Thursday, September 24th was Heritage day in South Africa. This was wonderful since I have three classes on Thursday and all of them were canceled due to this fantastic national holiday. Also, my Thursday and Friday classes are linked so my Friday was magically cleared up as well. When you factor in the fact that I never have class on Monday BAM five day weekend :)
I came back to my house after my last class on Wednesday and couldn't help but brag about my luck to my roommates. That's when I learned my roommate Jon also had a five day weekend. It took about 30 seconds for us to realize we needed to make some plans. We sat down with a guide book and it took us about 5 minutes to decide we would go north. We knew there was a national park in the Northern Cape that was supposed to have amazing wild flowers. In the guide book it said something about "a breathtaking floral display that carpets the landscape" or something like that. We really didn't know where we were going for sure or how the trip would end up but we decided to take off the next day (Thursday). I had two papers due on Friday so I knew I had a long night ahead of me before I could go on the trip. As it turned out I ended up finishing my paper at 9am the next day and I started the trip with zero hours of sleep under my belt.
Day 1 - Thursday
Me and three other people ended up leaving Stellenbosch at about 4pm (5 hours after we planned) on Thursday with a Lonely Planet Guide Book and a vague idea of where we wanted to go. We went against the warnings of others and decided to take our 1964 VW Bug. We knew it would be plenty of driving but we decided the car (affectionately named Steven) could make the trip. The company that rented us the car warned us that there wasn't really a cooling system (or seat belts, or radio, or air, or heat, etc) so we would have to stop every hour to let it take a rest. We decided we would take our chances since it was still the cheapest (and only) option available. 
Jon with our inflatable "road map"
The first night we planned to drive about 5 hours. It was just enough to get us on the road and out of Stellenbosch so the next day wouldn't be horrible. While we were on the road we booked a room in a very highly recommended Backpackers. The guidebook said it was hidden in the mountains and secluded from busy city life. My three travel companions still had homework to do before the weekend so we decided this would be a great place for them to get everything finished before we got too far into the trip. The backpackers was much further off the "beaten path" than we anticipated. We had to call the owners about four times to get directions and it was still sheer luck that we got to our accommodation at all.
We finally pulled in to our backpackers well after dark. We were tired and there were no towns large enough to have a restaurant on the way so we were also starving. Even though it was pitch black outside, we could tell the place was nice. It was a big, beautiful lodge and everything was very nicely maintained. Excited to get settled, we found some men outside and asked for reception. They just laughed at us and told us we were in the wrong place. One of the men could tell we were travel weary and took pity on us. He told us he would get in his truck and we could follow him to where we needed to go.
Once we got to the right area we still couldn't find reception. We called the owners and asked them to come and find us. After much confusion we learned it's a married couple that own multiple properties across South Africa. The husband assumed thought we were in the mountain chalets while the wife had booked us into a room in Cape Town. I chuckled at the mistake and told here we would need to switch to the mountain chalets. I should have known by the silence on the other end that something was wrong. That's when I learned that they were fully booked for the evening in the mountain chalets. I remained calm and asked if she could recommend anywhere else for us to stay. She said there was nothing near by but she assured me that she would make some calls and call back in 5 minutes.
Twenty minutes later we still hadn't heard from her and we figured we were on our own. It was late and we were in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, the man in the truck invited us to stay in the big, beautiful lodge with him and his family. We went back and were welcomed with open arms. They fed us a huge dinner and started blowing up some air mattresses for us in the living room. After we all ate they started making drinks for us and we stayed up well into the morning telling stories, comparing cultures, and laughing like crazy. It ended up being one of my favorite nights in South Africa.
When we woke up the next morning this is what we found.
Not bad for a free night. We thanked them a million times and we tried to give them money for the food and alcohol at least but they wouldn't take anything. The whole situation seemed completely ridiculous to us so we asked them why they had opened up their home to complete strangers. One of the women just told us that they were parents and they gave us the hospitality that they would want someone to show their children if they were in the same situation. I'll remember that when I'm thirty and some random kids come to my house asking me where reception is.
Day 2 - Friday
As much as we wanted to spend the remainder of our weekend in the lodge we decided that might be overstaying our welcome. We ate our (free) breakfast, got back into the bug, and got on the road. As you can imagine, the lodge wasn't very conducive to study. As a result my three travel buddies got to spend the majority of their Friday at the Citrusdal Municipal Library working on homework. I had worked my butt off to finish mine before we left so I was rewarded with a day alone in Citrusdal. The best way to describe Citrusdal would be a larger version of Niota, IL. If you don't know anything about Niota just think of any rural town that has nothing to do. That pretty much sums up my Friday afternoon.
To my great relief we left Citrusdal late Friday afternoon. The plan was to arrive in Springbok on Friday night and then spend Saturday at the park looking at the floral carpet we had read so much about. It was a long drive to Springbok and it didn't help that we had to pull over and let the car cool down every time we smelled burning oil. At one point Jon, who was driving for most of the trip, decided to shut the car off while we were going down a rather large hill. This way the engine could cool and we could keep moving. It sounded like a good plan until he couldn't get the car to start again. We had to pull over and we learned that our starter had gone bad.
There was bad news and good news to this. The bad news was we were in the middle of a completely dead road, in the middle of nowhere so there was no help to be found. The good news was that we could push start the car... for the rest of our trip...every hour. Just like in Little Miss Sunshine. Luckily it didn't shut down our dreams of flowers. We laughed like crazy and kept on going.
Around midnight we finally made it to our next accommodation. We checked in with a woman who was quite perturbed we showed up so late and started chatting with the owner. She asked us what our plans were and when we told her we wanted to see the flowers she just laughed at us. Although the guidebook said the flowers bloomed well into October the owner said all of the flowers had died about two weeks prior to our arrival. All we could do was laugh. With the luck we had had so far we weren't even surprised that the flowers were all dead.
We went into our rooms and formulated a plan B. I've always dreamed of going to the city of Kimberly. Or at least I've wanted to for a month or so. I once looked in the guide book and saw that Kimberly had been very famous for diamond mining. I knew I wanted to find diamonds so I just had it in my head Kimberly was where I needed to be. The problem is Kimberly isn't even close to Stellenbosh so everyone has always laughed at my dream. When I looked at the map and realized we were merely 10 hours from Kimberly I tried to convince my friends of the wonders that were in store for us in Kimberly. I don't know what happened... maybe everyone was tired and delusional but to my great surprise everyone agreed to go to Kimberly. We went to bed early and prepared to get up at the Cricky crack of dawn and hit the road again.
Day 3 - Saturday
I think this picture is an accurate depiction of our Saturday.
One hour in the car followed by a break to let the car (and our legs) get a break from driving. After a break we would push start and continue. I have countless pictures like this. To make things more fun we were now in the Kalahari desert. It was really hot. It was a dry heat but it doesn't really matter when you're crammed into a bug with four people and no air conditioning. We expected our car to break down at some point so we loaded up on dried fruit, water (or Crystal Light thanks to my mom!), and biltong. Luckily our car didn't have any new problems. 
We sprinkled the drive with random stops at roadside stands, wine farms, and a national park we had read about. This park was supposed to be another national beauty. The sand in the Kalahari is very red (like in Kenya) and the Witsand National Park is supposed to be home to a random white dune... in the middle of miles of red. We were really excited to see this oddity and stretch our legs on the hiking trails. Once again our plans were foiled. What started as asking for directions turned into getting half buried in sand in someones driveway... in the middle of nowhere. Luckily the 4 or us + the entire family (who didn't speak English) were able to eventually push our car out of the sand. 
It ended up our car couldn't handle the bumpy roads very well and we didn't make it to the park before it closed. We left the park with our spirits high though. The sun was setting beautifully over the red desert/mountain area and we were almost to KIMBERLY!!! 
We had a few issues booking our hotel in Kimberly but we made it safely and everything ended up working out just fine.
Day 4 - Sunday
After a not-so-great (but cheap) hotel breakfast we decided to see what Kimberly had to offer. After all of the time we spent in the car we were all ready to never see it again so we opted to walk. Before we left the hotel we met a very nice American who had been staying in Kimberly for a few months. He gave us a great recommendation for a lodge outside of town where we could do some hiking and nature stuff. We thought it sounded great but we couldn't leave Kimberly until we saw The Big Hole. The Big Hole is pretty much THE attraction for Kimberly. It's pretty much the all that's left of the glorious days of the diamond rush, before all of the mining was done by big companies (i.e. DeBeers)
We started walking in the direction we thought we needed to go. The first time we stopped for directions was at the tourist office. We asked the worker for directions to The Big Hole and she told us it was too far to walk. We explained that we've been living in a car for the past three days and we were willing to risk it. She gave up and told us it was too hot and we needed caps at least. Then she walked into her office leaving us very confused. When she returned to us she was holding four matching "celebrate tourism" baseball caps and we understood. We looked like the biggest tourists/dorks ever but we proudly wore those hats all day.
The second time we had to ask for directions my friend Kate stopped a man who was waiting at a Robot (or stoplight for my American readers). He pulled over and showed us his Passport and drivers license and reiterated the fact that it was too far to walk. We eventually agreed to let him give us a ride.
His name was Casper and he took us safely to The Big Hole just as he had promised. He offered to pick us up when we were done so my friend Madi exchanged numbers with him. We went into the museum outside of The Big Hole and Madi's phone rang right away... it was Casper. I immediately assumed Casper was going to turn out to be a creepy stalker but Madi answered anyways and he just asked if we liked art. Confused, she told him we did and said goodbye. About thirty second later we saw Casper walk past us into one of the museum shops. He came out with this painting.
Apparently Casper sells his paintings at the museum gift shop and he gave us one for free so we wouldn't forget him. I'm not sure if this was the strangest experience of the weekend but it's definitely towards the top. We said our goodbye's to Casper and eventually ended up seeing The Big Hole. It really was just a big hole....
Our final stop was at the lodge reccommended by the guy we met at the hotel. We went with the intention of just doing some hiking. After that we were going get back into the car and drive for 15 hours, through the night so we could get back to Stellenbosh by Monday morning. We got there close to sunset and we all fell in love. It was a crazy, beautiful stream that ran through the middle of the desert. This picture doesn't even come close to capturing it.
We ended up loving it so much we decided it would be a great way to end our trip. We went to book one of their amazing cabins so we could spend the night sipping wine and relaxing by the water. When we inquired about a room they informed us that that about three hours before we arrived four of the cabins burned to the ground and they had to cut the electricity to the rest. Poop.
Back in the car.
Nobody was looking forward to the last 15 hours in the car. We were tired and the desert, at night, in a car with holes and no heat isn't a pleasent experience. There was also the issue of the exaust that came straight into the car. If we wanted to live to see Stellenbosch again we had to leave our windows open and let the frigid night air pour into the car. Our bags ended up empty since we were wearing all of the clothes we packed. I taught everyone the famous name game and that lasted us an unfathomable four hours. We continued on still laughing about all of the crazy stories we'd experienced. When we had about 6 hours left in the trip we started having troubles with 4th gear, our highest gear. Eventually it was completly gone. What should have been 6 hours turned into 10 more because we couldn't go more than 80 km/hr (50 mph). 
10 a.m. on Monday we arrived safely in Stellenbosch. Unfortunatly the same can't be said about Steven, the car. He fought hard and he served us well but he's gone to the place where cars go to die...
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Throughout this whole Africa experience I've constantly been reminded of something
Circumstance doesn't define joy.
I had a lot of time to think while I spent 30+ hours in a car without a radio. I was amazed in Kenya by the way the kids were still able to run around and play like all other kids when they didn't have any toys... or running water. Then I went to my service site here in South Africa and I saw it again with those kids. They are more sick on a daily basis then I've been at any point in my life. There mouths are full of sores and they have cronic pain. They live in a place that I can hardly stand being in for longer than two hours They still laugh and make faces and run around lauging like they're crazy. I went on a trip that could have easily been one of the worst of my life. Every single plan we made didn't work out but we kept laughing.
For the last few years I had "Choose Joy" on the wall in my room at UIS. Sure, it's a bit cheesy, but its a good reminder and it means more to me now than ever before.
I love Africa.
