Ride!
Today Roland, Amarins, Welmoed, Thabani, Laureen and I was to ride horses to the Besotho-Botsela Falls, a trip of about four hours. The tour was called ”Pony Trek” and we all feared that it would really be ponies and not horses – had that been the case, we would not do it. Come on. Pony rides?
It turned out that the ”ponies” were Besotho-horses, a small breed that now is bred as a hybrid of by Besotho-horse, Irish horses and purebred Arabian, as the real Besotho-horse became almost extinct in the 1800s.
The breeding project was done with aid from Ireland.
Amarins and Welmoed are experienced riders; Welmoed owns her own horse back home. Roland grew up on a farm in the Karoo, so he was a natural rider. The rest of us? ”Inexperienced”. This was the last time I say ”inexperienced” when I ride, because then you get the lamest horse in the stable!
My mare was called Mistress and consistently refused to gallop, if I didn’t hit her all the time and I just don’t like hitting animals.
It was a nice ride through the countryside, we rode over the cliffs and meadows, down along the river beds and up steep paths until we came to Botsela Falls, which is about 50 meters high and has a natural swimming pool where I took a dip in the cold, but clear water.
Roland had to borrow my bathing trunks and tried to ride a natural water slide at the pool outlet, but it was not slippery enough so it went so-so.
On the way back to the camp the experienced riders galloped off the last bit while the rest of us strode on, Mistress made a few short gallops when the guides pushed her into it but that was it. It was certainly a clever girl, she took the mountain trails really well even though on some occasions it felt like her knees would give way and we would fall a hundred yards…
Philosophies in the kitchen
Back at the camp we met the others, they had been on a trip to the village school and a local sheebeen with a guide.
Now a Sangoma, or medicine man, came and we could get our future read for 20 Rands. Some choose to do it, but I was not one of them. What is in my future? Do I want to know, even if it is possible to predict? My future I create myself with the choices I make and the paths I choose. Sometimes life offers surprises, both good and bad and then you have to deal with it.
Of course, you are also shaped by the world around you too, you’re not alone but that’s exactly what I mean – life can not be fun if you have the benefit of hindsight beforehand!
I joined Pia in the kitchen instead, she had a sore ankle after a ride in Hogsback and we talked a lot about everything and nothing.
A small mountain village…
When the others came back from the medicine man, we ate lunch, then we who had spent the morning riding went to the village with a guide. We learned how the village works, what the locals live by and believe in, look at crafts and also learned about the burial rituals. Quite interesting!
We got back to the camp an hour before dinner, which we ate in candlelight because the generator had not kicked in for our part of the camp.
My mood was still not on top, I still had the old memories lingering on, but followed the others up to the bar and played fuzzball with Laura and Ines, before Welmoed came in and played cards with me and Laura.
I went to bed early, unusually early, even before the bar shut 22:00! I read for a while and fell asleep.
Sleepless in Malealea
When I woke up I thought it was five or six in the morning, the rain poured down outside and I looked at the clock. 00:30. I was wide awake. Went off to the loo in the dark and on the way back I heard somebody talking in the kitchen so I lit the torch, it was Amarins and Roland standing in the kicthen opening waiting for the rain to stop raining so they could go to their tents/huts ( Roland lived in a round hut with Thabani and Godfree, sometimes it’s good to be the guide apptrentice…)
”Good luck”, I said and joined them, we sat and talked instead and drank up the last of the whiskey before Roland gave up and went to bed in the rain, as the guides should always be up before everyone else, Amarins and I stayed up maybe half an hour and took one last cigarette before she went to her tent.
I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t, I just laid there turning back and forth in my sleeping bag untill 03:00, then I heard someone fall over something in the kitchen, I took the flashlight and ran outside just to chase away a dog, who had been plundering the trash bin. I Cleaned up a bit, took my book, lit a few candles and sat in the kitchen and was reading for a while as the rain poured down outside. It was really nice!
After a few hours my eyes began to fold so I went to bed and slept for a hour… then it was time to wake up again, pack up and head off to South Africa …