Anyway, I went to Durban this past weekend to see South Africa play Australia in rugby. The game, at least on the score front (27-15 Australia), was sort of a letdown but we came to celebrate nonetheless.
It was about a 12 hour bus ride from Grahamstown to Durban; we left around 7:30 pm on Thursday and arrived at the Durban train station Friday morning. Advil PM took some of the sting out of the ride.We stayed at the Banana Backpacker's, which was about a 10 minute walk from the beach. It's just coming out of winter here so the water was cold, but that was going to be no deterrent against swimming in the Indian Ocean. Luckily, the sharks were all full on Friday so I escaped with life and limbs intact. Most of our Friday was dedicated to getting acclimated, going to the beach, and seeing Durban.
This place is PeeDoubleOh!Are poor. The trip was such a confluence of emotions: on one hand, I was absolutely delighted to be in a new place (to see an international sporting competition in person, no less); on the other, I kept reverting back to 'why is so much money devoted to these games when we just walked by people hanging on by the finest of threads steps from the stadium?' The desperation is palpable in Durban; you can almost touch it.
The game was on Saturday, so our day was devoted to that (and yes, they tailgate at rugby games, too).
On Sunday we went out to Drakensburg, which is a mountain range about three hours away from Durban. The ride was easy and beautiful. We got to the trail at round 930 in the morning and met our guide, Mbu, there. It was about a fiveish hour hike with a distance of about six miles.
The beginning of the trail went through some serious brush:
After about a half mile or so it started to clear up, allowing glimpses of the most majestic, humbling, and intimidating vistas I've ever seen:
At our halfway mark, Mbu stopped us at a large stone called Boundary Rock:
Yes, the rock was THAT big.Painted on the rocks were a number of cave paintings, some as old as 10,000 years. I have more pictures of the paintings, but here is the clearest:
This painting depicts a Trance Dance. Mbu told us at length about this painting and what a Trance Dance is as he has participated in them before. Here's a paraphrase of his talk:
'Sometimes there are problems out of human control, like when a woman in the group is menstruating and won't stop, the men of the group will sit in a circle. They sing a song, the muherb (sp?) song. All will clap and one will feel an uplifting force, will begin to shake- to feel hot- to feel like he is bleeding he is so hot, the blood rushing as if it will come out. At this point he will feel half animal and half person. All will look. He will feel as if he is growing long, long hair. The hair will feel heavy. At that time he is communicating with the ancestors. Then he will faint. People in the circle will come close, touch him- feel him, feel the rhythm of his heart.'
So the painting above shows four men kneeling in front of a man who is experiencing this animalistic, communal, transcendental state. He has long legs, a dangerous looking tail, and claws. He is at the peak of his dance.
After we had ample time to absorb these paintings, we began our trek back:
On the way back, we stopped in a cave hidden behind a waterfall. Here is a picture looking out:
The paintings in this cave were all of Boks, a type of antelope (and also South Africa's rugby team name):
After that cave, we were pretty much back to the start, and we headed back to the backpacker's to get excited for our 5:30 am wake up call to get the bus back.
I promise I'll post again before the end of the week. Thanks for bearing with me.
-Calvin
Oh, I'm so pumped for Sarah Palin. It was like Christmas came early.
Soundtrack for this post:
Wiz Khalifa, Say Yeah
Bob Dylan, Stuck Outside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Matt and Kim, Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare
ABX, Everyday Ghosthustlin'
A Tribe Called Quest, I Left My Wallet in El Segundo
8 comments:
I love you my humanitarian, equalitarian, feminist, inclusionist, existentialist, party-hardist (and hardest) son!
-Mom
Awesome man...That camera is taking some good snaps it looks like.
Were those ancient paintings exposed to the elements on the rock or were they all in a cave? It must be incredible to stand and look at them and think about the people who painted them so very long ago. I mean, you were standing exactly where they were. You could do some sort of movie efx and have them and you standing in the same place with the same posture. That would be cool but it's eerie too.
Thanks for the update. Keep them coming. We are thirsty for info from Africa.
Love,
Rob
Nice Calvin - I love it! You're in the right curriculum. I love reading your writing.
Is the Sarah Palin comment from the "Sarcastic" Calvin?
Hey there - great to hear from you. Love the descriptions of what you've seen. It is a continent of contradictions... Who did you go to Durban with?
xxoo
Ericka
Hi calvin, Great pictures, I can't wait to see all your pictures when you get home. Try to take pictures of a food market. Just to keep you grounded I made an apple pie.
Love you Grandma
PS your can't believe how proud I am of you.
Hey, Calvin!!
This is Beth (M.) from high school. I can't join your group on Facebook because I'm in too many, but I decided to read your blog anyway. How long have you been in South Africa? Usually when people do a semester or year abroad from G-burg, they don't usually go in summer.
South Africa sounds pretty interesting and cool, and I like your writing style a lot, too. I hope you keep writing regularly and take lots of pictures. :] Then again, how can you not take lots of pictures? I took 2,716 pictures or thereabouts in the span of two weeks when I was out in the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. So you should have like 10,000 by now. :P
Anyway, it's nice to see this blog and know you're doing something so great like this after high school.
Keep up being awesome. :D
-Beth
Calvin - where are the new posts....
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