Farewell Feral Cat - 11/30/12

Just Before the Collision

GABBY - Today, Ben and I decided to hike a loop around the river.  It was one of the hikes on our list of things to do.  The day was a bit overcast, which actually made it quite nice for a longer hike.  This loop was about 5 km in total.  We set off down the driveway and made our way to the right, over a small foot bridge.  We followed a path to the left, which led us underneath a peak we had hiked to previously: Mzimkulu Lookout.  We walked along the path, which continued to parallel Drakensberg Gardens Road until we came to a fork.  We took the longer route, which led us to a trickle of a waterfall, but it was still a waterfall and it was beautiful in its own way.  We turned back and took the other fork’s prong until we realized we were adjacent to the Little Mzimkulu River, which feeds into the much larger Mzimkulu River.  We walked to the place where tubing begins, which starts on the Little Mzimkulu River and ends on the Mzimkulu at Pebble Beach.  Ben and I had packed a picnic lunch of sandwiches and Sour Cream and Onion Pringles, which were devoured at our lunch stop.  We took some time to enjoy the scenery and discuss possible names for the hike we were currently treading.  We came up with things like Calla Lily River Walk (for all of the calla lilies), Ben and Gabby’s Romantic Love Stroll, Calla Lily Swallow’s Nest Passage, but all of those were a bit much.  We settled on Swallow’s Nest Loop.  While we were walking, we observed loads of birds, dive bombing us from above.  They were going down towards the river where they had built their nests.  The nests were made in the reeds along the river bank of the Mzimkulu Rivers (both Little and Big).  They were constructed by swallows that took 2 reeds, tied them together with long pieces of grass and wrapped lots of stalks around and around.  It eventually looked similar to a bees nest or a cocoon as Ben referred to it as.  The nests were tight structures with a single hole, big enough for a swallow to pass through.  We thought the name was fitting seeing as there were hundreds along our walk.  Our not-so-strenuous hike concluded when the path looped back to the road where the Old Trout Hatchery stood.  We walked back up to the farm and began preparing food for Tash’s goodbye party.  Everyone on the farm has basically left Steve.  Adrian, Lulu and now Tash.  It will be Steve, Ben, and me for Christmas it seems – small but mighty. 

The Beauty that is: Swallow's Nest Loop

All of the Zulu staff were invited to the braii, but they got their super early.  We put in Pirates of the Caribbean, which turned into us watching Eric and Sipho’s reactions to the movie.  They had never seen it before and really didn’t know what pirates were.  Zola and Happiness were shrieking with laughter and surprise at some of the scenes, while Sipho and Eric were hooting and hollering at all of the violence.  Finally the food was ready and we enjoyed lots of meat, potato salad and bread.  During the braii, Tash talked Ben and me into going out with her in Underberg.  We had been warned many times about Tash and her tendencies as a “feral cat”.  We figured we should try the Underberg scene at least once, and why not with Tash for her last night.  Eric, Sipho, and Zola jumped on the bandwagon and into Tash’s 4 person car (notice that we are 5).  I was way too squished sitting on Ben’s lap in the front seat, so I climbed in the middle of Zola and Eric in the back, Sipho crushed on the other side of Zola.  We went to a bar that was having its Grand Opening that night and was attached to The Grind.  It turned out to be extremely lame and definitely not our scene.  We were the youngest people by far.  The clubbers were creepy older women, preying on anything that moved and old fat guys looking to score.  It was a gross idea of a party, so we quickly left.  Zola had stayed behind with us while Eric and Sipho went up to the 2 Rander, which is known as the black people club.  The 3 of us, Zola, Ben and me headed up there to grab the guys and make the 10 km trip back to Khotso.  We stood outside and flagged them down, took an overpriced cab home and drunkenly collapsed into bed.  Not our idea of a great night out, but I guess it was worth doing once.  I guess?  Oh, and Tash did not return with us.  We later found out she got back to Khotso “early for me, around 5:00 am” – Tash.