Caravanning
Middle of Where?
The weekend trip to Van der Kloof Dam was awesome! We drove through north, then west, above the country of Lesotho, on the map. The province is called Free State, and there are a lot more Africaans speaking people up there. In fact, I heard there is even a town or two that only allow Africaners to work there. A bit different than the Zulu speaking communities of KwaZulu Natal.
We left at 3 am Thursday; most of us had stayed up the night before, so we just crashed on the bus. Thus, the drive didn’t seem like 11 hours, but it was! So three mini buses caravanned to the lake, we stopped every couple hours and checked out pretty much every rest stop available J Upon arrival we set up the boats and got settled in. Made some dinner, the guys made a fort in the hall we were staying in.
Our Girls B crew has races in the eight and four person boats, team of four, here
getting ready to row out to the start of the sprint, I am second one from the front
The dam had a bunch of camp sites around it and that is where all the teams parked their rowing gear, and then up the road were a bunch of halls, like a deserted summer camp or something, and that is where we all stayed, each team to its own hall and shared kitchens. Surrounding the lake and summer camp area was pretty much nothing, just rolling hills with arid desert shrubs. 
We called it an early night Thursday and woke early for races on Friday. Friday was pretty much watching and entering races, likewise for Saturday. It was beautiful out there, hot and sunny. I definitely picked up some color. In the afternoons after our races we swam in the lake and hung out on the rocks.
We called it an early night Thursday and woke early for races on Friday. Friday was pretty much watching and entering races, likewise for Saturday. It was beautiful out there, hot and sunny. I definitely picked up some color. In the afternoons after our races we swam in the lake and hung out on the rocks.
The guys 8 crew to the left here
Friday evening we had a formal/dress up dinner, where the most creative costume won a prize, and of course, we placed (3rd), as did our guys’ team (1st). We painted the guys’ bodies all blue—Smurfs---with white shorts, such a sweet idea! And plus, clean up was not as bad as we had expected, though I must say some of the guys still have paint on their toenails and in their ears!
Saturday morning we were on the waters edge by quarter to 6.
The best part about the early mornings is watching the sunrise. It is so quick; I mean you have to grip your camera tightly! And not even dare try to catch a make up wink of sleep. Once you are up, you are up. It was serene watching the guys start out the races that Saturday 
morning. My race on Saturday was in the morning, a little later. I got to race with our A crew (normally just stick with B crew, but the A crew wanted to do an 8 person, so I got bumped!) and our race was intense! We came in 3rd, maybe out of 6 or so teams, it was really close, I mean we almost had 2nd! It was just really smooth working with the more experienced girls, we kept balanced and our timing was just right.
After races on Saturday, we derigged the boats, loaded them to the trailer, and the party began—Pietermaritzburg is sort of the Santa Barbara of KwaZulu Natal…So we didn’t miss a blink of the action. Each team started their own mad chaos and then merged forces down by the water under the pitch-black sky. It was a rockin’ night!
It sounds like our next regatta will have the same teams invited to it, so we’ll all hang again, looking forward to that! Yes, there are some rivalries: we are not big fans of the JoBurg team, and the Tuks team has a beef with us (we shared a—messy—kitchen with them and they kept reminding us that “this is a sport!” when they would catch us having a little more fun than they were), but all in all, at the end of the day, we all like to be out on the water, and we all like to kick back. So, yes, in about 3 weeks we go to the SA Champs, up on a lake in Pretoria, a beautiful city about an hour north east of JoBurg. I went there with some friends about a month ago but we only saw the place for an afternoon.
The drive back through SA did seem a bit longer, because it was pretty much all day Sunday, we left around 8 am and got home at 730 pm. Like before, we encountered quite a few petrol stations, I swear the vans we had needed petrol every two hours! Well there were some pranks exchanged, involving road kill (FYI: the count for the whole return trip was 86…) and such, so it kept the good times rolling. And we took some pretty goofy pictures next to road signs! One thing that the roads here don’t have is billboards. You’ll be driving for hours with no advertisements, just a sign every now and then, in regards to how many kilometers there are till the next city.
Coming back to school on Monday was tough, we were all a little lonely, I mean we had just had a jam-packed weekend, then lull. But today, Tuesday is one day closer to the holiday break, so that is a plus! Get a bit of work done by Friday, and then take off on another road trip.
morning. My race on Saturday was in the morning, a little later. I got to race with our A crew (normally just stick with B crew, but the A crew wanted to do an 8 person, so I got bumped!) and our race was intense! We came in 3rd, maybe out of 6 or so teams, it was really close, I mean we almost had 2nd! It was just really smooth working with the more experienced girls, we kept balanced and our timing was just right.After races on Saturday, we derigged the boats, loaded them to the trailer, and the party began—Pietermaritzburg is sort of the Santa Barbara of KwaZulu Natal…So we didn’t miss a blink of the action. Each team started their own mad chaos and then merged forces down by the water under the pitch-black sky. It was a rockin’ night!
It sounds like our next regatta will have the same teams invited to it, so we’ll all hang again, looking forward to that! Yes, there are some rivalries: we are not big fans of the JoBurg team, and the Tuks team has a beef with us (we shared a—messy—kitchen with them and they kept reminding us that “this is a sport!” when they would catch us having a little more fun than they were), but all in all, at the end of the day, we all like to be out on the water, and we all like to kick back. So, yes, in about 3 weeks we go to the SA Champs, up on a lake in Pretoria, a beautiful city about an hour north east of JoBurg. I went there with some friends about a month ago but we only saw the place for an afternoon.
The drive back through SA did seem a bit longer, because it was pretty much all day Sunday, we left around 8 am and got home at 730 pm. Like before, we encountered quite a few petrol stations, I swear the vans we had needed petrol every two hours! Well there were some pranks exchanged, involving road kill (FYI: the count for the whole return trip was 86…) and such, so it kept the good times rolling. And we took some pretty goofy pictures next to road signs! One thing that the roads here don’t have is billboards. You’ll be driving for hours with no advertisements, just a sign every now and then, in regards to how many kilometers there are till the next city.
Coming back to school on Monday was tough, we were all a little lonely, I mean we had just had a jam-packed weekend, then lull. But today, Tuesday is one day closer to the holiday break, so that is a plus! Get a bit of work done by Friday, and then take off on another road trip.
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