Wild Spirit: The Crags - 10/20/12

GABBY - We woke up, gathered our things, and set off in the rain towards Plettenberg Bay and eventually, The Crags, home to our next hostel, Wild Spirit.  We heard that Wild Spirit was the hostel to stay at from both Paul in Wilderness, and the receptionist at Island Vibe in Knysna.  It was only a little over an hour’s drive, so we took our time and pulled off at a crafty shopping area called Old Nick’s.  Paul has seriously hooked us up with many things to do.  He has not led us astray once, so we followed all of his suggestions, Old Nick being one of them.  It was raining a decent amount, so running in and out of shops was a perfect way to spend our time (and money).  Ben and I perused the different shops and I was able to get my mom a nice Christmas/birthday present (can’t reveal because she may be reading).  I’m not sure if Ben enjoyed it as much as I did, but I honestly had a blast walking around and soaking in the local merchandise.  We left Old Nick’s and made it all the way to Plett Bay before stopping and buying an adapter, bottle of pinotage, and 2 candy bars from the local Pick N’ Pay supermarket.  Finally we turned off of the main highway, the N2 onto a pothole ridden dirt road leading us to another long dirt road to Wild Spirit.  We turned down the driveway to observe and avoid mini canyons in the dirt road followed by loads of potholes.  We turned a corner and saw 3 large horses fenced in close to the entrance of the hostel.  We walked in and were directed by a scatterbrained receptionist who had only started working there a couple days before.  The rain was still coming down by the buckets, which was unfortunate since we were in prime hiking territory next to Tsitsikama National Park.  The backpackers was really into sustainability, having its guests take their own trash with them when they leave.  We sat by the fire, read and wrote for awhile before becoming in tune with our stomachs and realizing we were quite hungry.  We had seen a little farm stall only about 2 minutes from the hostel, so we braved the dirt and potholes once again to check it out.  Before we left, I noticed something crossing the road a little ways up.  I looked a little harder and concluded that it was a pack of baboons!  Ben ran to get his telephoto while I just slowly started walking towards them to get a better look.  I think they roam pretty freely around the national park and the hostel. There were probably 20 or so baboons that crossed the road.  After the baboons had left our sight, we drove to the farm stall.  We were greeted by a crowing rooster and mooing cows.  The store specialized in local cheeses, which were up for tasting.  We settled on a block of sharp cheddar, a loaf of bread, a tomato and some last minute cake pops.  We have been longing for the cake pops ever since.  They were just small balls of cake on a stick, like a lollipop, covered in a hard shell of dark chocolate.  You could snarf it down in one ecstasy - filled bite, but you would most certainly want to stretch the pleasure for at least 2 or 3 bites.  We just got one each, but regretted it when that one was gone.  After the farm stall, we made ourselves some cheddar and tomato sandwiches before returning to the fireplace to get dry and warm.  We were unwilling to hike in the rain again seeing as our hike in Wilderness managed to leave our clothes sweaty, wet, and stinking up the car.  I wasn’t about to repeat that with another outfit and pair of shoes.  Instead we enjoyed a relaxing day by the fire, greeting guests, and playing with Topaz and Savannah.  Topaz was a couple months old and was one of the cutest puppies ever!  All he wanted to do was nip and bite, though, trying to get used to his teeth, I guess.  A group of 3 people walked in, a man in his late 30’s, and two girls that seemed about my age.  They came over to warm up by the fire and we realized almost immediately that they were American.  We got to talking and found out that one of the girls studied abroad in Ghana and now lives there.  The other girl played for a Swedish soccer team right of college.  The man asked us where we were from and then hearing where I was from proceeded to tell us that he worked as an assistant coach for a small, liberal arts school in Pennsylvania called Bucknell.  I lost my shit.  I practically shrieked at the guy trying to spit out that Ben and I had just graduated from Bucknell.  He worked there from 2002-2005 as the assistant soccer coach.  What are the freaking odds.  We were in the middle of nowhere South Africa, these were the first Americans we had seen along the Garden Route, and one of them had worked at Bucknell.  I still can’t get over how insanely coincidental that is.  They worked with a program called Coaches Across Continents, which uses soccer as a teaching tool for social development in communities across the globe.  These 3 people get to travel all over the world talking to and training educators in soccer skills so they can use that as a means to construct a community that works together and understands each other better.  It’s a pretty awesome way to travel and get to know different cultures and communities.  Ben and I naturally jumped at what seemed like a dream job and got the dude’s card.  I plan on e-mailing him when I get home and checking out the possible opportunity to spend some time coaching soccer and traveling!  We hung out, listening to the rain on the roof, chatting it up with the guests and playing with Topaz until dinner.  We decided to jump on the dinner that the hostel was providing, which happened to be a lamb stew with slaw.  It was the perfect, warm, meal to end a rainy, cold day.  Ben and I drank our bottle of wine and fell asleep, our bellies warm and our minds happy.