Phuthu Stay Phut, Don't go!

My man has always been an adventure seeker – it’s in his blood, it’s pathological and currently incurable. When Jeremy takes a group of us for a ride in the valley everyone experiences nervous eyelid twitches when Jeremy says “I’m sure this path will take us over the valley to where we want to go..”

We understand the sub-text of this phrase all too well. It really means “I have never ever done this path in my entire life, it may or may not take us to where we want to go, it’s highly likely that there will be a lot of hike and bike, river crossings and quagmires to contend with. And we’re looking at an extra 30 kilometres onto the ride.”

Needless to say that eyelid twitching is common on Jeremy’s rides.

So it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that when Jeremy returned from the Berg and Bush MTB this weekend, his first words to me were “Hun, we’re going to go on an adventure!”

Not, “Hey hun, missed you, so great to be home”. Uh, nope, none of that!

I told you it was pathological.

Almost like a kid bursting with too much news to put into one coherent sentence, all I heard was bits and blurbs interjected with “Himalayas” and “bike tour” and “Himalayas” and “bike tour” and “Himalayas”.

He wants to take me to the Himalayas on a bike tour. That’s what he was trying to get out. A young adventurer gave a talk at the Berg and Bush about her riding trip through southern Asia and is now offering a bike trip next year to anyone who is keen. Guess who put their hand up first?

I must admit I was intrigued at first but not nearly as intrigued, mesmerized and excited as I was when I saw the photos.

I saw this

And then this

And then this

And whole bunch more here

And then I got so excited I made a tasty lemon-vanilla cake.

And then I finished it.

And that’s how excited I am.

Nepal, get ready for CamelToe and HungryBum!

My mountain biking love curve has been a little low since the Cape Epic. I loved that race but I must say that it did sap the energy out of my mitochondria. However, I’m delighted to report that this weekend the love curve increased exponentially thanks to the race at Oribi Gorge. Aaaaaaaw, it’s one of those places that are rugged but beautiful, a typical Bear Grylls hang out. I remember riding down one of the  switchbacks and being distracted by the view and thinking man, I am in Africa baby! Actually, it was more like MAN! I’m in AFRICA. BABY! It’s one of those moments where you feel as though you are breathing in the scenery around you. And the sweatier, smellier and dirtier you are, the more you feel like shrieking out “MAN! I’m in AFICA. BABY!” -  doing a fist pump at the same time. Don’t forget the fist pump.

Please say that you’ve had one of those moments? Anybody?

In other news:

1. A friend of mine has just discovered blogging and has started the coolest blog showcasing her life in drawings, I just love it – head over to Kirsty Barton, what a talented gal!
2. Another friend of mine has just discovered facebook. Yup, just just just discovered it. And then I just just just discovered this pic of me on her Epic Album.

This is the dusty sand-face, post-ride, I’m-in-Africa look. Gorgeous, I know.

I’m just going to keep telling myself that I think…

Hill2Hill – a 96km mountain bike ride from World’s View in Pietermaritzburg to Shongweni Polo Club in Alverstone. That’s what my hubby did yesterday. That’s what 1500 mountain bikers did yesterday too. That’s what I didn’t do yesterday.

…cos I’m still in therapy from last year. I might be cured in another 12 months. We’ll see.

So I hooked up with my buddy Gina, who was also seconding her hubby and we fulfilled the role that every wife should play at least once in her life – the quintessential shuttle bunny.

Geenie, clearly with more seconding, navigating and driving experience than me, assumed the role of chief navigator. And she did a damn fine job if I can say so myself! She found us a great spot alongside the dusi in front of an old bridge with stairs on the one side. The best part of the day was watching people ride down these stairs (and then giving grief to the guys who didn’t by rubbing in the fact that two ladies had already mastered the obstacle, hee hee!).

The top 20 guys rode down without flinching and that was quite fun to watch but our fun stopped soon thereafter…….because everybody started walking -even people that could easily ride down the stairs!

I don’t want to mention any names like Paul Potter or anything that didn’t ride down. Oops, did I just say P_ _ _ P_ _ _ _ _?

When I first started this blog, I took the stand that I was not going to hurt anyone in the process, that I was not going to embarass anyone or make fun of anyone. And for that reason I am definitely NOT going to mention that Mr Deon Chiesman (middle right) was one of the walkers. I really just don’t believe in taking advantage of this platform to do such a thing.

Jilly is forgiven for walking because she is a gorgeous, precious, delicate, SINGLE (I repeat single) young woman and we don’t want her breaking any of those delicate bones.

But then, after watching walker upon walker upon walker, we almost missed my man gliding down the stairs! You show em how it’s done hun!

We also saw the riders at Umlaas Road. I know they say you shouldn’t take pictures into the sun but I forgot about that. What a beautiful day it was…..

And the third best part of the day was seeing my hubby finish the race in one piece. All connective tissue was connected. Always a good sign.

He came 57^th in a time of 5.13. Well done Mister!

P.S And well done to everybody who took part!

Every year, I get to celebrate my birthday and wedding anniversary on the same day. That way, it’s easier for Jeremy to remember. So last week and weekend, we celebrated! We’ve been married for two whole years but whenever anybody asks I always append “but we’ve been together for 9 ½ years” to the end of the sentence. It has the subtext of “Yup, it’s solid – I’m a veteran at this!”.

So I’ve been dying to write about this since last week Monday but the problem was that I just didn’t know where to start. So I didn’t start – for a whole 10 days. But today I thought I would try and purge my thoughts and explain what a beautiful, exciting, fun, relaxing, sumptuous and memorable birthday/anniversary I had. Well there we go I just managed to explain it with 6 adjectives. Maybe I should stop there..

Nah!

I’m definitely not one to celebrate every single one of my birthdays – in fact I tend to shy away from it all quite a lot. But this year, realising that I don’t have too much time left in the twenties zone, I decided to celebrate.

Jem really and truly outdid himself this year – he spoilt me like a good husband should. Kidding hah hah, no but he really did totally and utterly spoil me. He took me to Amakhosi Safari Lodge for the weekend, and I really cannot put into words how AMAZING it was, so I’m going to put it into pictures for you:

The first night, we were the only 2 people in the lodge, which meant we had a guide and a tracker and a game-viewing vehicle all to ourselves! We were lucky enough to come across a whole pride of lion within the first hour of our first game drive. You would never have thought this guy was only 1 year old ey?

Just before the sun went down, our tracker whipped out a gas griddle and cooked up some amazing kudu kebabs for us. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.

We also saw this young rhino with her mother, they were just hanging out together, chatting about clothes and shoes and girls stuff.

We also bumped into this family of ellies. Only 1 1/2 months old that little one. Such a playful guy, he looked at us as if to say “I would come play but my mommy says I can’t”.

Nope, my man is not that romantic and neither am I. Promise, really! The lodge staff had this waiting for us on our return from a game drive. Bubbles and everything!

Food. Mmm, we had a lot of that. Breakfast, high-tea, dinner and game drive snacks – too sublime for words!

Lions in the morning mist sauntering down the road…aaaw how beautiful…

The attention to detail at Amakhosi was incredible, you simply have to experience it…thanks hunni!

Then, on Monday night we had a small dinner at our place for 10 friends…yummy yum yum dinner. Simple but yummy. And I got spoilt all over again, with flowers and orchids and books and earrings and vouchers and more earrings. And Superjerm gave me some pressies, one of which was a new MTB helmet and the other of which I can’t tell you. Hee!

And here, well obviously something was really funny and judging from the fuzziness of the picture, I thought it was hysterical too.

And these are my friends, Di and Ursula, who in true twin fashion, brought the same gift – orchids. Classic! They know how much I love orchids though – they were the only flowers we had at our wedding. The more orchids in our house, the better. I’ve just got to try not to kill them now.

Even Frank presented himself as a fluffy, cuddly present.

AND:

happy happy to Kerry (one of the Phuthu gals!) who had her bday straight after mine.

happy happy to my special bud, Gina whose bday it is today.

Thanks everybody for all the birthday messages, it was such a fun birthday!

Hunni, thanks for everything, you rock!

This post is not about the dentist who I went to see yesterday again for the 10 518^th time. Nope it’s not about that at all.

Well, in a way it is indirectly related. You just need to carry on reading and you’ll understand why.

Okay so I went to the dentist yesterday to get a sharp edge polished away. It took 4 minutes and 20 seconds. I timed it. Good thing it was a short visit because National Geographic decided to air a documentary on Tarantula’s just as I sat down on the chair and gazed upwards. My timing is consistently spectacular. Great white sharks the one week, snakes the following week and arachnids this week! Having a numb lip for 7 hours is terrifying enough for me and even more terrifying for my husband. Poor thing.

Just as I was about to leave (with all my facial nerves intact, yeehaa!) we started having a doorway conversation – you know the types where you’re about to say ta ta and dash to your car but get delayed with chatter?  Yup, we had one of those but I didn’t mind because he told me news that made me want to squeeze both his cheeks with delight – 3 families that he knew rather well went to Australia in December 08 and have just returned back to SA for good. Apparently they battled to settle in and realised it wasn’t quite the same as “home”. Although I feel heartbroken for these people, I really do, I also respect their bravery for coming back. It’s not an easy decision to return home especially when you thought you had made the right decision in the first place. But we all make mistakes and hopefully any returning South Africans will appreciate this country a lot more and encourage others to stay. I think it’s much better to just stay Phut! What do you say?

P.S  Welcome back!

Okay so are you looking for something fun and adventurous to do over New Years? Keen for a bit of fun under the African Sun? Then why not come and do the Orange River trip with Superjerm and me? Oh it’ll be so much fun! We’ve been wanting to do this for ages as we’ve heard so much about it and so we’re heading there in December to do the New Years trip. You can do it too – It’s definitely not a big white water trip but more of a wilderness experience with incredible scenery (like Ritchie Falls).  The tour is run by Gravity Adventure Group and the tour is 4 days and 5 nights, you arrive on the 27^th Dec and leave on the 1^st Jan.

Read their description of the tour below, sounds awesome. Let me know if you are keen and I will send you the info see! The price is R3095 per person and includes:

All of your meals, from the evening of your arrival, to a light breakfast on the morning of your departure, camping at base camp on your first and last nights, 4 full days and 3 nights on river, qualified and experienced guides, all boating and safety equipment and no, you don’t have to bring your own loo paper!

Difficulty grading: 2-4 (easy to challenging)

Length: 3-10 days (standard trip – 4 days)

Season: All year

Length of drive from Cape Town: +/- 9 hours

Length of drive from JHB: +/- 10 hours

Starting near Pofadder in the Northern Cape, this section of the river offers a variety of conditions, from flat water to flowing channels, lots of exciting small rapids and a few ‘Big Ones’ to get the adrenaline flowing. At high water it becomes an exciting whitewater trip. The trip may also include abseiling for those keen to give it a try. We use inflatable two person boats that are easy to paddle and steer. We also have rafts that are very stable and perfect for less confident paddlers (dependent on water level).

We cover just over 30kms during the trip so there is ample time to relax, read your book or explore the camp surroundings. Each trip is run as a self-contained expedition – we carry everything we need and take everything back out again at the end. We make our way down river, choosing a different campsite each night. All you need to provide is your personal gear and drinks of your choice. All meals are included, as are qualified guides, groundsheets, boating and safety equipment and abseiling (4 day trip only and only possible if your guide is qualified).

On the evening before your trip begins, you will be welcomed to the Gravity base camp by your guides. Relax and enjoy the view over the river or have a drink at the bar. You’ll enjoy a light supper under the starry night sky around the campfire. Next morning, after a hearty breakfast, your guides will give you advice on how best to pack your drybags for your trip down river. Before getting on the water you’ll also have a thorough safety briefing and some paddling instruction.  Then, it’s time to get going for four days of relaxation and excitement! The first day’s paddling consists mainly of flowing channels and flat water. Day 2 brings bigger rapids and an evening walk to view the amazing Ritchie Falls. Day 3 is full of excitement with a challenging portage around the Falls, abseiling and ‘42 man hole‘, ‘Big Bunny’ and ‘Dolly Parton‘ rapids. As you leave the gorge on day 4, things mellow out once again and the last section is just gentle drifting. The group will be met at the take-out after lunch and transported back to base camp to enjoy a final meal around the campfire. (Above itinerary may change slightly according to trip, season and water level).