Smoking Dragon to goat's as stop signs

Saturday morning Brit, Meg, Taylor and I drove about 20km to Real Natal National Park.  We hiked a loop from 9-1.  We encountered lotttts of baboons and evidence of them (poop) on the path.  It was terrifying to be walking on the path and have one pop up about three feet from me.   Right after that we had a seemingly never-ending hill which had a fabulous look out rock at the top.  The views were great and we even stopped to chill at some cascades for a while.  By 1 we were excited to get back to Amphitheater to get the full experience of the festival we were required to be a part of.

We chose to go to Drakensberg because of the hiking, but we picked the weekend of Amphitheatre’s festival weekend.  Since we stayed at the backpacker we were required to pay the extra charge for the festival and the participants were all around us.

I wish I had taken a picture of the flier in it's entirety, to show you an example of of the vibe of the festival.

How's that for an image?  The advertisements were written over this picture with psychedelic writing that listed the sponsored activities: female performers, artists and crafters, live bands, DJ’s, a color light show, dramatists, belly dancers, stilt walkers, vibing giant UV puppets, fire jugglers, fire dancers and blazing fire sculptures. Smokin!

Most of the afternoon we listened to music, checked out the booths and supported some of the women, and journaled about our time on break.  I joined some yoga that I saw from across the lawn.  I was SO excited to loosen up and I even learned a partner yoga routine and how to begin inversions (head stands).  I am excited to keep practicing.  There is always room for growth, especially with a lifelong practice such as yoga.

We had some funny encounters throughout the day.  One of the CSB ladies was shopping for a scarf and couldn't decide which one to get.  The booth-owner, if you will, commented, "If you take off your shirt I think I could decide."  Whew, how about a come-on!  The best part (besides yoga) may have been when some festival-goers asked two CSB ladies where they could find some shrooms.  Okay, of all of the people at the festival, they may have been the least likely to look like they did shrooms.  I hope it was a joke to get at reaction from them, but they is not the most probable conclusion.

After watching some of the performances, the climax of the evening was the fire show.

Making dinner in the dorm.  This was the best backpacker we stayed at.  We had our own bathroom, full kitchen with utensils and dishes, a table, and a bar, pool and jacuzzi a few steps away in the lodge (although we didn't use those because of the out door festival).

A bee on fire and being swung around.

A Madonna-in-a-pointy-bra fire shooter.  Classy

There were also flame throwers, jugglers and a hula hooper who set her hoop on fire.  After the exhilarating fire show, we cashed out.  Sunday morning we woke up at 6 and were on the road by 6:30.  We drove all day, returning to PE at 9pm.

Typical.  Did you know that herds of goats also act effectively as stop signs?  I think I left a little rubber int he road after coming around a corner in the mountains to two people herding goats across a national highway.  They aren't quite like the roads in the states. ("Cow(s) in the road, swerve to the right.")

Mountain village in the Drakensberg (Draken=dragon in Zulu)

Typical homes.  Mostly shacks or cement block houses.

This road reminded me of Hwy 128 near Spring Valley.  Although there are green hills in Wisconsin rather than the brown mountains in this case, there were corn rows here just like on 128.

Much closer to PE the sun sank below the hills.

  Monday, a national holiday, we recovered from the break by writing a biology paper and preparing readings for our week of studies.