Indescribable

(I apologize in advance for the redundancy of words such as, amazing, beautiful, incredible, best...I can't think of any other words to accurately describe what happened)

This last weekend was amazing--I already had high expectations, but this surpassed anything I could have imagined. A group of 8 of us from the program went on the Garden Route with Collene (our awesome tour guide/friend) and her friend Michael, who drove us. The Garden Route is usually done over a couple weeks' time, but we only had three days, so our schedule was packed as we only got to do a portion of the Garden Route (there's an incredible amount to see and do). It was really fun having to rush from activity to activity; we were timed and would be walking/running in between and jumping in/out of the van.

On top of that, Collene had amazing stories to share in between, as her parents are mountaineers and she has been mountain-climbing since she was 3. Let's just say her stories are ridiculous. For example, she and her siblings while hiking with their father had to cross a "step over," a gap 6 feet wide over a hundred meters high. How did they get across? Her did lied down across and acted as a bridge. So crazy. Also, Collene knows a lot about the history of South Africa, so she would share interesting facts about places as we drove by. Lastly, being from South Africa, she knew where the best places to go, eat, and sleep where. Awesomeness of the trip goes in large to her planning and tour guiding skills.

Here's some of what went down this last weekend…
FRIDAY - the 21st
*Breakfast at Country Pumpkin in Barrydale, a beautiful country town in the mountains
*Cango Caves Adventure Tour - walked through beautiful caves (and saw some incredible stuff that I've only seen in movies), and crawled and climbed through 4 different tunnels. Of course, I fell while sliding down a rock, but being an expert at falling, I jumped right back up "I'm fine!" :) I have a battle knee scar.
*Ostrich Farm - we got to hug and feed ostriches! My favorite part was when we got to ride them. I was the first to go, and I had no idea what to expect. "Any last words?" "GO!" and the ostrich went, and I could not stop laughing. It was so fast.
*Had dinner at Blue Olive Restaurant in a town called "WIldnerness" - everyone's food was delicious. We definitely left satisfied.
*Stayed at the Tops. Our room was pretty cool. Had a kitchen and a balcony overlooking the beach.

SATURDAY - the 22nd
*Breakfast cooked by the owner of the Tops. The view was beautiful, and the home-cooked meal was great.
*Grocery shopping for that night's Braai (term they use for BBQ). It was such a rush, as we were going to make an unplanned stop to…
*Ginormous craft market - So many crafts and cool things to look at and buy. The weather was beautiful, and there was music playing in the background to make the atmosphere even more beautiful. A man put on Jack Johnson's "Better Together," and I looked around the scene, bright beautiful sun shining in my face…I felt like I was in a movie. I bought a colorful headband with a heart. Love it.
*Zip-lining across rivers! I've already gone ziplining before, but it was in a forest canopy. Here, we were going over rivers, and through smaller canyons, and the mountains were in the backdrop. So beautiful.
*Paul Sauer Bridge - we walked through the forest and walked over these 3 large bridges. Getting there was strange as we were scorching in the sun at one part, and upon entering the park where the bridge was, we were surrounded by a cloud-umbrella. So while we were on the bridges, we looked at the mountains and oceans, and there was a mist over it. It looked like it could be on a painting. We drove out of the cloud into the sun again, and we made our way to…
*Bloukrans Bridge to bungee jump! It's the world's highest bungee jump, and it was an amazing experience. I'll write more about this experience in a separate blog, but it was absolutely incredible, and probably some of the best moments of my life. It's an indescribable feeling, but I'll try to describe it the best I can when I write more about it.
*Cooking/preparing for the Braai - we arrived at our hostel in the middle of the forest in a town called "Wild Spirit" (I know, the towns we stayed in had really cool names)
*Braai - there was chicken with gravy, sausage, salad, baked potatoes, beans, bread…Mostly everyone helped in the cooking, but since I didn't, Joe and I cleaned all the dishes, pots, pans, etc.
*Epic conversations
--Joe (one of the professor's son who's 17 years old) and I washed the dishes together and had a heart-to-heart. He's a really cool kid, and I see him like a brother.
--As we left the kitchen, I overheard Michael (our driver) talking with this couple about religion. I've taken a huge interest in talking about religion, so I definitely wanted to listen in to this conversation. I went back, and thankfully, the wife named Mikhel invited me to sit and join them. Mikhel and her husband, Barack, are Jews from Israel, traveling through South Africa. She is extremely knowledgeable about her Jewish faith and the theology, and Michael is equally knowledgeable in Christianity AND also knows a lot about the Jewish faith. The dialogue would have seemed like an intense debate to the outside, but sitting there, listening and participating, it was definitely a dialogue. On both sides, the arguments were logical and well-thought out. It wasn't just like a "I believe this, and so it's true." It was definitely scholarly, and I really appreciated the tone and open atmosphere of the conversation. Flaws were being pointed out on both sides, but at the end, we all found common ground in our faiths and our seeking of the truth, and I wish I could articulate all of what was expressed that night. We didn't even really notice the time pass by. I was sitting there for two and a half hours! I was about to sleep but…
--Joe, Michael, and I decided to hang out at the bar. Michael bought us a couple of shots, and in between each one, there was a speech which became a rhyme. Our bar tender, Angus, was hilarious, and would hit this bell after each speech, signaling it was the time to drink. Before this, I was talking to this German guy named Norman. He was sitting on a bench facing darkness, and when I sat next to him, I saw that he wasn't facing darkness. He was facing this huge forest, and all these beautiful stars above it. He was telling me that since he only had one night at this place, he wanted to soak it all in before he had to leave in the next few hours.
--Eventually, it was just Joe, Angus, and me at the outside bar. We talked and watched the stars. Scanning the sky, we made wishes on shooting stars and watched this one star in particular move up into the sky in the few hours we were out there. Angus is probably one of the most hilarious guys I have ever met in my life, and said some of the craziest things I have ever heard in my life. He knows a lot about stars, but I don't know how much of it is actually true because he was really high off weed.
--We moved from the bench to this round table and just started randomly talking about life and hearing Angus's philosophy of life. Imagine the atmosphere: all the lights turned off to see the stars better, three candles shining, we're the only ones awake, a Rastafarian-looking guy sharing with us his stories and philosophy about life. He had some really deep, insightful things to say, and it was so cool to just listen and ask questions about his life. Angus was really interesting, and I wish I could record for you some of the stuff he was sharing with us. A lot of what he said related to my previous conversation about Judaism and Christianity.  Those two conversations were one of the main reasons my weekend will be unforgettable, and why that day is probably one of the days that will stick in my mind for the rest of my life.
--Got back to room at 5am and knocked out at 5:20am.

SUNDAY - 23rd
--I wake up and look out of it as I'm staring at nothing. Everyone thinks I'm just really tired, but actually I'm just thinking about everything that I talked about with Mikhel, Michael, Angus, and Joe a couple hours before. Such different people, but it was so incredible to me how they came to similar ways of understanding the world through very different means…
--Have breakfast at the hostel, and I'm not ready to leave the hostel. There's something special about the place, and funny thing is, several people (not in my group though) felt the same way.
--Plettenberg Bay - stop by a couple of beaches and sit in the sand.
--Elephant Park - we get to feed elephants! They're gentle giants, and I've decided I want one as a pet.
--Lunch at the Heads in Nysna. The food and view was beautiful. We were at the "head" of the Indian Ocean.
--Road trip home

The weekend was the best weekend of my life. Not just because of what I got to do, but also because of what I got to see. I have always heard that it was a beautiful drive, but I had no idea how beautiful the landscape and diverse the terrain was. Every couple miles, we would enter completely different terrain. We were blessed with having great weather. It was the unplanned little things that made the weekend so much better than I could have anticipated. For example, the rushing in between, the conversations I had, the things I heard, the fogginess of my jump and the gasp when free-falling 210 m (=689 feet) from a bridge…

This blog and the many pictures I took from that weekend only get at the surface. Not to mention that I changed my camera settings at the beginning of the trip, resulting in tiny pictures which I am/was kinda bummed about. But maybe it's doesn't matter anyway, because the pictures don't really show how amazing, beautiful, and incredible the overall experience was...

Pictures can't describe and show what all really happened in those three days, especially what happens inside...

it was, simply put, an indescribable weekend.