Glamping. SA style

Although distraught about leaving my new home away from home, Stellenbosch, Tuesday morning I packed my backpack and hit the bush (South African term for woods, forest, place you would become one with earth). I enjoyed and ignored the overflowing amount of jokes that surface whenever we do something remotely unremote, such as the rural village, hiking, camping, enjoying nature, about me- Tristen gets shit too, but its just not on the same level that they save for me. We began our 2 night excursion with a sunset tractor ride for sundowners (happy hour if you will). One delicious savanna cider and a the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen and camping didn’t seem too bad. After a bagillion pictures and reaching the point of starvation, we ate some din and loaded up the van to see the camp site.

As we started on what seemed like a dirt path leading to absolutely, I began to wonder if there even were tents, or if this was a test of our survival skills. I could not have been more. This was straight up glamping. Tents equipped with thatched coverings, twin mattresses, a lamp, a delicious comforter and pillows. Life aint too bad at Khwattu (Khwattu by the way is the same of the lodge/ camp site/ educational center- it is a beauitful place where they teach visitors about the San cultural tribe, sort of like our version of a Native American place). After a night of camp fire songs and scary stories, I headed back to the tent for a good nights rest. No such thing lay ahead for me. We all tucked in to watch Almost Famous (I know- unreal. A magical moment, but I could not be friends with Tristen and Patrick until they had seen it) and somehow everyone fell asleep. So here we are 5, yes that’s 5 approaching or just under 6 feet tall human beings, packed into a two person, two twin bed filled tent with one comforter. I layed awake shivering watching Gaby snore, Tristen curl up in a ball, Tori not move a muscle and Patrick and I fight for the blanket. I don’t know if I have ever made it clear how I feel about sleep, and how important it is for my happiness, your ears, and survival- needless to say I was not thrilled about seeing the sunrise inch by inch. After a brief “beating” from Simba about how we missed “class” at 8 am around the camp fire- like sorry I didn’t sleep and thought a scorpion was gonna give me a fatal illness. We exchanged a few fighting words and began the school day. My problem with yesterday was that we were in a beautiful, remote place and they just jam packed our day with walks, talks, movies and presentations. Free time doesn’t kill people! We could have done half the amount of activities and had a great day, but no, we had to discuss every plant, and be talked at until we were all miserable on yet another beautiful tractor ride. After dinner, we finished class up on the swing set- classic SIT and went back to the camp site for another night of fireside bonding. Had an incredible moment with the group singing come together while roasting marshmellows and just loving each other- an image I will never forget.

Shot the shit with the friends and tucked in for a night of actual sleep. Still a bit cold, but incomparably better to the previous night. Now it is off to our last home stay in Bo Kaap. We have just gotten the map and pre-move in speech. Apparently tomorrow is Christmas so our mothers will be up baking all night, they love jews and we live on the top of Long St (where all the bars are). So I’m pissed and don’t even wanna go to the Santa cookie factory, saying shalom and steps from parties. Fuck my life.

see....glamping.