I Love Trees

Yes, I love trees. If you know anything about me, you probably know that trees are my favourite thing in the world. I love absolutely everything about them, and this past weekend, I spent every moment in the trees.

Saturday morning, we drove 2 1/2 hours to Tsitsikamma to go tree-top canopy ziplining. I wasn't nervous at all until our instructor, Distin, told us to be careful that we didn't place our hands in the wrong place because we might cut off our fingers or pull our arm out of socket. Oh, yes, and don't hold on too tight. Well, that's nice. I'm sliding 90 meters above the ground and you don't want me to hold on too tight. Easy. The first couple of lines I was every so slightly shaky and didn't really want to look down. However, I soon got the hang of it and zipped over beautiful trees and giant ferns only to land on 600+ year-old trees. Yes, I hugged the trees. On my last zipline, I felt so comfortable, I gave a little booty dance for the camera.

Now this next part I debated putting in my blog because I would hate for my mother and aunt to think me irresponsible. However, here it is.

That night we were going to be spending the night in a treehouse. Yes, a grown-up treehouse--just like the one I hope to someday live in. It was one of the girl's birthday so we want to buy a bit of booze to celebrate in our treehouse. However, it is illegal to sell alcohol after 5 p.m. in South Africa. Who knew? Well, we didn't. A lady at the grocery store recommended that we go to a bar and ask to buy their alcohol for take-out. This was promptly shut down by a couple of bars. However, a man at one bar told us he could take us to a shebeen (a place that sells alcohol illegally usually in black neighbourhoods in South Africa) where we could buy some. Well, that sounded a bit shady. However, the lady bartender said we would be very safe if this man went with us but we could not go alone because it was a "coloured" area.

I don't know if I can defend why we decided to do this, but we did. We got in our car and hid our wallets, pulling out only enough cash for the alcohol. We followed this man first to the gas station so he could pick up a black man who knew that neighborhood. As we drove, we did not feel nervous at all. The neighbourhood was not as "dodgy" as the bartender had suggested. Two of us got out of the car and went to purchase the alcohol from the shebeen while the rest of us stayed in the car. No one ever even looked at us except to smile and wave. There were children walked around and celebrating a birthday party. It felt completely safe. The girls who went in the shebeen said it was very relaxed and they even danced a little to the loud music playing. I know that this could have turned out to be a semi-scary situation, but I am glad we did it. After all, we got our bit of booze and celebrated Jessica's birthday in our treehouse.

The Tanekwa treehouse was absolutely amazing! I would live there if I could. There are 8 treehouses spread out over a hill-each one with a loo with a view. Yes, you could shower while looking out over the trees and the sunrise. The entire place is eco-friendly. Our toilet was a composting toilet, our water was pumped from the (brown but clean) river below, and our drinking water was purified rainwater. In the morning, we hiked all the way down the mountain to swim in the Coca-Cola River (actually called the Caratara River). The water is stained brown from the trees in the forest, but it is perfectly clean and tastes sweet and smooth.

Unfortunately, we did not get to stay at Tanekwa for very long because we had a four hour drive back home. On the way home, we stopped at a cafe for some lunch and watched a monkey steal some bread and skimper off (as I chased him). We also stopped along the way to snap some pictures of wild blessboks in a pasture of horses. However, we didn't get any pictures of the ostriches that I saw, but we'll get plenty of pictures later--when we ride them! :) What a great weekend!