 |
| Hineville and me - My horse for the 2 hour ride |
GABBY - This morning, I got up early to make breakfast for the
incredibly kind German couple. I cooked
up a simple meal of scrambled eggs with onions and fresh chives from Lulu’s
garden. The group of 4 friends from Cape
Town easily convinced me to join them on their 2 hour horse ride in the
morning. Ben whipped up a thermos of tea
and sent along a packet of biscuits (standard for a 2 hour or 3 hour horse
ride). It was a perfect day to be
outside and riding a horse. It was my
first time since a 2 hour meander in the woods on horseback 6 months ago in
Wyoming on a family vacation. Out of the
4 South Africans, Anton, Janice and James were scared shittless to be on a
horse, while Hayley was calm and experienced.
Eric led the way after taking a few pictures and set up towards the
foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains.
All of the horse rides are done on the farm and provide an incredible
view of the Drakensbergs, while also getting a view of Lesotho. We climbed some steep and tricky passages
through boulders before reaching the highest point on the farm: Eland Peak (the
point Ben and I hiked to yesterday). It’s
an incredible view up there, so we stopped for some tea and biscuits. On the way down, Anton decided to pull the
Trigger (horse’s actual name) and gallop through the field. Holy crow these horses can move! I was pretty terrified to be running that fast
without a guide in front, but I managed to hang on and breathe normally again. I couldn’t believe the contrast of the 2 hour
ride I did in Wyoming and the 2 hour ride I was doing at Khotso. The difference was pretty much night and day. In South Africa, the mentality for these activities
is that if you want to act like an idiot and get hurt, then it’s your
fault. After we got back from the ride, I went into
Underberg with Anton and James to buy the groceries for the backpackers. I bought a bunch of food for dinner, which I was making for the German couple, Ben and me.
 |
Check out them balls! Hail this size...can you believe it?!? |
When we arrived back at the backpackers after our trip to the Spar, we
noticed interesting clouds forming over the foothills outside. Within the hour it began to hail down on
Khotso. I have never experienced
anything like it in my life. There’s a
green card in Apples to Apples that says golf ball sized hail, which I always
thought was a strange card. It now has
an entirely applicable meaning for both Ben and me. Instead of golf ball, it was actually hailing
field hockey or lacrosse balls. I have
never seen anything like it before. It
was complete madness at the backpackers.
Everyone was running to their cars, dodging the potentially impairing
hail to cover their vehicles with towels and blankets. Ben and James were having fun running through
the hail to collect the biggest balls of hail.
We stared in wonder until the hail passed and brought a steady flow of
rain.
I began to cook dinner with a
recipe Amy (my sister) found from the show, The Chew. I made a pasta dish with corn, bacon,
chicken, cherry tomatoes, spinach, garlic, and other spices. It was delicious (if I do say so myself) and
left everyone full and satisfied. After
dinner, 2 guys checked into the dorm rooms who happened to be American. Greg and Michael were both from California
and were just finishing studying in Port Elizabeth. They were staying for a couple days, which
was exciting since they were American, young, fun and friendly! They were the first Americans we had seen at
Khotso, so we befriended them quickly.
Ben and I called it a night after a few beers with the Californians.
No comments:
Post a Comment