool. Some of them were 8,000 years old! Others were names of Apartheid members. Some of the caves were where “secret Apartheid meetings” were held. It was interesting to see that part of history so close up.

Overall, it was an awesome weekend. Bonding with these strangers that I didn’t know existed on July 1st and now best friends with some? So great.
As always, here are some photos. I had a video that my flatmate put together, but that’s a surprise for my friends and family, so it will have to wait a bit!

Double exposure of Quinn, Kat, and Dee

“Mangie”…Angie played Scrabble against Drew and lost the game…

Having way too much fun

Hubbly bubbles (smoking Hookah or “Hubbly” as they call it here) and then blowing bubbles with soap

The mountain we climbed, although it doesn’t look as daunting from below

Where we stopped for lunch – IN the mountain

Snow on the mountain!

I made it to the top!

All the hikers – and almost everyone that’s part of AIFS this semester

Members of Apartheid

Our hand next to a grown man’s hand (from 8,000 years ago). They were the size of a present day 6 year old!

More paintings