November 2008

First trip to the outside world – the Belgians, Freek (one of the workers at Wildcliff) and I went to Swellendam to celebrate Katrein’s birthday. About 2 hours away if you’re driving fast and don’t hit any cattle. Cute little town - same kind of dutch architecture as Heidelberg but the town itself is larger and seems to have a little more history behind it. Not that there is too much to see, so we went to Bontebok park, where there was a lovely little area for a braai and swim.


Afterwards we met some interesting Afrikaaners at a pub (we only stopped to watch the rugby game – honest!), ended up going with them to a party at Bontebok Park. ‘Party’ = ‘braai’ = excessive drinking and eating of red meat (Have I left Texas?). Introduced to the local drink – brandy and coke. Gross. Also the ‘springbok’ – mint liqueur with amarula. Double gross. Could not convince them that Jose Cuervo is not the best tequila in the world.
Ended up staying in touch with Bryan (the guy attempting to teach Katrein drums), a funny Brit with a super strong accent and lots of stories.
























Mugging – nothing to say. Sucked. Did get to visit Betty’s Bay though, lots of penguins! No photos for obvious reasons. HUGE flood a few days before my return – all the roads were flooded so I had to delay my return a bit. Reminded me of a good Texas flood :)

Keith and Bryce were joined by Paula, Keith’s wife, and Abigail, Bryce’s sister. Adorable family. Keith was in the air force for 20 years and they have known each other since high school, so it gave me hope during the times when I was frustrated about being so far from Luke. Paula studies the baboons at Wildcliff, more specifically their ability to self medicate. She was a bit frustrated at first because the main troop is almost too large to study – they are always very spread out, and its almost impossible to have an ID for every baboon (we estimated that there were about 80 at the time). Had a lovely Thanksgiving back at Wildcliff. We were able to make just about all the traditional dishes – Keith even managed to find a turkey :)