Our first night Overlanding, originally uploaded by Andrew & Yvette's world travel.
Before we head for breakfast, Drew & I bring our bags down to the back locker/luggage container. It’s basically an empty box rectangular in shape and fitting 19 people’s luggages and miscellaneous items is like the game Jenga with muscles.
When we head out, we sit at the back by the tables and first meet Jeanine and Wayne, a couple from Australia. They’ve been together for 8 years and it’s been Jeanine’s lifetime dream to come to Africa. They will be vacationing for 2 months and are also doing the Gorilla Loop.
Our first stop on this trip is Cape of Good Hope. While most in the group take the hike to the light house, we decide to do the Beach Hike along with some others who have also already visited the nature reserve. Our group for the hike is Richard, a vegetarian on a year long vacation throughout Africa, Paul, a retired nurse from Australia who is on the same itinerary as Richard, Grace, the Irish version of Marcia Cross who is on a career break and is traveling from Cape Town to Istanbul and Gerry, Grace’s partner who is just on a 3 week vacation. We all have a good getting-to-know-you chat.
After the hike, we get back on Helena where we have a couple hours of driving ahead of us. As we drive through S. Africa, I am surprised and amazed at how green, how developed, and how pretty the country is. During the drive, Andrew, always the loud one, asks whoever is around who knows how to play Pusoy Dos. No one?! How about Vietnamese Poker? Well, no one’s been to Vietnam but quite a few know how to play poker. Andrew goes through the rules of the game and for the next several hours, various people join in the game. The afternoon goes by quickly and we soon arrive at our 1st campsite: Felix United in Citrusdal.
The campsite is nicer than I anticipated. Actually, it’s not a campsite but someone’s front lawn and backyard. The co-ed bathrooms are also nice but w/ only 3 toilets and 3 showers, it doesn’t stay that way for very long.
At the campsite, Emily and Matt also go over a couple things with us: 1) How to set up and pack a tent, 2) cooking groups and 3) responsibilities. The tent set up I leave for Andrew as this is his idea. For cooking groups, Drew is in group 5 and I am in group 6 with Gerry and Johnnie. Being on the last cook group is great as this means I’m only on cooking duty twice for the whole of the trip = ) Another great surprise for me is the fact that I have been assigned to do the kitty. This means I am the trip accountant and responsible for $12,616 USD. Drew’s job: table cleaning/set-up 3x day.
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